Alpine Soft

Saturday, August 7, 2021

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.

Friday, May 14, 2021

Mt. Richardson attempt two

Sunday May 2, John and I made another attempt at Mt. Richardson. Forecast for good weather with low winds and a definite overnight freeze sounded like a good chance of success. Super early start had us skiing past the Halfway Hut before 6am. Nicely frozen surface snow and super supportive base provided fast conditions as we pasted Hidden Lake and headed to the low point on the far southern end of the South Ridge of Richardson.

View to South Ridge of Mt. Richardson

Making tracks up to the south end of the South Ridge.

Getting closer.

View to summit of Mt. Richardson (l)
Pika Peak and un-named peak on the right.

Nearing the low point on the southern end of the long South Ridge of Mt. Richardson, the crust was to hard to skin up, so we put the skis on our packs and booted up to the ridge. At first snow conditions were great on the ridge, but definitely required crampons. We were loving it for a short time. As I led up the ridge, the support crust failed, and wouldn't hold our weight. I pushed on for awhile, but soon the 18 inch crust (45cm) crust would always collapse. Under the hard surface layer was bottomless faucets that was just an awful wallow. We were concerned about this mess of a snow pack getting worse as the sun warmed up the snow. We decided to bailed since the snow was so poor and we had a long way to go on this snow.

Kevin booting up to the ridge.
(Photo by John)

OSWB on the ridge.
(Photo by John)

Ready to boot up the South Ridge.

View up the South Ridge to the summit (l).

View up South Ridge, lots of poor snow to travel on.

OSWB checking out the snow conditions. This is where we decided to bail.
(Photo by John)

Boot pack up to the ridge on the right.
Down boot track on the left.

Booted it back down the ridge, collected the skis and booted down from the ridge line. The conditions on this slope was basically all ice. Had a breakfast break and then enjoyed some great conditions on the ski back to Hidden Lake. Quick blast back to the parking lot. Back to the car before 11am, alpine starts are hard to wake up for, but the early end of the day is nice. I think we are done with Richardson in the winter now?

OSWB getting some
(Photo by John)

Really nice turns down to Hidden Lake.

John enjoying the day.

Beauty setting of Hidden Lake.
Pika Peak and Ptarmigan Peak (r)

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Mt. Richardson attempt

The historic Half Way hut near Hidden Lake.

The famous mountain trio of Mt. Richardson (l), Pika Peak (c) and Ptarmigan Peak (r).

Cold, high winds and generally blustery day out with John. We are not having great success with our Skoki trips this winter. John was keen to summit Mt. Richardson. Mt. Richardson is one of my earliest summits, 24 summit ever, back on Thanksgiving weekend in 1993. The weather forecast was bleak, but this was the only day I had available, we went for it.

In the trees on the way to Hidden Lake.
South Ridge of Mt. Richardson above.

Nearing Hidden Lake

Above Hidden Lake, we are headed towards the low point, right of the pointy point.

Old guy breaking trail towards our ridge point.
Photo by John.

Are we there yet?
Photo by John.

We had a pleasant ski to Hidden Lake and into the alpine. After a bit of route finding, we were making great progress and had spotted an access point to gain the South Ridge of Mt. Richardson. We eventually gained the ridge at a low point, but wind was insane and it was on and off whiteout conditions. We bailed.

Got in some great turns on the way back to the lake.

Back at Hidden Lake.
Photo by John.

We got in some great turns above the lake and enjoyed the ski back to the car. Lots of fun, but not so much sun.

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Beach Front Buttress - sport climbing 5.10a

Beach Front Buttress crag.

Great day out to enjoy the warm and dry weather; bring on spring. Laurie and I headed out to Canyon Creek, near Moose Mountain, to explore the variety of crags that have recently been established along a oil and gas access road. This road is the old road that use to allow more direct access to the famous "Bragg Creek Ice Caves". These caves have a long and storied history with many generations of Calgarians heading out to enjoy the outdoors. Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, Alberta Parks restricted public access to the road and only allow authorized resource company vehicles. Regardless, the road is in perfect condition and a bike ride makes short work of the approach.

We only visited the first crag, closest to the parking area. We both did a pile of warm up routes, then we both did a couple of 10.a's. Great start to the sport climbing season. Bring on summer!