No score with "Heavenly Bush"

lack of partners and only time for a short day, so I thought a solo ice route would be perfect.  I had read a trip report for a cool little WI 3 route in the drainage above the Kananaskis S & R and RCMP station near the Nakiska ski resort turnoff.  Martin S. and I had thought about hiking this creek in search of ice about 10 years ago, I use to refer to this drainage as Policeman Coulee, slight deviation on the name of a cool coulee in Writing on Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta.  The trip report is linked here.

drips in canyon

Light to moderate bush bashing up the creek with boot to knee deep snow; I enjoyed the cool variety of short ice pillars in the main drainage, but I did not play on these as I was gunning for Heavenly Bush.  About 1.5 hours in I reached the drainage with Heavenly Bush, the approach was mostly running water over steep scree and slabs, only the vertical drop offs had ice formed.

I climbed about 100 vertical metres out of the drainage, mostly on patches of ice over slabs with running water.  I climbed 3 steep steps, with good ice, but these had open pools of water above.  The route was not formed.  I bailed and walked off in steep trees to climber's right. Good exploration day and some good exercise, but no real climbing.

Classic King Creek – Ice and mixed climbing

Met up with Kyle B. for some mixed climbing.  Originally we were both keen to head to the mixed bolted area, The Playground, but Kyle was out at King Creek the day before and had a rope jam up on the final rappel of day.  We headed to King Creek to retrieve Kyle’s rope, but I was also keen to scope out the mixed climbs in King Creek as well.  

Magic Touch WI3R 5.8

One of the first mixed crag routes developed in Kananaskis, Magic Touch (WI3R, 5.8; M4?), is in King Creek and has been on my radar for a few years.  I was pretty sure I wasn’t fit enough for leading Magic Touch, but I was eager to inspect the 5 or 6 lines of mostly trad protected mixed routes in the canyon.

We arrived at the parking lot around 9:30 and there were already four cars parked.  Reaching the main ice flow Kyle’s rope was still hanging in the corner where he was top roping a cool vertical mixed line.  Kyle jumped on a top rope in place by some friendly Romanians on the main ice flow, reached the anchor with his rope, dropped the rope and was lowered. 

We walked over to the short ice flow that originates from the cave, short WI3 lead to bolted anchor.  We played around on top rope on the rock to the right of the ice for a few laps, difficult mixed climbing and lots of water drips.



reach for it !

Once the Romanians we done on the main flow, Kyle lead a scrappy and thin WI3 pitch to same anchor where his rope was jammed before.

Kyle a built great TR anchor and we both did numerous laps in this fun corner.  The upper half was vertical and offered a variety of ice or rock holds for climbing, great to test skills on TR!   Headed home after several pumpy top ropes, but gave an party a belay up the route so they could set up their own TR, buddy dropped the anchor setup, biners and all, jack ass. 

Jack ass on top rope in corner

GR 396213 ('Little Tombstone') – East Ridge Attempt



'Lil Tombstone' with route

As part of my Opal 35 Project, I was keen to bag the obscure and remote 2800 metre summit located at GR396213. I refer to this summit as “Little Tombstone” since it is a far north outlier of Tombstone Mountain.  This little peak has a prominence of 160 metres from the saddle towards Tombstone Mountain (North) and an isolation of about 3 kilometres from the Tombstone Mtn. summit. Based on some photos and the topo map, I thought the East Ridge would be a moderate scramble.  



Nice 20 km bike approach on the Little Elbow Trail, then a short bushwhack and I was scree bashing up the East Ridge.  So much for the moderate scramble, around 2400 metres the terrain got interesting, steep slabs broken by short steps, the occasional vertical cliff band required short traverses; all covered in water ice and snow.  Crampons and an axe were essential since many of the ice patches were extensive.  This sketchy terrain continued to get steeper until I reached a near vertical cliff band around 2600 metres. 

Turnaround point

This band was 10 to 15 metres in height, covered in ice and snow and very blank with few holds.  I attempted two of the shorter sections, but the climbing felt like 5.2/5.3 with very small holds.  Had the landing zone been flatter, not a 50 to 60 degree slab and ice slope, I think I would have pushed the route, but I chickened out.  I think a combination of remoteness, being solo, bad landing zone, hammering winds, spindrift, concern about downclimbing, and the late hour with limited daylight all weighted too heavy on my mind; good decision to bail.  

