Carthew Minor III
October 4, 2014
Mountain
height: 2330 m
Elevation gain: 700 m
Scrambling
with Nicole.
I
was dying to make a third ascent of Carthew Minor, having done the trip earlier in the present year and
several years ago as a snowshoe trip.
This time I would go during larch season and bring some company to witness the
spectacle. Nicole graciously volunteered to accompany me.
I
wasn’t expecting Nicole to have the same “WOW” experience that I had upon
reaching the “Garden of Red Argillite” (I am clearly obsessed to the point of
delusion with red argillite and have no bones about admitting it!), but to my
surprise she did! We explored the Garden for quite a while and finished the
ascent, as which point Nicole did exclaim that this had been her favourite trip
in the Rockies so far.
I
was a little nervous about subjecting Nicole to the downclimb to the Carthew
Minor/Mount Carthew col (there were a few expletives uttered when she saw it!),
but with a little coaxing she followed me down and agreed, upon reaching the
bottom that it was much easier than it looked from above.
We
then traversed towards the false summit of Mount Carthew to check out the yellowing
larches on the ridge. As expected they were
terrific, however a week earlier would definitely have yielded even more spectacular
results. Since Mount Carthew was
not on the agenda, we bailed down to the Carthew Summit trail and enjoyed the
easy and scenic stroll back down to Cameron Lake.
That’s
one person that I’ve now got hooked on this route - more to come, hopefully!
Nicole and Carthew Minor
The boulder field
More red argillite boulders
Nothing like a lone, yellow larch to spice up the scenery
Approaching the "Garden of Red Argillite"
Chapman Peak and Mount Custer dominate the view to the south
From the ridge, the false summit of Mount Carthew and Mount Alderson are visible
Someone is enjoying the trip!
At the summit
The view towards Cameron Lake
The view towards Mount Cleveland
Views from the downcimb
The last section of the downclimb
Someone likes red argillite as much as I do
The scenic traverse. Most of the yellow larch needles had fallen off the tress at this point
Heading down to the Carthew Summit trail
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