Fairmont Mountain - North Ridge, solo scramble

 

Moody, cloudy and cold in the high country above the Columbia Valley on Tuesday, August 10. Had tons of fun on the North Ridge of Fairmont Mountain. Fairmont Mountain is above the resort village of Fairmont Hot Springs in the Columbia Valley, about 30 km south of the main valley town, Invermere. 

Red line is my approximate route.
Yellow dot is where I left my bike.

Approached on bike from highway 93/95 to the ski out trail from the Fairmont Ski Resort, gated entrance just above the hot pools. After a couple of zigs and zags, the skinny road ends in Fairmont Creek at a small shack and water intake (I am assume the water supply for snow making at the ski hill). Across the washed out creek, a bit of travel on the same trail, but it heads down hill, so I did a bushy bash to the big scree slope that eventually meets the ridge line just north of the Fairmont Ridge/Fairmont Mtn. col.

Across Fairmont Creek from the water intake,
 an old trail continues, but it soon heads down hill.

View from bush bash towards Fairmont Mtn.
Main summit to right, just right of centre.

Up the ridge direct to lower northern summit then south to the main summit. Lots of fun moderate hands on scrambling. Solid 1750 metres of gain, mountain bike approach saved a lot of time, rode up/down ski out trail to upper Fairmont Creek. Great day out. 

Nearing ridge line, view to lower north summit.

Gaining height to lower north summit,
view north to Fairmont Ridge.

Approaching the north lower summit (right)
Main higher summit visible to left.

Cairn on lower north summit.

View of both summits, higher main summit on left.

Descending south to main summit.

View back north to lower summit and Fairmont Ridge.

Beautiful orange scree col.

Nearing summit, view to Columbia Lake.

Final steps to summit.
Some pleasant exposure on good rock.

Cool register container.

View north to Fairmont Ridge.

Raff K. has been everywhere!

Paper was super wet, really couldn't write anything 

The top of the scree slope I used to access the summit ridge.

On my return, this is the shack where I left my bike.
The water intake pipe is visible.

GR653287 “Hassle Castle” - North Ridge, 5.4

 

View up North Ridge of "Hassle Castle"

Smoky Friday August 6 in Jura Creek. I teamed up with my intrepid scrambler bud, Cornelius, for a great day on “Hassle Castle”. This cool little feature is located just south of “Morrowmount” along the high ridge between upper Jura Creek and CMC Valley. Some sources refer to this as “Old Fort Peak”, GR about 653287. 

Map of area summits.

We approached up Jura Creek, up orange scree slope close to “Morrowmount” and traversed on the ridge south to the north side of “Hassle Castle”.  

Sticking to the crest of the North Ridge, a vertical wall is soon encountered; about 7m tall, solid 5.4. We soloed up this. A second wall about 25m of low fifth class and then fun difficult scrambling to the top. Tons of loose and exposed rock. We left a new register and rebuilt the old collapsed cairn. 

On the descent, Cornelius downclimbed a slabby line to skier's left of the 7m wall section. Too much slab for me, I returned to downclimb the 5.4 wall. In this slab section, I found two old piton rappel anchors. Fun down climbing and the hike back down Jura Creek. Tons of fun.