When I turned to descend I was 7 hours away from the car.  About half of my bike ride out was without lights and from my turnaround I was only 3 hours back to the car; got to love the downhill bike rides!  Next time I come back for Little Tombstone I will attempt the North Ridge in the summer and pack some rock shoes.

Mt. Assiniboine, Lunette Peak and Mt. Strom, Alpine II, 5.4

Great two day trip to Mt. Assiniboine which was in perfect conditions on Sept. 22, 2012. Vern and I approached from the BC side via Assiniboine Creek and Lake to the Assiniboine/Strom Col. The glacier below the col was mostly dry and we travelled its left side (north) unroped. Made this col in 5 hours, dropped the packs and walked to the summit of Mt. Strom, simple walk with great views. Spent Friday night at the Hind Hut; had the whole place to ourselves.


Worried about conditions, I brought a full set of wires, a dozen pins and three ice screws, turns out we didn’t use any of it, or even a rope. We left the hut at 6am and the temperature was +8. We had great scrambling with dry conditions; we scrambled the full North Ridge route without using the rope. We had prefect conditions, there was the odd small patch of snow/ice, but all easy to avoid. We had fully expected to rope up at some point, but the climbing was easy and on great rock. Hardest moves (red band) felt like about 5.3/5.4 to me. 

Kevin and Vern on summit of Mt. Assiniboine

We made the summit in 4 hours. No wind and a summit temperature of +12. We spent nearly an hour enjoying the summit and descended the SW slopes, on route to Lunette Peak. Took us 4 hours to reach the summit of Lunette Peak from the summit of Assiniboine. The SW face of Assiniboine is a nightmare; crazy loose, very exposed and just plain miserable. We did two rappels (fixed stations, cord on boulders) and lots of shitty downclimbing to reach the Lunette/Assiniboine Col. Scramble up Lunette was better quality rock, easy/moderate ledges were choss, but the steeper rock bands were pretty solid, all scrambled no gear or rope used.

OSWB on Lunette Peak summit

Descent to Lunette Lake was a pain, we found several rap stations below the col, but only did 1 rap. Took about 4 hours from summit to reach tree line, but lots of cliff bands above lake were tiring to traverse around, back to the truck at 11pm (8 hours from summit of Lunette).

Awesome trip, prefect conditions and weather and we had the big A all to ourselves! Life is good!

Mt. Fryatt - South-West Face, Alpine II, 5.4

With crystal clear skies and no wind we had a glorious ascent of the South-West Face of Mount Fryatt on Sunday August 26.  Our team of 3 (V. Dewit, E. Coulthard, K. Barton) approached via the Geraldine Lakes trail on Saturday, with low clouds enveloping the summit of Fryatt for most of the morning and afternoon.  We had hoped the forecast of sun and 20 degrees would clear out the recent snow, but it turned out the face was in great shape.   We easily made our lake shore bivy (GR376218) in 7 hours.  To bed at sunset, up at 4am.

Left camp at 5am (temperature at bivy +1), arrived at the col south of the summit block just before the sun lit up the surrounding snow/ice faces, perfect timing.  The majority of the SW face was clear of snow and ice, with only the deepest gullies, or highest portions of the steep scree slopes held pockets of water ice covered with snow.  We tended to climber’s right fairly quickly making good progress on scree and easy scrambling.  Traversed one ice gully, then more moderated scrambling on loose slopes and buttress. 



Top of snow slope

 At the bottom of the “central” main gully we travelled up ice/snow slopes for about 150 metres to the final cliff between the face and the summit ridge.  Nearing the top of the ice/snow we had a surprise, a solo climber caught up to us (F. Jacso).  FJ got the green light from his wife later than the rest of us and decided to catch up to us. 

I believe we ascended to the final cliff band more right (east) than drawn in Bill Corbett’s guide.  Worked out great, about 25 metres above the snow, I lead a 30 metre pitch of 5.4 with great pro on solid holds to a set of two rappel anchors (slings around boulders).  A short scramble of 10 to 15 metres, then another short pitch of 5.3/5.1 to another rappel anchor (slings around boulder). All rock on this band was bone dry and quite solid. 

