Threepoint Mountain

Threepoint Mountain – November 11, 2006

Mountain height:           2595 m
Elevation gain:               950 m
Ascent time:                  6:00
Descent time:                4:40

Scrambling with Mark.

I didn’t believe it until today, but apparently “bigger is not always better”! Lowly Threepoint Mountain chose to remind us of this and did so with a vengeance.

We left Calgary relatively early and brought along our bikes, in the slim hope that we might be able to bike some or all of the 8 km approach along Big Elbow Trail. To our pleasant surprise, the trail was almost completely snow-free and so we enjoyed an easy bike ride to Big Elbow Campground. Actually we stopped a little short of the campground, with the intention of gaining the north right of Threepoint as early as possible. Unfortunately (but fortunately in retrospect), we couldn’t find anywhere to ford the Elbow River, without having to go barefoot, and so we hopped back on the bikes and continued south.

Getting to the other side of the Elbow River actually turned out to be way tougher than anticipated. There were several places where we could have boulder-hopped across, however, every rock sticking out of the water was covered in a layer of ice. It ended up taking us almost as long to find a place to cross the 5 m of water as the 8 km bike ride to the crossing had taken.

Finally on the mountain, we started the slog up steep scree to the ridge. The second pleasant surprise of the day was running into two beautiful displays of ice along the way. The first, a stream of water, frozen in place down a step-like rockband; the second, a stunning group of icicles hanging from overhang of rock.

After more tedious scree, we arrived at the ridge to the third surprise. This one was not so pleasant. It were hit by a constant and bone-chilling west wind and dense and low-lying clouds started to stream in from the west. We got one quick look at the summit of Threepoint, far off in the distance, before all hell broke loose, in the form of a vicious snow storm blasting the area. And it wasn’t short either! We were forced to traverse the entire north ridge in absolutely brutal weather conditions. From the minute we started the ridgewalk, all the way to the summit, we were blessed with an absolute white-out, with visibility from about 50 metres down to 10 metres, a strong and constant wind, blowing snow, and a viciously cold wind-chill factor. Initially, finding a little reprieve from the wind required us only to drop down below the ridge on the east side of the mountain. Very quickly, however, the east side of mountain dropped off. From then on, there was no way to avoid the relentless wind. At one point, I noticed the blowing snow and cold temperatures had caused to my eyebrows to form their very own icicles. It took three hours for that ice to melt away!

We could handle the extreme cold, but the low visibility was especially frustrating given the enjoyable nature of the undulating ridge (hence the name Threepoint – three highpoints) and the potentially great views all around. We slogged on, hoping we could tag the summit and then make a hasty retreat. Eventually, we did arrive at a cairned summit, verified with GPS that it was the top, since there were no visual clues due to zero visibility, took in the absolute whiteness all around for a few minutes, and then prepared to descend the way we came.

At the exact second we started to leave, there was suddenly a small clearing below us to the west. All we could see was the faint outline of the west ridge, but we hadn’t seen anything at all for the past 2 hours and so this was earth-shattering. We decided to brave the cold for a few more minutes to see if any more clearing would occur. The best surprise of the day: within a matter of seconds, there was a significant degree of clearing in every direction, revealing a breath-taking and snow-filled panorama. The shapely ridge of Threepoint, we had just ascended, was absolutely beautiful, as were the familiar forms of Mount Glasgow and Banded Peak to the west. To the south, Mount Rose and Bluerock Mountain were suddenly very prominent and to the north Nihahi Ridge and Mount Howard could be seen. Heavy cloud cover persisted further west, yet again reminding us that the Front Ranges are most often the best place to be during the finicky shoulder season from November to December.

Perhaps the best view, however, was that of the beautifully snow-sculpted west ridge of Threepoint itself. It appeared to offer a more than tantalizing alternate descent route and after a long summit stay, replete with innumerable exclamations of amazement at the wonderful scenery all around us, we started down the west ridge. At first, travel was easy, but soon, the ridge narrowed. The snow had piled up here, forming a sharp arête-like fin. With significantly steep snow slopes on both sides on the fin, continuation along the ridge would have been very dangerous without crampons, ice axes, and possibly a rope, harnesses, and a belay. We went for the full–meal deal and took out everything!

With the added gear, the ridge descent was fantastic. A few sections required extra care, but generally it was easy and wonderfully scenic in the final hour of daylight. At the bottom, we followed a creek out to the Elbow River and then back to our bikes. The ride out, by headlamp was very relaxing and enjoyable and faster than we expected with headlamps as the only source of light.

A magnificent day out, full of surprises (both good and not so good), and amazing scenery. Threepoint is definitely a credit to mountains of diminutive stature everywhere!