| Ref: The
Raffinator |
|
|
|
|
If you plan on climbing
Yamnuska's Shoulder via the cutline; from the east end of the parking
lot, walk the road and look for this trail.
|
Scramble:
RT 16.0 (includes Association Peak); 7.5 up. This season seemed to be
the time to get up End Mountain; since Raff posted a route up this
Front Range summit, almost every scrambler I know has ascended it!! ...
I didn't want to feel left out!! All kidding aside, the route on the
west side of the mountain is aesthetically appealing and offers a short
thrilling crux chimney; adding to the compelling factor is the
possibility of ascending a second summit with very little extra effort.
On the down side is that it requires a lengthy hike, about 30
kilometers. One has to ascend Yamnuska's Shoulder, descend in CMC
Valley to then contour up and around the shoulder of East Peak of
Wendell and lose height again when going down to Old Fort Creek. The
good thing about this circuitous approach is that good trails are used
all the way. It's possible to cut down the mileage but requesting a
permit from the Stoney Tribal Administration is necessary to permit
access to the shortcut ATV trails on the Stoney Reserve; since we
didn't go that way, I won't talk about this approach. After crossing
Old Fort Creek, there's two options: bushwhack to the horse trail or
walk downstream about 400 meters looking for the obvious trail on the
shoreline. The good trail leads all the way to Association Pass. From
the pass, we ascended grassy slopes and started traversing towards
Association's north bowl. The sidehilling on the talus slopes to reach
the Association/End Col isn't that pleasant but I like to rack it up as
part of the price of admission for this twosome. Once on the col, the
route to End is interesting and scenic. The crux chimney was dry when
we went, there was no snow at the base of the gully to step up to the
chokestone that must be awkwardly climbed over. Fabrice gave me a butt
belay until I was able to grab on to the top of the chokestone and reef
myself over; it wasn't gracefully executed but it worked! I knew going
up that this slightly overhanging move would require a short rappel for
the descent to be on the safe side; we came prepared and had a short
length of rope just for that. The rest of the gully was moderate
scrambling; we had to be careful not to let loose rock tumble down on
each other, I guess that was the tough part... We reached the summit
shortly after the chimney. We enjoyed the view and a snack before
backtracking to the col for a quick jaunt up Association Peak.
|
|
|
|
On the
cutline.
|
|
 |
|
Almost at
the shoulder, dunno that we're saving that much time coming this way
versus the trail but we had to try it!
|
|
 |
|
Looking down
at the Bow Valley from the shoulder.
|
|
 |
|
|
After
descending into CMC Valley and contouring East Peak of Wendell on a
good trail, we finally reached Old Fort Creek.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
We hiked
towards Association Pass on the horse trail.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Looking
back, Yamnuska's shoulder appears so far....
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Closing in
on the pass.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
From the
pass we started a climbing traverse towards Association's north bowl.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
The north
bowl comes into view with End Mountain on the right.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Association
Peak's north bowl, you want to be fairly high on the talus slopes to
avoid bluffs below.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Association-End
Col.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Dropping on
the west side of the col heading towards End Mountain.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
The broad
ledges that lead to the crux chimney.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Aiming for
the broad ledge at the base of the rockwall.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Looking back.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
The route is
interesting, pleasant and scenic.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
End Mountain
is getting closer.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
The notch on
the right prevents accessing the summit from the ridge.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Cool bulge
in the rockwall.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Looking back
as I cross under the bulge.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
At the crux
chimney, I reefed myself over the chokestone on the left.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Fabrice
climbing the crux.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
The
remainder of the chimney is moderate scrambling and loose in places.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Looking down.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
At the top
of a section that requires some stemming, the rock is slimy there.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Out of the
chimney, we carry on to the top.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Looking back
again.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Yahoo!!!
|
|
|
 |
|
|
The eastern
view.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Western view
with the South Ghost River.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Endless sea
of peaks to the south-west.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Saddle Peak
and Orient Point to the north, Black Rock Mountain is visible on the
far right.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Heading back
down to the chimney.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Locating the
chimney.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Stemming the
slimy section.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Not too
difficult.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Filling my
water bottle.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Crabbing
down.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rapping over
the chokestone.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Backtracking
on the broad ledge.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Another
glimpse at the notch in the south ridge.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Please
mountain, don't crumble...
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Association
Peak, here we come!
|
|
|
Continue
on to Association Peak |
| Back
to home page |
|
|