From the last station, easy to moderate scrambling to the summit.  Summit and final ridge bone dry. 6.5 hours to summit.  Great views, especially of Robson , Clemenceau and Tonquin Valley peaks.   We did three raps on the descent, all from boulders slung with cord/slings.  Downclimbed mostly rock ribs, avoiding gully systems, but there was no natural rock fall on descent.  Back to col and bivy site quickly.  Hiked out in about 6 hours with perfect weather.  All in, car to car 36 hours.

GR407165 'Tombstone South' - Scramble

August 20, 2012 had a great solo day up and down GR407165, better known as 'Tombstone South'.  Kane’s guidebook rates the south ridge as a moderate scramble, but he must assume the scrambler drops left (west) to avoid the difficult ridge.  

Looking up crux




I followed the ridge crest all the way up and there are several sections of very serious scrambling.  The crux section is a long exposed knife edged ridge crest on solid slab, but with few holds, then the crest transitions to a difficult short face climb. 

After this section the ridge climb is moderate for about 50 vertical metres, then another difficult and crazy exposed face climb, that actually bulges outwards, provides some more spice.  This short face is probably low 5 class climbing, short, only a move or two, but certain death if one of the crappy rock holds blows out.

Once on the false summit the scramble is actually moderate to the main summit.  3 hours 45 minutes to the summit, slower than I was hoping, but the ridge climbing required thought and attention.  No summit register in the small cairn. I descended by the scree/slab slopes between the two summits, hard to pick the easiest line and avoid the slabs.  I did stay more to skier’s left and I did have the odd slabby step to downclimb.

Found my bike after crossing the Elbow River, yeah!  Then only 30 minutes out from the bike stash.  I was 3:45 to summit, 15 minutes on top, then about 2:30 from the summit back to the car ; all in 6:40 car to car.  I was hoping for 6 or less, but that ridge worked me a bit.

Mount Packenham - North Gully, East Ridge, Alpine II, 5.6

On the fifth anniversary of the famous Nugara ascent of Mt. Packenham, Raff and I decided to climb this lovely peak.  Actually it was just a coincidence that Raff and I ascended Mt. Packenham on the same August day (our ascent Aug. 6, 2012).  Raff was out peak bagging Saturday and Sunday, so we had a late start to let Raff get some sleep.  We were both very concerned about the probability of a thunderstorm and figured we had a 50/50 chance of getting chased off the mountain when we left the parking area at 11am.

Hot, hot approach leaving the car at midday, so we set a casual pace up towards Grizzly Col.  About half way up to the col we cut due east towards the basin between Mt. Evan-Thomas and Mt. Packenham.  Once on the scree fields we picked the line of least resistance towards the most eastern scree cone that provides access to the steep gully on the north face of Packenham.

We had our first rest stop, ate and drink a lot, then plodded up to the steep gully.  She looked long.  On descent we figured that the gully is about 400 metres tall.  About 1/5 of the lower gully is on good scree when you want poles, then the remaining 4/5’s is a variety of steep scree, peddles on slab and several difficult rock steps.  Raff and I stayed to climber’s left all the way up, but did get cliffed out nearing the summit ridge.  A bit of route finding got us onto an exposed ledge that lead into a gully system to climber’s right.  This gully steepens even more and ends on the most eastern summit of three summits of Packenham.

Along the summit ridge heading west we encountered both bad and good rock quality with difficult and exposed scrambling.  The skies were getting dark far to the north west, but we were not too worried yet. Nearing the summit block the ridge looked steep and we did set up belay stations, but the climbing was actually fairly straightforward, maybe 5.0 (?) (we did downclimb these steps on the way down).  The final summit is guarded by steep wall that is about 30 metres tall and provides solid fifth class climbing.

Final summit block

I was able to bang in two bomber pitons for a comfortable belay station.  I lead straight up the face (same as the Andrew Nugara’s lead).  The first few moves off the station were probably 5.6 and I did get a perfect wire placement (#6), but about 15 metres up, it was obvious the chance of getting rock protection was low.  The climbing was getting easier, probably 5.4, but I didn’t like the lack of protection, so I dowclimbed, clean my nut, and then traversed far right to a small pinnacle, maybe 5.4 climbing.  Access to get behind the pillar was tougher, four or five strenuous 5.6 moves, but I had sunk a perfect piton so I was well protected.  Once between the pinnacle and the summit block the grade was easy, maybe 5.2, so I blasted up quickly as we were hearing more and more thunder from the distant dark clouds.

