Windsor Mountain

Windsor Mountain – July 5, 2008

Mountain height:         2545 m
Elevation gain:            1000 m
Ascent time:                8:15
Descent time:              5:05

Scrambling with Mark.

This was actually an attempt at Castle Peak. However, a late start and a navigational error on my part ensured we wouldn’t even get close to the summit.
We left the parking area at 9:45 am and cycled approximately 15 km to the ascent drainage.

There were two potential drainages and unfortunately we picked the wrong drainage. Checking the GPS seemed to indicate we were in the correct place, but an hour of unpleasant bushwhacking proved that assumption to be wrong. By the time we figured it out and worked our way to within reach of the correct drainage, it was clear that we would have neither the time nor the energy to attempt Castle Peak and settled for an attempt of Windsor Mountain.

Even this much scaled down objective proved to be more challenging than expected. Huge vertical cliffs kept popping up in front of us and though the scenery was very interesting, it was frustrating to be unable to find a decent route towards the summit. Just as we were to call the day a right-off, we stumbled onto a fairly well-maintained trail and decided to follow around the south side of the mountain. This trail actually went most of the way up the mountain. At one point we abandoned the trail to seek a more direct route. This resulted in some outstanding hands-on scrambling on fantastic rock. Of course, that was quick to give way to the usual fare of Rockies scree and rubble.

We finally gained the south ridge of Windsor Mountain a mere 8 hours after leaving the car. The views from the ridge were great, especially those of Victoria Peak (in my opinion, one of the most beautiful mountains in the Canadian Rockies, period!), Pincher Ridge, Drywood Mountain, and a host of striking peaks in Glacier National Park (Kinnerly and Kintla being the most prominent). As well the sheer cliff faces on the Windsor Ridge/Castle Peak were spectacular. An enjoyable ridgewalk took us to the summit.

For descent, we followed the trail all the way back to the correct ascent drainage and then bushwhacked back to the trail. The bike ride back had many long sections of uphill riding and sucked the remaining life out of both of us. We made it back to the car just before midnight. Though disappointing not to have been afforded an opportunity to try challenging Castle Peak, the scenery and summit view of Windsor salvaged the very long day.