GR628936 and a few other GR

GR628936 and a few other GR’s of the Highwood Range – July 20, 2006

Mountain height: 2775 m
Elevation gain:     1100 m
Ascent time:         5:45
Descent time:       2:45

Solo scramble.

After a couple of feeble attempts at one of the higher points of the southern section of the Highwood Range (GR628936), I finally managed to make the summit, but again, not by the route I intended. On my first attempt I was joined by Linda and Mark, however, weather and snow conditions prompted us to pick the closer and easier objective of GR616953 to the north. My second attempt was a solo effort earlier in the month, where I tried a different route and turned around only an hour in, when it appeared that the start of the scrambling and I were separated by kilometres of trees and up and downs.

This time I intended to follow Lineham Creek all the way to its origin and then start the up the mountain. Yet again, once I reached the point where I was supposed to leave the trail, I looked over to see an endless jungle of trees and I chickened out, opting to ascend the ridge to the right of GR616953 to GR618951 and then attempt a ridgewalk to GR628936 via another highpoint at GR623946 (…..wow! that’s a stink-load of numbers; even I’m beginning to tire to these mind-numbing GR’s and as a math teacher, I love numbers – maybe it’s time to make up some names! For now, I’ll go with Peak 1, 2, 3, 4 from the most northerly to the most southerly, with Peak 4 being the highest and primary objective of the trip).

The hike/scramble to Peak 2 was actually quite interesting, with plenty of hands-on slab scrambling on the upper section. After enjoying the great view of all the Continental Divide Peaks of the south Kananaskis area, I went for a return visit to Peak 1 (the one Mark, Linda, and I had visited in 2004). The scrambling to that peak was straightforward though the ridge narrowed considerably right before the summit. There appeared to be a continuation of the ridge to the north, but I was more concerned with the ridge to the south and so I went back to Peak 2 and continued south along the ridge.

Peak 3 was attained without too much difficulty, but the much longer traverse to Peak 4 seemed to present a significant challenge. After descending to a lowpoint, the ridge suddenly narrowed to an alarming degree. I traversed across a narrow ledge to find, that the ridge narrowed even more and suddenly dropped a fair distance. This was a little more than I was prepared to attempt and I backed up, lost a bunch of elevation, and started to traverse around the section. It was a good decision, as much of the ridge was beyond scrambling, when viewed from the other side.

Eventually I was able to work my way back to the ridge. It didn’t appear to be too bad from here, though the ridge was narrow, with a drop-off on the left and a steep slab on the right. I started up and quickly realized that while this terrain may have been fun and “exhilarating” to ascend, descending it would be a whole different story and there was no way I would be coming back this way. It was either make it to the summit and find an alternate descent route or make myself comfortable and wait for the rescue. Fortunately, no rescue was needed. Though longer and more intense than I expected, the narrow ridge was within my comfort level (barely!) and eventually it widened and I found myself breathing a sigh of relief on the summit.

For descent, I used the southwest ridge directly below the summit. A scree/rubble/dirt gully made for an easy escape off the mountain. I soon found the creek and followed it out and back to the trail. The bushwhacking was not half as bad as I was expecting. An intense day of rewarding scrambling and exploring.