I built a quick piton station and bought Raff up, then we ran the final 30 metres to the summit since the dark clouds were moving in.  Once on the summit the clouds appeared to staying to the north so we did relax a bit to enjoy the view.  6.5 hours to the 3000m summit from the highway. There was a small summit cairn, but I couldn’t find any register.

Leaving, I belayed Raff’s downclimb to the lower station, then removed my piton station and downclimbed with a belay from below, cleaned the piton and meet Raff below.  I again belayed Raff’s downclimb and removed the station.  We left nothing on the mountain, no slings or pitons.

Quick scramble back to the top of the gully, then the long butt slide/downclimb to the scree cone.  We made the soft grass just as it got dark, then the big Grizzly Col trail, then a surprise detour back to Ripple Rock Creek (I am not going to use the “L” word ;-) and finally the car; yeah!  All in, Raff and I were 12 hours car to car.  Great day out with a lot of variety of climbing and scrambling and no rain or thunderstorms!

Bastille Mountain - Scramble

Mt. Delphine

July 22 Raff and I had big plans to day trip the gorgeous Purcell 11,000'er, Mount Delphine, but big washouts on the logging roads in upper McDonald Creek changed our plans.
After a lot of thought and discussion, we decided to drive back to Invermere, load up on coffee, and head out to Jumbo Pass.  The weather was perfect, and the sky completely clear, so a trip up to the beautiful Jumbo Pass area sounded like a great plan. Raff has been to Jumbo Pass before, and even had ascended Bastille Mountain before, and we had climbed Commander Mountain and Jumbo Mountain together back in 2010; so I was very keen to see the south side of the Jumbo Mtn. area.

Bastille Mtn.

Again using "Hikes Around Invermere and the Columbia River Valley" by Aaron Cameron and Matt Gunn for road directions, approach and scrambling beta; we parked at the Jumbo Pass parking area and we setting out at 2:45pm.  Same time as our start time on Indian Head Mtn. the day before. Great trail gave us quick time to the pass.  We had a quick lunch then blasted up to the small col west of the 4 peaks of Bastille Mtn. The views all around from Jumbo Pass and Bastille are mind blowingly beautiful; very, very scenic region.  We took lots and lots of photo breaks and dreamt of climbing the surrounding beauties.

Karnak and Jumbo

We seeked out the toughest scrambling and there were definite sections of difficult scrambling, but overall the scramble is moderate, with lots of easy plodding.  The first two summits were chossy crap loose near rock and did present some tough scrambling on the ridge.  The next two highest summits had much better rock quality and provided some fun scrambling. 

Incredible views throughout the scramble, highly recommend a clear day for this peak.  We took about 200 summits photos ;-) and headed back to Jumbo Pass and the parking area with ease.  All in, just under 6 hours car to car. 

Indian Head Mountain - Scramble

Back on July 21 the venerable Rafal and I scrambled Indian Head Mountain in the Columbia Valley.  Raff and I had plans for some fun mountaineering in the Purcell range, but a combination of the mudslide that closed the trans canada highway on July 20, and big washouts on the logging roads in upper McDonald Creek (Purcells), changed our plans.

Indian Head Mountain is the official name of this mountain, but many locals refer to it as Chisel Peak.  Indian Head is the highest mountain in the Stanford Range with an elevation of 2690m.After a late start, Sonny would be proud, we left the parking area in upper Madias Creek about 2:45pm on Saturday.  The drive up the Madias Creek Forest Service Road is narrow, rough and provides some thrilling exposure.  We parked at the first washout described in "Hikes Around Invermere and the Columbia River Valley" by Aaron Cameron and Matt Gunn.

Up the old road and near the second washout found a great trail leading to col west of Indian Head.  The trail was littered with many huge trees blown down in the fierce windstorm in Friday night's thunderstorm (another reason to avoid climbing during thunderstorms).  Once at the low treed col we made quick time to the rocky crest of the south ridge.

The south ridge to the south summit provides moderate scrambling, with the odd short difficult step on the ridge crest proper.  We made quick time to the south summit.  The traverse north to the north summit is the best part of the trip.  Mostly moderate scrambling, but if you stay on the true ridge crest there are fun sections of difficult scrambling; recommended.  

