Mount Potts recon.

Mount Potts reconnaissance – June 28, 2009

Solo scramble.

Fresh off a thoroughly enjoyable (and at times exhilarating) ascent of Mount Wintour, I decided to venture into another section of the breath-taking Opal Range.

At 3000 metres, Mount Potts rivals and in fact exceeds in elevation many of the named peaks of the Opal Range. Lacking an official title, however, the peak sees very little traffic. The day’s objective was to locate the easiest route up the mountain, that is, the descent route described by Rick Collier on Bivouac. I wasn’t planning to ascend the mountain unless conditions and motivation warranted an actual attempt.

This was the third time I had hiked up Grizzly Creek and it still has yet to lose its charm and splendor. The striking, folded strata and jagged outcrops of rock on Grizzly Peak and Opal Ridge, above open grassy slopes are incredible. Equally stunning is the valley and cirque below Evan-Thomas and Potts – remarkably similar to that of Evan-Thomas and Packenham immediately south.

Following the stream that bisects the valley, I came across a large patch of bright green moss. I spent the next 20 minutes there, experimenting with the Macro feature on my camera, having recently seen some fantastic photos on Marko Starvic’s website. My photos were, for the most part complete duds, but it was fun trying.

The search for the correct ascent gully then began and unfortunately it was a futile one. There were several gullies that appeared to offer access to the summit ridge, but all were choked with snow and looked to be quite steep higher up. I had crampons and an ice axe, but didn’t feel comfortable trying any of the gullies by myself.

Instead, I made my way up to Evan-Thomas/Potts col. I knew from the Green book that I wasn’t going to be able to get to the summit via this route, but I at least wanted to see the view to the east. This part of the ascent was not without its difficulties. The terrain was deceivingly steep and I climbed two sections that I thought would be problematic downclimbing in boots (a good reason to stick rock shoes in your pack).

The view to the east from the col was excellent, especially the west side of Mount Romulus, and an unnamed peak to the west. It didn’t take long to figure out this was the end of the line. The summit looked to be guarded by some very challenging terrain that was way beyond my ability as a solo scrambler.

On descent I did try again to find the correct gully and even started up one, but backed down in short order. Returning to the cirque, I came across more beautiful terrain and scenery (flowers) and once again took a million and a half Macro photos with limited success. Even so, the photo-taking unexpectedly turned out to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of the trip. It certainly increased my appreciation for the incredible minute details of nature (scramblers do tend to concern themselves primarily with big, grandiose mountain and glacier scenery). This pattern of stopping to take an enormous amount of photos continued throughout the descent. With the sun now in a better position, the colourful scenery was phenomenal.

Another summit-less, but unforgettable day in the stunningly beautiful Canadian Rockies.

Mount Potts