Hiking Mt Lougheed II and III

Hiking Mount Lougheed

Any Calgary skyline ticker (as I am almost proud to admit myself to be) will have eyed the series of serrated teeth that runs south from the Bow Valley towards Moose Mountain, and wondered (a) what they are, and (b) whether they are accessible. The chain starts at Big Sister, and runs through Lougheed's four peaks, Sparrowhawk, Bogart and Kidd. That's a lot of Big Scree, in anybody's book. 

Most of those mountains can be accessed by the non-climber, but some of the approaches are exposed and/or difficult. Fortunately two of Mt Lougheed's summits are reasonably easy to ascend, although it would be easy to do something regrettable on the approach. The route takes in Lougheed II (the main summit) and III (a fifteen minute addition). I think it's known as the Spirko Route these days. These peaks are sandwiched between Lougheed I ( a difficult, exposed, and potentially lethal scramble), and Lougheed IV, better know as Wind Mountain. There is a sketchy-looking scramble up that one too.

The approach to Mt Lougheed

The approach starts from the Spray Valley side of the range, winding its way up to a beautiful alpine valley. On the way we passed a verdant spring in the woods, and crossed the new High Rockies mountain bike rail that will connect Canmore to Kananaskis Lakes when completed.

The fairly-recent trail up Lougheed is faint in places.

Starting up Lougheed II (3107 m) from the green valley

After a pleasant valley approach, and a couple of creek crossings, the trail to Lougheed headed straight up a huge scree slope, into what appeared to be a dead-end wall of cliffs. Goodbye grass, hello scree! We soon passed the guys who you can see way up the slope; not that we were fast, it's just that they still had a long way to go when pictured.

Mt. Sparrowhawk from where the main Lougheed scree slope enters the cliff bands.

Escaping the cliffs was easy enough. The only hazard was ball-bearing scree on slabs, which persisted until we were a fair way up the ridge above. I was soon on the summit ridge, and opened up enough space to be able to photograph the others against the skyline as they traversed towards the main summit of Mt Lougheed.

Traversing rubbly slabs to the firmer rock of the summit ridge.

The northern summit: Lougheed I

For scale, spot the tiny figure outlined against the lake.

Lougheed II is the sunlit lower peak in front of the shapely summit of Wind Mountain (Lougheed IV).

Being an admitted sad skyline ticker, I took the chance to run down Lougheed II and bag Lougheed III. It was a simple enough scree run. On the col I saw some frost polygons; I'd not seen those out here before, although I knew that people sometimes go down into the Sheep area to see them.

You don't notice these folds when you're on Mt Allen

The voiews of the centennial Ridge were excellent, showing the folds that create the steeper parts of the descent when heading north from Mt Allen.

The summit ridge of Lougheed II

An unusual view of the pinnacles on the Centennial Ridge of Mt Allen

My companions Lindsay and Eric on top of Lougheed II, from Lougheed III.

This photo made Mt Lougheed appear suitable hardcore, but the truth is that the slope is not that steep - you can see the scree lines where I ran down to the col.

This guy appeared accustomed to hikers.

On the descent we ran into a large group of Chinese hikers; mothers and teenage kids huddled under an outcrop. They didn't seem very well equipped, or to know where the trail went, but I did not hear anything about a rescue. There was a good thunderstorm brewing, and after suggesting they might ant to keep an eye on it, we headed down as fast as we could.

A huge spider (by Rockies standards). I cannot find out what it is.

Overall, it was a good day out. The valley below Sparrowhawk is worth visiting regardless of whether you intend to summit Lougheed.