“Packenham Junior” – December 1, 2007

Mountain height:           2310 m
Elevation gain:               650 m
Ascent time:                  1:40
Descent time:                1:00

Solo scramble.

On this particularly cold Saturday, I was quite content to stay at home and catch up on the million household related things I should have been doing instead of going to the mountains. However, Calvin Damen’s posting on the RMB Webboard, the previous evening, inspired me to head out and give this small peak, to the west of Mount Packenham, a go. Minimum elevation gain, close proximity to the road, and a suspect weather forecast all pointed to this objective being a good choice.

Calvin’s route description was easy to follow and as he points out the views were very impressive. Unfortunately, it was cloudy to the west and towards the Kananaskis Lakes, but the panorama to the east was more than respectable. I stayed at the summit for as long as possible in temperatures well into the minus twenties. That was about forty minutes and then I made a rapid descent to try to warm up.

Overall, a short, easy and very pleasant trip.  

The short distance from the road; Packenham Junior is the hump just left of centre; 
Mount Packenham in the centre and Mount Hood to the right 

A dead tree

Mount Brock (left), Mount Blane (centre) and King Creek Ridge (right)

Mount Blane

Mount Evan-Thomas (left) and Mount Packenham

Mount Evan-Thomas 

A closer look at striking Mount Packenham

The summit panorama to the east; from left to right: Grizzly Peak, Evan-Thomas, Packenham, Hood, Brock, Blane, and King Creek Ridge

King Creek Ridge and the sun

Mount Brock (right) as seen on descent

Packenham and Hood

A last look at Packenham

Okay... one more

More gnarly tress and Mount Hood (left)

Mount Hood

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