Jimmy Junior II

The

The

July 1, 2016

Mountain height:  2750 m
Elevation gain:    800 m
Ascent time:        4:10

Descent time:     2:30

Solo scramble.

After a winterish ascent of Junior in May of 2015, I vowed to return when there was no snow. My compulsion to do so increased exponentially after seeing that Marko Stavric and company had taken a seemingly more interesting route via a drainage on the south side of the mountain.

This would be an adventurous day right off the bat. Leaving my car and heading towards the Num-Ti-Jah lodge I abruptly noticed I was sharing the road with a grizzly. In fact he/she was walking right towards me. I turned around and gingerly hopped back into my car. The animal just sauntered nonchalantly by and disappeared behind the outhouses. I notified the lodge staff immediately, who seemed to be quite surprised about a bear encounter so close to the lodge.

Back on track, I arrived quickly at the ascent drainage and started up. My goal was to see how long I could stay in the drainage, with the faint possibility that I could follow it all the way to the tarn below Jimmy Junior.

This drainage turned out to be an outstanding route! The rock, water and waterfall scenery was terrific throughout and the terrain generally easy to ascend. Views and scenery at the tarn were likewise awesome and I spent some time exploring the area.     

From the tarn, there was a very obvious route up Jimmy Junior, but luck seemed to be on my side (didn’t get mauled by the bear and the drainage route worked perfectly) and so I set my sights on an ascent via the Jimmy Senior/Junior col. The route worked, but it was more challenging than expected, involving steep rubble, and a few moves of exposed scrambling.

After taking in the wonderful summit panorama, I descended the south ridge – definitely the easiest and most straightforward route up and down the peak.

Definitely one of the more enjoyable and scenic short routes I’ve experienced in the Rockies.     

The bear, as seen from the comfort (and safety?) of my car
 


.....and right past the outhouses (watch the good Canadian movie Backcountry)



The obligatory shot of Mount St. Nicholas



The obligatory shot of mountain reflections in Bow Lake



The ascent drainage



Great views of Bow Lake were a constant throughout the ascent



The colour of the lake is stunning



One of the many waterfalls in the drainage



Another



Several more


....and more!



The last one before the tarn was probably the most scenic






Mount Jimmy Simpson (left), Jimmy Junior (right) and some cool pinnacles between them



Exploring the terrain above the tarn



This ridge does provide a direct route to Jimmy Simpson, but it's a little more than a scramble



The pinnacles



The challenging west ridge of Jimmy Junior



Looking over the north side of Junior
 


Near the summit. Note the three visible lakes



Mount Balfour



A different perspective of St. Nicholas



From the descent ridge, there is a good view of the ascent drainage and waterfalls



Looking back up the descent route



Same as above, but with some interesting clouds at the right