North Summit of Indian Head Mtn.

4 hours with a casual pace and we were on the north summit of Indian Head Mountain.  Raff and I agree the central part of the summit ridge is the highest point, but the register is located in the large cairn on the north summit. On our descent we were buzzed several times by gliders (engineless planes); it was awesome.  A very cool end to a very cool summit ridge traverse.  All in Raff and I were 7 hours car to car.

Mount Aeneas - Scramble

Back on July 12 Les, a friend from Kimberly, and I scrambled Mt. Aeneas near Invermere, B.C.  Using the description from "Hikes Around Invermere and the Columbia River Valley" by Aaron Cameron and Matt Gunn.  

We parked at the trailhead sign for Pedley Pass and the hike to Bumpy Meadows and Pedley Pass is quick and quite scenic. The great guidebook description takes you to the beautiful little tarn below the north slopes of Mt. Aeneas (2235m).  We contoured around the right side (west) of the lake, which was still mostly frozen and partly snow covered; great shades of blue!  No snow along this scree walk.  
The steep scree gully (about 150 metres tall) that accesses the upper ledge below the summit block was mostly hard snow.  Neither Les or I brought ice axes.  Les is a hiker and not comfortable on steep snow so he chose a nasty looking scree gully to the right of the standard gully (he eventually paid for this).  I did have ski poles (Les did not) and felt quite comfortable on the steep snow, near 40 degrees for final third of snow patch.  I made quick time up the gully; Les did not.  

Les' route eventually encountered loose and steep rock bands; not recommended.  I waited nearly an hour for Les to appear below.  I was glad to see he was okay. 

Once reunited we continued up easy scrambling on the west ridge to the summit of Mt. Aeneas.  We enjoyed the views and spotting peaks from both the Rockies and Purcells, but it was very hazy so there was limited views. 

On descent I gave my poles to Les and kicked big steps in the snow for Les to follow.  Once off the snow we made quick time back to the parking lot.  All in, about 7 hours car to car. 

Mt. Jellicoe - Ski Ascent of South Slopes

North Face of Jellicoe from upper Haig Glacier

May 6 skied and climbed Mount Jellicoe with Raff and Eric.  Mt. Jellicoe is the jewel of the Haig Icefield, however not many people climb it in the ski season.








Under good snow conditions it is a terrific ski mountaineering objective. If the snow stability is good, it is possible to ski right from the top of the south ridge all the way down to the Haig icefield.

Raff and Eric on summit

final summit ridge

It took us 18 hours to do this mountain due to a number of reasons. We took a wrong turn in French Creek on the way in and out and we also had to take a long detour on Jellicoe in order to avoid the most dangerous southfacing slopes.

Assuming everything goes well, it shouldn`t take you more than 14 hours. Highly recommended objective for those of you bored with the uptenth trip to the Wapta.

Heading back to French/Robertson Col

Ski traverse of 'Mt. Mackay' and the ‘Mackay Hills’

April 9, I choose to do a solo ski traverse of 'Mt. Mackay' and the ‘Mackay Hills’. These highpoints are the minor peaks east and south east of The Wedge between Rocky and Evan-Thomas Creeks. Unofficial name to recognize Walter Grant Mackay who had a coal mining claim on these hills.

From ETC parking skied to Wedge Connector trail, then after ETC crossing, headed due south towards ‘Mt. Mackay’. Bushwaching, then open. 5.5 hours to the 2455m summit of GR 323350 ('Mt. Mackay').

Second summit in 2 hours. GR 333341 ('Mackay Hills - centre') elevation of 2440m. From the central hill less than one hour to GR 341335 ('Mackay Hills - south').

Awesome ski descent, sun baked snow, then super soft, deep powder in the trees. Down the creek bed of the minor stream in between the two Mackay Hills with fast travel to ETC. Good downstream passage and only had to take off the skis twice to bypass the canyons. The ski out was without skins and quite fast on frozen snow. I was 13 hours car to car.

Pigeon Skunk – Winter Canyoneering

Jordan and I climbed Crystal Tear on March 3.  From the top of the route we spied a deep gully system on Pigeon Mountain.  From our vantage point it appeared this gully system had a lot of water ice.  We were so pumped we headed up the gully on March 18.  Jordan and I we joined by his good buddies Dan and Farzad. 

