| Ref: Alan Kane's
Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies |
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Boulder Pass ahead,
the sun is coming up. |
| Scramble: RT
13.0 (including Skoki Mountain); 4.25 up from Hidden Lake campground.
This preplanned trip involved staying at Hidden Lake campground. We had
to bring our hounds to Lisa's Bed & Biscuit for a couple of
nights. It rained quite hard from friday
night well into the morning. I was worried the weather might not clear
up for the trip but as the day progressed, the clouds lifted giving way
to blue sky. We were unaware Highway 1 had closed
due to a mud slide. With an already late start, we drove towards Radium
to circumvent the closure. This added over 2 hours of driving and we
barely made it to Lake Louise in time to pick-up our camping permit. We
straddled our bikes at Fish Creek parking lot at 8 PM. The bike up
wasn't too hard, in less than an hour we were at the trailhead. After
stashing the bikes, a brisk pace ensued. We got to the campground with
just enough daylight to set-up and eat supper. The night was cool;
we woke up to frost on the ground. Under clear skies, we quickly got
our
stuff together and left for Baker Lake and Oyster Peak. With
a
light pack and a long loop (30 km) ahead of us, the pace was speedy. We
continued past Baker Lake campground a short distance and left the
trail to
gain Oyster's south-west ridge. The scrambling up to the south summit
is fun and easy. We signed the register and headed for the north
summit. The straightforward traverse took an hour, we enjoyed it
thoroughly. The summit block is more challenging; we went up the face
and took an easier alternative route on the way down. After a short
stay
at the top, we followed the ridge back down to a good
descent line (cairned). Fab led the way down and we reached the valley
bottom without incident. The descent is not a pleasant scree run,
choosing the right general area to come down can save a lot of grief...
Back on the main trail, we plodded on towards our next objective. |
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Redoubt Mountain
across Ptarmigan Lake. |
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Marmot's prime
location along the lakeshore. |
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Anthozoan (left) and
Brachiopod (center) beyond Baker Lake. |
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Oyster Peak's north
and south summits. |
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Relatively short
ascent. |
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Looking back towards
Baker Lake. |
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Easy scrambling to
the south summit. |
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Almost there. |
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Mount St. Bride and
an alpine lake filled with sediments. |
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Oyster Lake from the
top, a favored site for grizzly bears. |
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The ridge to the
north and true summit. |
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Pleasant scrambling
along the way. |
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The summit block,
straight up the face or climber's left (to the big rock) and
around. |
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Some moderate
scrambling up the face. |
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At the top, yeah!!!! |
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Impressive Mount
Douglas (left) and Mount St. Bride. |
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Skoki Valley and
Skoki Mountain to the right. |
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View of the easier
alternative descent from the top; the big rock is above Fab's head. |
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Backtracking on the
ridge. |
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At the cairn, we
start heading down. |
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Picking our way
through some slabs. |
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The view up is
short-sighted. |
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Approximate descent. |
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Jonas Pass on route
to Skoki.
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Continue
on to Skoki Mountain |
| Back
to home page |
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