Prairie Bluff XVII

Into the valley that provides multiple, interesting routes to the summit of Prairie Bluff, with the least amount of elevation gain. I took the ridge on the right.

It's a pretty straightforward ridge

Looking west to Whitney Creek Mountain (foreground, right), with Table Mountain behind

The other ridge provides the shortest route possible to the summit

It's not unusual to see sheep in this area

Had to traverse way over to the right to get around this guy

Mount Gladstone in the background and another route we took up Prairie in the foreground

Approaching the upper section of the ridge. The right side is amazing later in the day; the left earlier in the day.

This section needs the full brunt of the Sun on it

Since there was no Sun I snuck over to the left side to check out a completely different route

Heading up to the ridge

Cool tree

Cool rock

Back on the ridge. Victoria Peak at the left.

Prairie Bluff summit at the far left

Clearly I'm not the only human obsessed with Bluff

Dark clouds over Victoria

I followed the ridge at the left over to the gas road

On the trail that leads to the summit, but going the other way

On the gas road

Walked the road for a while then veered off onto that trail at the right

Beautiful reds on the northwest side of the mountain

Great colours around the summit too

All of it

Because of it's aesthetic appearance, I like to call Victoria Peak "The Assiniboine of the South"

Clouds dull the colours around the summit

Even darker clouds form to the west. The weather from this point to the end of the trip was bizarre, to say the least.

Enjoying new terrain. The goal at this point was to head towards the rock band near the right.

Some of the bizarre weather: clear to the north, threatening to the west.

Approaching the rock band

Looking back at the route from the highpoint at the right

The rock band

Had to get right up against it

Could have descended to get to around the steep terrain, but instead I went uphill to gain the ridge again

Scrambling up this would have been a terrible idea, as much of the rock is quite brittle

Enjoying the decent weather for now, as things will soon change

Hiking up alongside the band

The band changes to red argillite

And other rock types

Back on the ridge and now heading towards the bump in the middle that we call Prairie Storm

Prairie Storm looked like a shoo-in from here

At this point, I even considered making taking a stab at Victoria Peak

Descending to the col

Sweet view of Victoria

Nice colours at the left

Nearing the col

Ominous clouds and blue sky

Although it doesn't like awful here, the weather was changing rapidly and bad things were imminent. I bailed here and made my way back to the road up above.