Well we got skunked, the ice was missing!  We only found steep snow and an interesting gully system.  No indication of ice anywhere. 

Fun hike up.  We did climb (M2) through several pinch points in the gully and did have to traverse out of the gully to bypass a couple of overhanging cliff bands.

We did descend the gully directly, required four steep and overhanging rappels; sort of like winter canyoneering ;-)

Crystal Tear 300m, WI3+, M4

Crystal Tear 300m, WI3+, M4. Fun day and first climb with Jordan. Saturday, March 3 we headed to Crystal Tear in upper Grotto Canyon. Had seen this route in the past, nice to get on it. 300m includes all height gain (creek bed to top of ice).




150 m of slogging to base of M4 pitch. I started lead on M4, got a bomber pin, but didn’t have much luck gaining the lower angle ledge above; took a minor lead fall, but pin held.

JR finished off the pitch. JR easily got up the crux ice pitch, a solid 3+ or 4 pitch (35m). Second pitch, easy WI2 or 3, my lead, fun, but too easy; a full 60 metres.

We solo’ed to the final top of ice, then rapped trees and bolted station to base.




Great little route.

Wapta Icefield - Bow to Yoho Traverse | Mont des Poilus

Feb. 11 to 12 completed a modified Bow - Yoho traverse with an ascent of Mont des Poilus with TJ and JW. We started at Bow Lake, crossed the wapta and camped at the base of des Poilus, 7 hrs car to camp.

Solid conditions so we opted to go unroped all day. 

We enjoyed mostly blue bird skies. 

Sunday, we awoke to heavy snow and strong winds. Missed out on views, but our run back to camp (about 500m vertical) had awesome snow conditions; we were 3 hours camp to summit return. 

Headed out via Waterfall Valley to Takakkaw Falls. We meant to avoid coming over the Twin Falls cliff band, but in the end we decided to rap. From Twin Falls we found the summer trail and then pickup a well packed skier trail at Laughing Falls (Little Yoho exit).


From the bivy site out we were about 8 hours; 5 hours camp to Takakkaw Falls via Waterfall Valley and Marpole Lake and about 2.5 hours Takakkaw Falls to car. Awesome trip!!!

GR 405451 (‘Tiara Peak’) - WI2 (120m), South-West slope

Sunday January 8, 2012, I did a long slog up Porcupine Creek, solo climbed a short section of waterfall ice (WI2, 120m) then scrambled the South-West slopes/ridge of “Tiara Peak” (GR 405451).

I parked along the highway was charging up Porcupine Creek by 8:30am, unfortunately the creek bed became quite snowy with boot deep snow, with a very annoying thin, unsupportive top crust that would not support body weight, but did require additional effort to break though; this arduous plod continued for about 3.5 hours.

About four hours after leaving the car, I was swinging my ice tools into the cool little ice fall (GR399445). Not a very difficult climb, but an aesthetically interesting route, with most of the climb formed in between two large tilted slabs. About 120 metres of easy ice climbing ended too soon and so I packed away the tools, had a large lunch and picked a line to access scree on the South West slopes.

The plod was not too bad, deep snow gave way to solid scree, but to my surprise, the slope ended with a difficult (and snowy) down climb to regain the final summit scree slopes.

Final plod to the top was very, very windy and I reached the summit about 6.5 hours from the car. Last summit entry was from September 2011. From the summit I spied what looked like a nice ridge traverse heading North West, back towards the highway. Quick plod down, checking for access to gain the West Face, hoping to try the traverse route. When I reached the location of the down climb, I found relatively easy access to the West Face, so I headed down.

Turned out be very, very sketchy, steep slab covered with pebbles and pockets of verglas and rock hard snow patches. A lot of time and careful scrambling got me to the ridgeline; and so much for a quick ridge walk. Several steep slab gendarme sections presented difficult scrambling, but I eventually reached GR 395458, GR 392456 and GR385460. The descent from the final high point was down a steep drainage, with soft deep snow, but at least the trail breaking was downhill.

Finally reached Porcupine Creek and follow my earlier track, but still took a lot of energy. The last few km’s felt like an eternity, but forced myself to keep a quick pace. All in, 12.5 hours car to car. I decided to name my little first ascent ice route, “Tears of a Crown”, bet it won’t see a lot of traffic.