King Creek Ice Climb - WI 3, 25m

Easy mellow day to ease into some ice climbing, hit the mega classic ice crag; King Creek. I have only led ice climbing about twice in past 3 seasons, so John and I were looking for a casual day to get the cob webs out. The weather forecast also called for a high of 16 for Kananaskis, so we planned a short morning of ice climbing in the sheltered canyon.

Upper most flow "Scottish Gully". 

We were the first party of day at King Creek, not surprising since we got there about 7am. Nice hike up the canyon. The main flow and smaller cave routes next door were all fairly thin so we went for the cool flow in the just past the narrow creek section. This line is sometimes referred to as “the Scottish Gully”. It was it great shape. I led the route a couple of times, then I set up a top rope. John and I did a ton of laps, then packed in around noon. We did see another party at the main flow on our hike out. Fun early season warm up. 

TR set up.

John at base of route.

John ready to spring into action.

Party of two on the main flow as we hike out. 

Classic view up King Creek from the parking area/highway. The glorious Mt. Blane on the left,
outlier of Blane, "The Blade", just left of centre and "Mt. Barham", right of centre. 

Plateau Mountain - Scramble

Another fun and off the beaten track trip with Cornelius. Being shoulder season, me not having snow shoes, Cornelius not having skis, we tried to pick an objective that was interesting, and approachable on foot. In the end, we drove south to the Livingstone Range and did a pleasant hike up Plateau Mountain. Driving up and down the access road scoping out potential objectives, we both really liked the look of the southern end of Plateau Mountain; a pair of swooping ridge descend from the large flat plateau providing a nice compact loop, both accessible from the same parking spot. 

On the plateau looking south, Mt. Livingstone (left) and "Coffin Mountain" (centre) in the distance

A bit of light bushwhacking and a little bit of post holing up the steepish slope, brought us up to a little cliff band, we tackled this minor obstacle head on and soon we were in the wind blasted alpine. 

Cornelius breaking through the trees.
Hello wind.

As we gain elevation, a view south to Mt. Livingstone (l) and "Coffin Mtn." (r)

View towards our eventual descent ridge, the South East Ridge.

View back to road and the bottom of the SE ridge.

Pano photo towards end of South East Ridge

Pano photo showing much of the South East Ridge

The winds were strong, and would continue to worsen throughout the day. We gain the ridgeline proper and enjoyed fine views as we ascended towards a cairn. After this cairn, we wandered over to a gas processing site, took a look from a safe distance, then wandered over to two other cairn piles, the last being the highest on the plateau (based on Cornelius’ GPS). 

Section of ridge where we gained the South Ridge proper.

South Ridge gains the high flat and expansive plateau.
Taken from our first cairn pile.

Hiking north towards a large well site.

View south across the expansive plateau.
On the horizon,  double summit of Windy Peak, Mt. Livingstone and right, "Coffin Mtn."

View north to Mt. Burke.

Open country for sure.

Second cairn pile.

Cornelius at our third cairn pile, view north, Mt. Burke on the horizon.

Winds continued to intensify as we descend the South East Ridge, rounding the top of a steep cirque back towards the road. At a minor col along this ridge, we got hammered by wind, I honestly think the wind was around 200 km/hour.  It was intense. Simple hike back to the shelter below the ridge line and into the trees.  A very enjoyable 4.5 ish hours and a fun shoulder season scramble, great day out.

Nearing the bottom of the South East Ridge.
View back to the South Ridge and the loop we completed.