Carthew Minor V


 
 
June 3, 2023
 
Mountain height: 2330 m
Elevation gain:    700 m
Round-trip time:  5 hours
 
Scrambling with Mark.
 
Another awesome run up one of my favourite peaks in Waterton, with a brutally sobering remainder of the looseness and inherent dangers of the rock of the Canadian Rockies.
 
I was very excited to drag Mark up this fantastic little outlier of Mount Carthew. In some ways it boasts a superior view to that Carthew “Major” and the rock throughout is unreal. The weather was going to be a coin toss – it could go either way. Actually, it ended up going both ways – at times disappointing and at other times cool and intriguing.
   
 
After a quick stop at Summit Lake, we started up the south ridge of the objective. The cloudy/foggy conditions throughout threatening to either consume the entire area, dissipate completely, or both. We reached the summit of Minor to the latter – clear skies above, fog above. A brocken spectre also provided some visual entertainment.
 
Hoping for completely clear skies eventually, we stayed at the top for quite a while. Unfortunately, the clouds started to close in all around. Although the summit of Mount Carthew was not on the agenda, climbing down to the Minor/Major col and looping around back to the south ridge was. The terrain around the col is super cool.

   
 
I also found out in an alarming way that terrain is super loose. Arriving at the col I reached up to a mini-fridge sized boulder that appeared to be firmly attached to the mountain. It was not and came immediately down towards me. Luckily, I was able to jump out of the way, but had I been standing 50 cm to the right that boulder would have landed on me, with severe consequences. As stated, a very sobering reminder to watch what you grab onto in the “Rotten Rockies”!
 
Once collected from the scary incident, we circled around back to our ascent route and completed the trip.
 
Minus the rock drama, another fantastic trip up one of my favourite little peaks in the Rockies!



Mark hikes one of the four huge switchbacks en route to Summit Lake. Cameron Lake at the right.



The obligatory stop at Summit Lake. Chapman and Custer on the other side of the lake (and the border).



Hiking towards to the south ridge of Carthew Minor.



Remnants of a tree among the red argillite



Heading up the south ridge in foggy conditions



Very foggy to the east



Some signs of clearing



And some signs of serious amounts of red argillite



Foggy again



And back to clearing



Chapman Peak makes another appearance







Surprised to see some snow



Not surprised to see cool, lichen-covered argillite







Looking back to Mark after I tried to find an alternate route up to the summit via the east face



Mark's atmospheric view of me



Returning to the ridge after getting cliffed-out



Back onto the standard route



Socked in at the summit



Or maybe not







A broken spectre




Close-up



Blakiston and Lineham are tall enough to rise above the cloud layer, but nothing else is



Case in point


The bipolar nature of our long summit stay





























Summit block of Mount Custer



The clearest view of the day towards Mount Carthew







Heading down to the Carthew Minor/Mount Carthew col







Steep, but easy downclimbing on ledgey terrain



Mark downclimbs



The amazing outcrop of rock on the other side of the col



The weather is breaking down for the rest of the day at this point



A smile of sheer relief after the boulder incident



The terrain on the other side of the col is extraordinarily colourful



Another tenacious snow patch



Making our way back to the south ridge



Back on the south ridge



The views are getting bleak; time to put the camera away

The End

LOG