Mt. Glasgow, Mt. Cornwall to Outlaw Peak Traverse - Scramble

Saturday June 1. Great day out on the Mt. Glasgow/Mt. Cornwall/Outlaw Peak/Banded Peak traverse with John. I did this traverse in June of 1993. Way back then the only published route description was the newly released Alan Kane guidebook, “Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies”. The standard Kane approach to the traverse is to ascend the west ridge of Glasgow with approach from the Little Elbow Trail and a drainage north and west of Glasgow. The standard exit from the traverse was from the Outlaw/Banded Peak col, south to into the Outlaw Creek, then back to the Big Elbow Trail.  Over the intervening decades, several variations have been completed by a variety of hikers and scramblers.

John had completed the traverse more recently (2015) and we were both looking for a longish day for some spring training.  John’s last trip took an approach and return trail that shortens the overall distance from the original Kane traverse route, and allowed mountain bikes to be used for both of some of the approach and the return to the car. This route uses the Big Elbow Trail for about 3 km to the intersection with South Glasgow Creek, then up South Glasgow Creek, up towards the Glasgow side of the Glasgow/Cornwall col. The intended return was down the north aspect of Banded Peak to the drainage, one south of South Glasgow Creek, then back to the Big Elbow Trail.

Beautiful spring day with clear skies when we left the parking area on our bikes about 6:30 in the morning. Quick time on the wet trail to the stash for our bikes at South Glasgow Creek. No real trail up the creek, but travel was mostly easy. Eventually a trail takes one up slope to bypass a canyon with waterfalls.  Since it was warm, and we recently had snow and rain, the creek was raging, upstream of the canyon we had to jump the creek several times, but overall very easy approach. At the base of the scree slog from the creek to the col, we had a nice break, admiring the steep and impressive cliffs below the east ridge of Mt. Cornwall.  Mt. Cornwall looked very inviting for some spring turns.

Heading up South Glasgow Creek, view to creek canyon and on the horizon,
Mt. Glasgow (right).

Further upstream, Mt. Cornwall on left, Mt. Glasgow on right.
The long (1000m+) scree slope is visible on Glasgow.
We head to a low point, right of centre.

John jumping the creek.

Views to Cornwall and its outlier east ridge, impressive cliffs.

Enjoying the view.

Blasted up about 1100 metres of fairly manageable scree to reach a point above the low col between Glasgow and Cornwall. Part way up John had noticed a group of three hikers/scramblers moving up the ridge line that separates Glasgow and South Glasgow Creeks. Once we reached the point above the col, John was hurting, he was experiencing some rather unpleasant digestive system issues. We rested a bit at the col, but eventually John stayed and I “ran” up to the summit of Glasgow. Nearing the summit, I meet a group of three trail runners descending from the summit. They we all travelling very light, and making great time, we had a quick chat, then we went our separate ways.  The group of three intended to do the full 4 summit traverse, but were concerned about the amount of snow, eventually they cruised the traverse at high speed. 

West side of the small steep bump on the south ridge of Glasgow.
Meet the 3 runners just above this section.

Final easy walk up south summit ridge of Mt. Glasgow.

Summit selfie on Mt. Glasgow.
26 years later, I am back baby!

On my way down south ridge of Glasgow.
View to Cornwall and Outlaw.

View back to Glasgow from col towards Cornwall

I tagged the summit right at noon, looked quickly for a register, didn’t find one, and descended.  When I reached John he was napping. Poor guy was not doing well. He wanted to bail and return immediately to the car.  I being selfish, suggested we have lunch, rest a bit, then take a casual stroll to the summit of Mt. Cornwall.  John, being a nice guy, agreed. Soon we were following a great trail set by the trail runners to the summit of Cornwall.  John wasn’t his usually fast self, and we took our time to the summit of Cornwall.  Poor John didn’t feel great, but agreed to continue towards Outlaw. 

John with Glasgow behind.

View up to snowy Cornwall.

Snow trail up Cornwall.

View back to Glasgow.

Final summit ridge on Cornwall.

View to the Opals. Left, long summit ridge of Mt. Tombstone (proper north summit).
Middle, two "Cats Ears", right Mt. Jerram and Mt. Burney.

John slogging up to summit of Cornwall.

Elpoca Mountain.
I did a new route on the north side (this aspect) with Scott Berry back in 2017.

Summit of Cornwall.

View to Outlaw Peak descending Cornwall.

John on Cornwall.

Nearing Outlaw Peak.

Banded Peak now visible, far left summit.

View back to Cornwall as we near Outlaw.

John nearing summit of Outlaw, Cornwall and Glasgow behind.

Snowy summit of Outlaw Peak.

OSWB and John on summit of Outlaw.

Great views back to Cornwall and Glasgow.

Mt. Rae looks so bad ass from here.

View to Banded Peak from Outlaw.

Banded Peak from col.

Descend trail on Outlaw Peak.
Daytime heating causing some major snow sluffs on this slope.

We enjoyed the fine views as we reached the flats below Outlaw. John was still hurting but we plodded on. Over Outlaw and down towards Banded Peak. Near the low point John rested, he was not doing well, I agreed with John that we should just take the easiest way out, down the standard Kane described exit, and head immediately into Outlaw Creek. I took a pass on Banded Peak (been there, done that ;-).

As we descend, all the snow melt meant that the alpine creeks were raging, cool to see. John felt better was we headed down.  Soon past the mini headwall with raging alpine creeks, we found an excellent monster trail down Outlaw Creek (I suspect leftover from the now defunct “Banded Peak Challenge” event).  Soon we reached the Big Elbow Trail and began the plod out.

Extra special fun on the hike out of Big Elbow; we found a nice new bridge over the Elbow River, but about 3 km later, no bridge over the now raging river. Since between the two crossings, both sides of the river have a trail, some warning should be provided at the upstream bridge.  THANKS ALBERTA GOVERNMENT. 

Lots of water in the alpine. This was a small waterfall.

Small mini headwall in upper Outlaw Creek.
Outlaw Peak behind.



Bridge out !

We walked about 600 metres downstream where the river spread out a bit and found a safe section to cross; only knee deep. A few more km’s, got the bikes and headed back to John’s SUV.  All in, about 14 hours of fun; thank you to John for letting me bag some summits when you were feeling rough.  Fun day out.