Observation

Subpeak attempt

March 5, 2016

Snowshoeing with Mark.

There is no such thing as a bad day or bad route in this neck of the woods. The Bow Lake area is, without question, one of the premier destinations in the Canadian Rockies, summer or winter (or fall or spring, for that matter!).

This route is described in Chic Scott’s Icefields and summits. I had actually “attempted” it earlier in the year. I put “attempted” in quotations because I made it about 20 metres from my car, before turning around due to mid-thigh postholing, even with snowshoes on!

Thankfully, late winter had been good to the snowpack and it was considerably more supportive on this day. The ascent was enjoyable throughout, but unfortunately cloudy skies prevailed. As well, once above treeline, the wind was brutally cold.

From the false summit it was very difficult to determine approximately how far away the true summit sat. We continued on for a while, but when the ridge narrowed considerably, our progress slowed down to the point where making the summit seemed unlikely. The biting cold and cloudy skies were also a consideration and we decided to turn around.

Even with the iffy weather and failure to summit, we had an excellent day out and vowed to return to finish the job.



Above the treeline



A thin snowpack, but the snowshoes worked well



The occasional sunny break gave us hope the weather would clear



Jimmy Simpson and it's outliers behind









At the false. The true summit is just visible in the background, left of centre.





Easy terrain on the first section of the ridge



Where the ridge narrowed



Pushing onwards, but nearing the turn around point
 


Decided to back down at this point



Heading down















The steepest section of the descent



Wading through deep snow lower down
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