“Screwdriver Ridge”
Mount Backus II


 
December 31, 2020
 
Mountain heights: 1691 m, 1815 m
Elevation gain:      807 m
Round-trip time:    5:13
 
Hike and snowshoe with Dave.
 
Last day of the challenging and bizarre year of 2020 and the weather choose to act accordingly. With little hope of clear skies, Dave was gracious enough to do a repeat ascent of “Screwdriver Ridge”, the minor summit west of Blue Mountain (a most memorable trip in itself).
 
We chose to take a direct route to the summit by first hiking a gas road to the south ridge of Screwdriver and then heading up from that point. The ascent was dead easy and we arrived at the summit about an hour after leaving the cars. As such, we decided some additional exploration was warranted and made our way over to a highpoint, south of Screwdriver.  
 
At this point a loop route was looking good. Leaving the summit we arrived at another gas road in short order and were soon heading back to the start. That was until Mount Backus beckoned. Standing right in front of us and with minimal elevation gain to get the top, we simply couldn’t pass up an attempt, although the specific route was uncertain.
 
Good thing we lugged our snowshoes with us, as they were on our feet only minutes into the Backus ascent; without them the summit would likely have been unattainable, or at least excruciatingly strenuous! Dave led most of the way, breaking trail through deep, unconsolidated snow. Thankfully, the intervening forest between the base of the mountain and the summit was relatively light and we had no trouble finding a route to the summit ridge and then to the top.
 
The summit view was good, although a far cry from that of my first ascent of Backus, under completely clear skies. Taking a direct, alternate descent route down to the gas road had some appeal, but after discussing it (and seeing the big valley we would have to re-ascend) we decided the long, known route was best. Descending our ascent route turned out to be super fast and easy and we were back on the gas road in no time. A pleasant hike down the road ended a very satisfying day on new terrain.  

Click HERE to see Dave's excellent and very thorough report.


The gas roads in Southern Alberta make easy work of many approaches (photo by Dave)



Heading to the south ridge of Screwdriver (photo by Dave)



A few sections of exposed rock low on the mountain



....with lichen!



And the obligatory twisted, dead tree. Dave is preparing to crawl under the barbed wire fence



My turn and doing a darn good impression of a cadaver! (photo by Dave)



The right side of this fallen tree resembles a bird
 


Checking out the exposed bottom of another fallen tree (photo by Dave)



Easy to count the rings from this angle



Dave leads us to the summit



Dave at one of the summits (all of about equal height)



My turn at the summit and I'm still alive! (photo by Dave)



Dave heads to the other summit



Big snow bank between the summits



Dave takes in the summit view to the northeast



Interesting rock and interesting clouds




 More cool clouds



Another interesting area that looked like the remnants of a coal slag heap, but I don't think it was



The next objective appears at the right. Mount Backus at the left.



Scary tree!



Dave is already halfway up the ascent slope, while I'm still obsessed with scary trees



Looking back at Screwdriver Ridge (photo by Dave)



Dave at the top



On our way down (photo by Dave)

Dave leads the way



I follow (photo by Dave)



There's the gas road below (photo by Dave)




Back to super easy travel (photo by Dave)

Backus (left) beckons



Snowshoes on, we follow a pronounced trail for the first section



Dave tackles a surprisingly steep and slick section of the trail



Off trail from here on in. We aimed for the small open patch.



The grade and snow depth start to increase (photo by Dave)

A few steps of very steep stuff (photo by Dave)

Dave atop the only rock band we encountered
 


In the open patch (photo by Dave)

The last part of the ascent to the ridge was quite steep (photo by Dave)

Dave takes the last few steps to the ridge



Happy snowshoer at the snow-less summit of Mount Backus (photo by Dave)

View to the southeast



Hillcrest Mountain and Turtle Mountain to the northwest



Clear to the east, but there are very few mountains (photo by Dave)

At least I get my lichen fix!






Dave and the view to the southwest



The lowest of the three summits of Syncline Mountain, right of centre. The highest summit is in the clouds at the far right.



Heading down



Descending the steep terrain was very fast (photo by Dave)

Back on the trail (photo by Dave)

Back at the start of the trail (photo by Dave)

Walking back down the gas road with one gaiter. The strap on the other gaiter broke (photo by Dave).

The End

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