“Stumpy”, “Woody” and “Barky” (the Drywood outliers)
April 21,
2019
Mountain
heights:
2031 m, 2037 m, 2031 m
Elevation
gain: 530 m
Round-trip
time: 5:15
Scrambling with Raff, Nancy (the Birthday Girl),
and Dave.
I’m not a big fan of the expression, “killing two birds
with one stone”, but I suppose it fits here. Looking for something relatively
short and very scenic for Nancy’s birthday hike, two routes jumped out at me
right away: The Muffin (and Croissant) or the Drywood Outlier. To my delight
Dave was able to join us and so we chose the Drywood outlier. Dave had not done
the route and I had vowed to return to the outlier so that he could give them
“proper” names.
Arriving at the Bovin Lake trailhead (the start of the route I used two days
previous) we quickly decided that the higher trailhead was a better idea -
gaining 130 m of elevation in the comfort of a motorized vehicles can be very appealing!
In general, we followed a combination of the two routes I had previously
completed. With most of the snow gone we were able to make our way over to the
amazing rock band I had missed the first time but seen close-up two days
earlier. From above the band Raff and Nancy took a direct route towards the
ridge, while Dave and I went left to see another wonderfully colourful chunk of
rock.
We reunited at a minor highpoint where Dave spotted a
cool, dead tree that perfectly framed the prairies to the east. Raff’s Star
Wars Stormtrooper provided icing on the cake for this scene! We then followed the easy and beautiful ridge
to the minor highpoint that by now Dave had named “Stumpy”, consistent with the
Drywood theme – another spot-on name by Dave!
Two more minor summits waited for us, a short distance
away. “Woody” and “Barky” would become their unofficial names. Atop Woody, we
officially celebrated Nancy’s birthday with a crisp, cool and mighty refreshing
beer and of course Raff did his customary headstand (after the beer was
consumed!)
For descent, although I was a little skeptical that the
snow in the drainage separating Stumpy from Woody and Barky would still be
supportive enough to make travel easy, I was dead wrong. The group decided to
give the drainage a go and travel was awesome! Lower down we did traverse out
of the drainage for a short stint but then returned to it and finished the descent
with ease.
Fantastic day with fantastic people! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Nancy :)
Click HERE to see Dave's excellent and very thorough trip report.
Dave, Raff, and Nancy hike the road towards the objective
Leaving the gas road and onto the snow (that was surprisingly supportive) (photo by Raff)
Traversing a snow slope to get to the rock band I missed the first time I tried this route (photo by Dave)
There it is (photo by Dave)
The gang approaches the rock band
Nancy looks on , while I check out the rock band (photo by Raff)
Dave photographs the colourful rock
Great capture! (photo by Dave)
My usual intimate moment with sweet Castle rock! (photo by Dave)
Another terrific Dave photo
Dave is exploring the rock band; I'm on top of it (photo by Raff)
Me and Dave atop the rock band. The Muffin and Croissant at the left (photo by Raff).
The (also) usual minor detour to check out some dead trees (photo by Dave)
...pretty sweet ones!
The second awesome rock band. I went up the left side, Dave went up the right.
Dave sizes up the scrambling
...and there he goes!
Fun scrambling
The route I took goes up the left
From atop the band, Dave looks down on me (photo by Dave)
And I look up to him!
Looking for a weakness in the next rock band (photo by Raff)
Me and Dave still looking
This time I went around to the right (photo by Dave)
...while Dave scrambled straight up it
Atop the first minor highpoint (photo by Dave)
Great scene without the Star Wars Stormtropper - amazing with it (him/her?)! (photo by Dave)
While me, Dave, and Raff are messing around with the Stormtropper like 6 year olds,
Nancy is engaging in more productive mountain activities, checking out Loaf Mountain
Great section of red argillite between the minor highpoint and summit of Stumpy (that Dave would now refer to as "Stumpit"!)
Hail to red argillite, the great staple rock of southern Alberta! (photo by Dave)
The northeast ridge of Drywood Mountain asserts its presence
Dave approaches the summit
Raff and Nancy make their way up the ridge (photo by Dave)
Dave on Stumpit
The boys on Stumpit (photo by Nancy)
The boy, the girl, and a crazy Pole on Stumpit! (photo by Dave)
The troops descend easy terrain before traversing over to Woody
The traverse (photo by Dave)
Completing the traverse (photo by Raff)
Dave's turn
Castle Peak
Nancy and Raff complete the traverse
Lichen and Pincher Ridge
With Nancy
Dave looks back at the northeast ridge of Drywood
Heading up to Woody (photo by Dave)
A refreshing beer on the summit of Woody. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANCY!!
The oldest person has to take the panoramas at the summit!
Classic Raff (photo by Dave)
Leaving Woody and heading up to Barky
Only the summit team was more colourful than the rock! (self-timed photo by Raff)
Woody cairn, Pincher Ridge, and Victoria Peak, peaking over the right side of Pincher
One way to make the northeast ridge of Drywood look far more menacing than it really is (photo by Raff)
Wouldn't be an eastern front, Castle trip without a glimpse of Prairie Bluff, through some dead trees and moss
I only agreed to do this trip if we represented the primary colours (photo by Dave)
This large group of sheep didn't seem to care much about our presence
Leaving the summit and heading for the drainage (photo by Raff)
Dave leads the way
We are descending, but Raff is still playing with his toys!
Being more of a Trekkie, I would have preferred a Borg (way more scary than a Stormtropper), but I didn't bring my toys (photo by Raff)
Dave is already almost in the drainage
Glissading fun
Nancy's turn
Nancy is getting the most out of the glissade (photo by Dave)
Dave is very thoughtful (photo by Raff)
Unfortunately the terrain here was not steep enough to glissade (photo by Dave)
...but it was super easy and fun to descend
Great scenery on the sides of the drainage too
A nice orderly descent
Where we left the drainage (photo by Dave)
Not so orderly here!
...but then right back into formation
The wheels have fallen off the bus again
...and they are back on!
The gang stops to check out some crocus'
These ones (photo by Dave)
Resuming the orderly descent. The armed forces would be proud!
Easy stream crossing
Raff and Nancy back on the road
Same as above, with Stumpy, right of centre, and Barky at the far right
The End
