Scrambling up Mount Head in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada - June 14 2025 скачать в хорошем качестве

Scrambling up Mount Head in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada - June 14 2025

// Edwards Rating: II (II or III) L L // 8 to 12 hours // Elevation gain of 1846 m TOT (1319 m NET) & max 2762 m (my GPS, 2782 m officially) ***** // This is a long day but the easy approach makes it bearable (about 10 km total). Bushwhacking on the way up is not bad and I strongly recommend coming back the same way. I did not find a trip report mentioning a way up cliff #2 on the east side, but there is an obvious and easy way up. That would be perfect coming back down if you made it up the crux and decide to go down the same way with avoiding the down climb. The way down the centre drainage is not fun: Rubble, sidesloping, and bushwhacking, not recommended. Scrambling is long, mostly easy to moderate, and fun! Superb cliff bands along the way. There was a warning that a cougar followed hikers two weeks ago. We were fortunate enough to be left alone. We did see a black bear close to the creek on the way down, but it ran away from us. // We parked at Sentinel Recreation Area about 38 km from Longview, on Kananaskis Rd/AB-541. We crossed the road and walked back east about 20-30 metres to find the trailhead. We walked straight up following the widest and most obvious trail. It turns left and goes down to a creek bed after 5 km or so. We crossed the creek bed and bushwhacked our way up the west ridge. We left the creek after 20 minutes or so and reached a plateau with a view on the beginning of the scrambling route. We aimed for the rock band in front of us, staying left of it. We reached cliff #1 and went up the obvious gully. We turned left and reach the crux, a 5 m climb. I put my climbing shoes on and gave it shot, not comfortable with the last three moves with a lack of holds. In the meantime, my spouse went back down cliff #1, then along it to come back up to the ridge on easier terrain. I had wasted time trying to climb the crux so I looked for a weakness on the east side of the mountain along cliff # 2. Minutes away, there is a an easy way straight up to the summit ridge. We met there and followed the ridgeline for a long and fun scramble, hitting all the high points on the way to the summit. We had to turn back at the high point just before the summit as we got cliffed out. We lost some elevation to the left and went back up to the ridgeline and all the way to the summit. // From the summit, we came back the same way until we reached that last high point (cliff). We started going down to the right, sidesloping past what seemed to be cliff bands below us. We then turned toward the drainage. Some more scrambling was necessary to go down a couple more rock bands. We stayed on the right side of the creek as per most trip reports suggested (and Nugara’s book). Eventually, the creek became accessible again and we ended up on the left side, sidesloping for a long time to finally get back to our initial trail. This was not fun, I would never go down that way if I had known. Going up AND down the west ridge, gully from cliff # 1to cliff # 2, then crux and/or east side to summit ridge is the best and easiest route in my opinion. We’ve tried three different routes in the last two years, attempting it on June 8, 2024 (lots of snow, we turned back before the summit last year). // My GPS on AllTrails: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/rec...