Copper Mountain

August 23, 2011

Mountain height:    2795 m
Elevation gain:       1425 m
Ascent time:           5:15
Descent time:        2:10

Scrambling with Raff.

Copper Mountain for many (myself included) has always fit the “I’ll do it if there’s nothing else to do” bill. It is not a particularly striking mountain and the ascent route has always appeared to be a horrendously long scree slog (not to imply that either of these factors have stopped me in the past!).

On our way to attempt Mount Nelson the following day, Raff and I stopped at the Redearth Creek parking lot to give Copper a go. Raff had done his research and brought Vern’s route description with him to avoid the route-finding issues of many who had went before us.

All was going as planned until we ran into a black bear and her cub on the lower slopes of the mountain. Thankfully she wasn’t aggressive and just watched as we turned around and walked in the opposite direction. We then lost some elevation and circled around, giving the pair a very, very, wide berth. In some ways this encounter may have been a blessing in disguise, as it directed us to a terrific water-worn gully.

The almost scree- and rubble-free gully provided excellent hands-on, friction scrambling. As well, it was far longer than expected. Gaining elevation this way was a most pleasant surprise.

The gully eventually came to an end, however the hands-on scrambling on good rock didn’t. In fact I would say that this route had the most amount of continuous hands-on and very enjoyable scrambling of all of the Kane’s peaks I had done so far. Raff agreed. By the time the scrambling had finally given way to scree and rubble we were almost at the top.

The summit view, though a little anti-climactic when compared to what Raff and I had seen south (Fisher Mountain) and south of the border (Mount Jackson), was nevertheless interesting and satisfying. Pilot, Brett, Assiniboine, and the multitudes of unnamed peaks to the east provided the most interest.

Kane’s suggested alternate descent route, down a huge scree gully, was terrific. The scree was surfable in parts and tedious in others, but still provided a super fast way down the mountain. Near the bottom of the gully, we spotted the bears again, a fair distance away. They quickly took off when we made our presence known. Of course, the effortless and speedy bike ride back to the parking lot was an awesome way to end yet another unexpectedly fantastic Kane scramble.