Mount Henkel II, Crowfeet Mountain

Mount Henkel II and Crowfeet Mountain

July 16, 2010

Mountain heights:
    Henkel:                                            2673 m
    Crowfeet:                                       2717 m
Total elevation gain:                            approx. 1500 m
Ascent time to Henkel:                        3:30
Traverse time to Crowfeet:                  1:45
Exploration time:                                  3:20
Descent time from Ptarmigan Tunnel:  2:10

Solo scramble.

Having completed an ascent of Mount Henkel in 2008, Crowfeet Mountain was the primary objective of this trip. Of course the best route to Crowfeet is via a high level traverse from the summit of Henkel, so this was the perfect excuse to repeat one of my favourite scrambles ever.

I didn’t expect to enjoy a second run up Henkel as much as the first time, but it was every bit as exciting and visually rewarding. In fact there were a couple of aspects that even eclipsed the previous ascent.

The approach had one moment of excitement when I turned around to see a moose and her calf walk right behind me. Like the ram incident of 4 days ago, they seemed to be fully aware of my presence but just didn’t care. I, on the other hand, experienced a moment of sheer terror, given the proximity of the calf. I was well upslope before I dared to turn around again to see where they were.

Upon reaching the headwall, I opted for a repeat performance by taking the “chockstone gully”. It’s a short, but awesome little diversion from the described route. The colourful rock in the gully is amazing to look at and climb. Above the gully, I went back to the original route that ascends the middle of the south face of Henkel. Mark and I, at this point, had immediately gained the ridge to the left, to take in some of the brightest red argillite we had ever seen.

Following a red, water-polished drainage was fun and easy. I managed to impress myself by keeping my camera holstered through much of this section, even though there was something amazing to photograph every five seconds. However, every man has his breaking point and mine is pretty low where terrific mountain scenery is concerned. For those who likewise agree that the vibrant beauty of red argillite is the next best thing to a new Star Trek series, Henkel is pure paradise. The ascent slopes contain pretty much every shade of the red rock imaginable, with many beautiful, contrasting layers between. The temptation was far too great and out came the camera in full force. Several huge remaining snow patches further added to this outstanding area.

Once the argillite disappeared I was able to resume the ascent at a decent pace – that was until I decided to take a quick (?) detour left to check out a cornice on the ridge. This quickly turned yet another magnificent diversion and may have been the best part of the trip (hard to say because there were so many magical moments throughout). The overhanging curve of snow was incredible, especially against the light brown rock and a clear sky.

The only mildly unpleasant aspect of the day greeted me when I gained the ridge – the famous Waterton/GNP wind. It was strong enough to limit my summit stay to a few minutes and cause to add a few extra layers of clothing. The traverse to Crowfeet was more of a slog than anything else and longer than expected. Excellent views down to Kennedy Lake were afforded throughout and of course, Mount Wilbur and Iceberg Peak, above Iceberg Lake were magnificent.

The summit block of Crowfeet, however, was quite interesting. After some route-finding and moderate scrambling to get to the summit ridge, the summit cairn appears a short distance away. Right before the cairn, there is a small gap in the ridge. It’s only one step across the gap, but to quote a classic line from Kane’s Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies, in his Yamnuska description, “the exposure is hard to ignore”. On the left it’s a straight drop of several hundred metres; the right is significantly less, but certainly enough to kill you, should you fall. The fierce wind added some extra excitement when I stepped across the gap.

Like Henkel, the summit panorama from Crowfeet was fantastic. Mount Merritt and Ipasha Peak were particularly stunning. The entirely red argillite mound of Mount Seward is something you don’t see very often, contrasting wonderfully with the light brown and yellow hues of Chief and Yellow mountains.

Again, my summit stay was brief due to the strong, cold wind. Options at this point were to: 1. return the same way; 2. return via Ptarmigan Lake Trail; 3. backtrack to Henkel and then traverse over to Apikuni; 4. other. I chose “other”, as continuing north along the Crowfeet ridge looked to be very interesting and I wanted to get a closer look at the red mass of Seward. The ridge was in fact very cool, with amazing views and more colourful rock throughout. Soon a huge slope of red argillite, humorously know as the “Red Scree Stroll”, popped into view, with Elizabeth Lake below. What an extraordinary sight!

Now at the north end of the ridge, two more options presented themselves: 1. continue on over more dangerous looking terrain to find a route down to the red scree; 2. descend to Ptarmigan Tunnel. Number 1 looked fun so I went for it. Unfortunately, after much route-finding and backtracking, I had to give up. The terrain was getting pretty dicey for solo scrambling – I wish Mark had been there. I returned to the north end and then descended to Ptarmigan Tunnel.

The Tunnel was the last wonderful surprise of the day. It’s a man-made tunnel through about 30 m of rock and leads to a goat trail on the other side of the Ptarmigan Wall/Crowfeet col. The goat trail has been dramatically improved for human use. Passing through the tunnel is like slipping into another dimension. Instead of the gradual scenery change that we are all used to, everything changes all at once when you come out the other side of the tunnel. I had already seen the Elizabeth Lake valley from above, but even so, emerging from the tunnel was an amazing and utterly unique experience. I followed the trail on the other side for a short distance before turning around. More magnificent scenery with wispy clouds above was the theme for this section.

The descent was great. I followed Ptarmigan Lake Trail all the way back to the parking lot. The trail is gently graded and a godsend at the end of an 11 hour day.

Besides the wind and a lack of brotherly company, I couldn’t have asked for a more enthralling and rewarding day in the mountains.

The vertical face of Mount Gould