Hooked on Porcupine Ridge

The pinnacles on Porcupine Ridge. The scramble crosses the central pinnacle; gaining the main tower would be a scary climb.

For a few years I had wondered what the absurdly pointy ridge to the north of Wasootch Ridge was, and whether there was a way up it. Thanks to Gillean Daffern's latest excellent, and exhaustive collection of guidebooks, I determined that it was the aptly-named Porcupine Ridge. It makes for a good early-season scramble, and falls into the "little gem" category of unsung outings close to home.

On the first rocky section of the ridge

We did not follow the guidebook's suggested line up, because we got a bit distracted in the SE fork of Porcupine Creek. It had been cold overnight, and the creekbed offered a combination of ice, deep snow, ice-coated flood debris, and of course, very cold water. So we missed the start of the "trail" that heads up the ridge, and instead forged a path comprising many precarious creek crossings and much post-holing, for about 4 km up the drainage. We'd been hiking for about 45 minutes when Tristan announced that he could smell cat pee, or rather "big cat pee!" We had not seen any tracks in the snow, but for a few minutes we were on the lookout for cougars, until a minor bout of swearing accompanied the realisation that he'd left his bag on the floor at home, and one of his feline housemates had done the unspeakable. After that, we relaxed, and perhaps walked a little further apart...

Tristan struggling against the wind.

After 4 km of hard work, we found an open slope that led up to the summit ridge. (It's important to note that this was the left side of the huge drainage gully that descends from the summit towers. If you took the right side, you would not be able to gain the ridge easily.) The slope gained us about 600 m of elevation, and after that the summit ridge was great fun, if a little windy. We did not go all the way to the main summit, because it's treed. Instead we stopped on the pinnacles for photos and lunch before scuttling down the ridge. The "official trail" turned out to be difficult to find in winter conditions, and was frequently caked with treacherous ice and frozen moss. I'm going to stick my neck out here and say that our ascent route was preferable to the established route, for once.

At our high point on the pinnacles.

Trip details

Porcupine Ridge, Kananaskis Country
~700 m ascent and 13 km (by SE fork route)
Starting point: hwy 40.
Half day scramble.

More details of the regular route can be found here, thanks to Bob Spirko, and in G Daffern's excellent guidebook.