Turtle Mountain
February 26, 2005
Mountain height: 2,209
m (7,245 ft)
Elevation gain: 880
m
Ascent time: 3:30
Descent time: 2:25
Scrambling with Mark, Holland, and Toan.
Turtle Mountain is a
fantastic scramble, boasting a unique form of rock scenery you are unlikely to
find anywhere else. It’s, or course, unfortunate that the natural disaster of
1903 that is responsible for the great scenery, also cost more than 70 people
their lives. While the magnitude of the rockslide is impressive as seen from
Highway 3, a far superior view of the devastation waits near the top of the
mountain.
We set out shortly after 9 am on a beautifully clear and warm day.
Unfortunately, Toan began to tire a little (his first scramble), and so we
split up into two groups: Mark and I went ahead and Toan and Holland followed. We hoped to meet somewhere
on the upper ridge.
Mark and I quickly made our way up to the
ridge, where we enjoyed terrific views of Crowsnest
Mountain, The Seven Sisters, Mount Tecumseh,
and numerous snow-covered, shapely peaks to the south. Higher up, the summit
block appeared in the distance – another impressive sight, as a fair amount of
snow remained on the ascent route and the decimated north face of the mountain.
The really interesting scenery started when
we reached the false summit. From that point, the long and wide notch between
the false and true summit, revealed the absolutely enormous size of the section
of rock that was no longer part of the mountain. A short descent and we were
amongst some of the most astounding rock scenery we’ve ever seen: huge
pinnacles, gaping fissures, large overhanging outcroppings – add a good dose of
snow and you have some absolutely stunning scenery. Needless to say, however,
the snow, often covering and hiding deep fissures in the rock, made the terrain
quite treacherous. We were very careful to avoid stepping on snow covered
sections, as it was sometimes impossible to ascertain what was underneath. Some
of the fissures were well over 10 metres deep and falling into one would have
been most unpleasant! We spent quite a while exploring the fascinating features
of the notch, although we were limited to certain sections – snow cover made
others inaccessible. Certainly, we will return in the summer to explore more of
the incredible terrain.
A short, easy scramble followed and brought us
quickly to the summit and a splendid panorama. Again the peaks and landscape to
the south and southeast really stole the show, although a very tall peak to the
left of MountTecumseh,
that I thought might be 11,000er Mount
Harrison, certainly
grabbed our attention also. A second slightly higher summit was only 5-10
minutes away and so we carefully traversed the snow-covered ridge, avoiding
more cracks in the rock. After a very pleasant summit stay, highlighted by Mark
slipping and wiping out while making a short movie with his digital camera, we
started down. Unfortunately, we did not run into Holland and Toan along the way. We later
found out, they had made it up to the ridge, continued on for a while and then
decided to save the summit for another day. The bright side was that they were
an hour ahead of us and when we arrived at the car, there was a bucket of KFC
waiting for us – protein and huge amounts of grease – a great end to a great
day!
LOG
