Buchanan Ridge

Buchanan Ridge/Peak – August 16, 2005

Mountain height:
                Ridge:         2,594 m (8,508 ft)
                Peak:          2,416 m (7,924 ft)

Elevation gain:
Ridge: 974 m
Peak: -178 m

Ascent time:
To Ridge: 2:35
To Peak: 1:25

Descent time: 2:25

Scrambling with Kevin.

Having completed nearby Mount Alderson and Carthew, I really wasn’t expecting too much from lowly Buchanan Ridge and even lower Buchanan Peak . I should know better than to lower expectations for any trip in the Rockies most colourful area – Waterton Park . Thanks to a great suggested route by Sonny Bou, that approaches the ridge from near the Rowe Lakes Parking lot, along the Akamina Parkway , Kevin and I were able to avoid the lengthy, but scenic approach via Cameron Lake and Mount Carthew .

Gaining the highpoint of Buchanan Ridge required an hour of steep, but manageable bushwhacking, followed by an hour and half of scree slogging. Not the most aesthetic ascent, but the colourful rock scenery helped ease the tedium. The view from the ridge was very pleasant, and included decent views of Mounts Blakiston, Lineham, Rowe, Carthew, Alderson, and some of the more striking peaks of Glacier Park in the U.S.A.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the descent to Buchanan Peak (very odd to be descending from the Ridge to the Peak – shouldn’t it be the other way around?!). This involved interesting downclimbing of numerous small rocksteps, with an absolutely wonderful view of the shapely Buchanan Peak and the intervening ridge. Staying right on the edge of the ridge provided the most entertaining route, often with precipitous drops on the left side. Any sections that were questionable downclimbs, could be easily circumvented by dropping down to the right.

The Buchanan Peak summit view was fairly anti-climatic, after the superior view from the Ridge, however, continuing down the ridge a short way, gave us a great view of the beautiful blue-green waters of Alderson Lake, with Mount Alderson towering above, and a nice profile of Blair Piggot’s and Dave Stephens’ grade III, 5.8 climbing route up Alderson’s north ridge.

Though tempting to continue down to the Lake , return to the Waterton townsite via Alderson Lake Trail, and then try and hitch a ride back to our car, we opted to return the same way we came. The first part of the descent (actually a re-ascent from Buchanan Peak to Ridge) was very enjoyable and took less time than the descent to the Peak. Good scree surfing and then easy downhill bushwhacking rendered the remainder of the descent fast and easy. An excellent day and more than worthwhile trip (even if our driving time did equal our scrambling time!).