Alan Kane - Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies

MORE SCRAMBLES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 2nd EDITION

Andrew Nugara

THE 11,000ers OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 2nd EDITION

Bill Corbett

SPORT CLIMBS IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 7th EDITION

John Martin and Jon Jones

THE BOLD AND COLD

A History of 25 Classic Climbs in the Canadian Rockies

Brandon Pullan

ALAN KANE

IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES

3rd Edition

Copyright 2016 by Alan Kane
Third Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, audio recording, or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher or a photocopying licence from Access Copyright. Permissions and licensing contribute to a secure and vibrant book industry by helping to support writers and publishers through the purchase of authorized editions and excerpts. To obtain an official licence, please visit accesscopyright.ca or call 1-800-893-5777.

RMB | Rocky Mountain Books Ltd.
rmbooks.com
@rmbooks
facebook.com/rmbooks

Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada
ISBN 978-1-77160-097-2 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-77160-098-9 (electronic)

Front cover photo: Sim Galloway carefully traverses a corner on Mount Galwey.

For information on purchacsing bulk quantities of this book, or to obtain media excerpts or invite the author to speak at an event, please contact us.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and of the province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

The actions described in this book may be considered inherently dangerous activities. Individuals undertake these activities at their own risk. The information put forth in this guide has been collected from a variety of sources and is not guaranteed to be completely accurate or reliable. Many conditions and some information may change owing to weather and numerous other factors beyond the control of the authors and publishers. Individuals or groups must determine the risks, use their own judgment, and take full responsibility for their actions. Do not depend on any information found in this book for your own personal safety. Your safety depends on your own good judgment based on your skills, education, and experience.

It is up to the users of this guidebook to acquire the necessary skills for safe experiences and to exercise caution in potentially hazardous areas. The authors and publishers of this guide accept no responsibility for your actions or the results that occur from anothers actions, choices, or judgments. If you have any doubt as to your safety or your ability to attempt anything described in this guidebook, do not attempt it.

For my wife, Diana

On the brink of a disaster: debris on Turtle Mountain above Frank Slide.

Descending Prairie Lookout as a storm approaches. Mount French is at right.

Observation Peak provides the perfect viewpoint for Bow Lake and the Wapta Icefield.

Signing Mount Potts register, with Mount Denny behind.

Returning down French Glacier after ascending Mount Robertson.

Reaching the top of Mount Vaux on a perfect August day.

Mount Hector (left) and a sea of peaks rise beyond Mount Richardsons summit.

A morning view of ( LR ) The Vice President, The President and Mount Kerr from the Whaleback.

Beautiful Kananaskis Lakes from the summit of Mount Foch.

Nearing the summit of Mount Jellicoe.

The Lake Louise skyline from Mount Richardson. Left to right are mounts Hungabee, Lefroy and Victoria.

Preface

As this updated version of Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies goes to press, 25 years have passed since the first edition appeared in 1991. Scrambling has long since become a mainstream mountain pursuit, and scramble guidebooks have since been written for other areas such as southwestern BC, Washington and Oregon. While I only suspected my original book spawned these, veteran scrambler Steve Tobers sharp eyes confirmed it beyond a doubt. Several years ago, while reading an online excerpt of a then-new U.S. scrambles publication, he noticed a familiar-sounding sentence and brought it to my attention. Sure enough, without even realizing it, I had crafted an opening sentence so memorable that another author had copied it verbatim. Since she is a professional writer, I was most flattered and I let her know. Although she did not acknowledge the source of that apparently unforgettable sentence, she did thank me for my interest in her book!

But not only are there more scrambles books now, one can now find innumerable online scrambling websites, and at least one mountain school offers a course in scrambling skills. While I dont know how many scramble enthusiasts actually do take a skills course first, it seems that a lot more should. The Kananaskis Country rescue service is often kept busy bailing out scramblers who in some cases didnt seem to have much of a clue at all. One example would be people taking a shortcut down a gully, encountering cliffs, and then getting flown off instead of climbing back up and going the correct way. Yes, this has really happened. Beaten paths, cairns and flagging exist like never before, making it harder to get off route or into trouble, but people still do. One interesting footnote to this is a conversation I had with a group of young people, new at scrambling, just as they returned from an ascent. One fellow didnt seem to understand that existing flagging already shows the correct way. He intended to carry uniquely coloured flagging of his own so he could mark his own route and not get confused by flagging already in place. Occasional accidents and deaths still occur but no amount of detailed information will completely prevent this. What has become obvious over the years is the sheer number of ascents made without incident. Many peaks now see more ascents in one summer than they saw in an entire decade before the original Scrambles book came out in 1991.