Canadian Rockies Questions

[steelfrog]

Howdy. I am taking my son on his so-called Big Trip in August. Ten days. He wanted to go to Canada, so the Canadian Rockies it is! I know that Yoho N.P. is going to figure heavily in our plans. Otherwise, we are wide open. We want (in no particular order):

(a) Solitude

(b) Epic scenery with exposure (up to class 3 low class 4 scrambling)

(c) Fishing

Any suggestions are most welcome!

[geojed]

Howdy. I am taking my son on his so-called Big Trip in August. Ten days. He wanted to go to Canada, so the Canadian Rockies it is! I know that Yoho N.P. is going to figure heavily in our plans. Otherwise, we are wide open. We want (in no particular order):

(a) Solitude

(b) Epic scenery with exposure (up to class 3 low class 4 scrambling)

(c) Fishing

Any suggestions are most welcome!

There are several good books on scrambles in the Canadian Rockies. Just do a search on Amazon.

[steelfrog]

Ya--I bought those--Don't Waste Your Time in CR, Scrambles in the CR, etc. I was kind of looking for any recommendations here as well. Also, fishing?

[geojed]

Ya--I bought those--Don't Waste Your Time in CR, Scrambles in the CR, etc. I was kind of looking for any recommendations here as well. Also, fishing?

I don't know about fishing in the CR

One good way you can easily combine "solitude" and "great scenery" is to not be in one of the National Parks, but in the Kananaskis Country area. You get the scenery of the National Parks but the crowds are much reduced. Mount Tyrwhitt is a great short scramble from Highwood Pass that has AMAZING views of the Kananaskis Lakes Valley, on your way back down you can traverse/scramble the whole ridge east back to Highwood Pass. I have some pics from the scramble I can send you. Mt Invincible is a good one. There's a great/cheap Hostel there in Kananaskis too.

Check out Dow Williams website: http://dowclimbing.com/ He is a professional climber based out of Canmore. His website has lots of good beta for a ton of scrambles sorted by area of the CR.

Here's a link to a navigable map of the Canadian Rockies

[geojed]

Here's Dow's page of Canadian Scrambles on SP: http://www.summitpost.org/canadian-rock ... les/363160" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lot's of good beta and pics there too.

[Winter8000m]

Mount Sir Donald NW ridge is truly the best ridge climb I've ever done. It's in the Selkirks by Golden and Revelstoke, BC. One of the 50 classics and it's not only historic but has very good climbing! (Most of the other classic's kind of suck as far as quality of climbing like Devils Tower Durrance Route) It's mostly 4rth class with 5.4 along the way and perhaps one or two spots of mid fifth class. Most simul climb it. The ridge itself is almost 3,000 feet high from the saddle to summit. Features several thousand feet of exposure the whole way up on each side. So amazing!!

Mount Assiniboine is another classic. The "Matterhorn" of North America. 5.4 as well but only in one spot. Exposed and pretty high as far as the Canadian Rockies go. Super beautiful.

Pigeon Spire in the Bugaboos is amazing. 5.4 in one spot but mostly 4rth class. Makes you think your in Patagonia. Called the best 5.4 on the planet.

I have reports on here of all three.

Mount Temple has a class 4 route to the top. Most of the stuff in the Canadian Rockies (At least all the high concentrated tall mountains) are pretty technical and more loose then stuff in CO. (Speaking of the 11,000+ peaks as the easiest route up any of them is Temple at Class 4) Get a guidebook of the Selkirks and there is alot of stuff scrambling wise there. Uto comes to mind. The sport climbing in Revelstoke is amazing as well. Whatever you want, however hard or easy you want, Canada has it all. Truly an amazing place. Take some time to drive the Icefields Parkway if you can. So called the most beautiful highway drive in the world. Hope this helped.

[mtnview]

You might find something on my site that you would enjoy.

http://www.truedino.com/scramble.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I don't fish at all but the Bow River is famous for fly fishing. I have seen people fishing at the lower Kananaskis Lake.

Mt Temple is the scramblers classic at Lake Louise. I also recommend Mt Fairview at Lake Louise and Mt Richardson behind the Lake Louise ski hill just for the views. Some exposure on Temple but not much on the latter two.

Near Banff I recommend Cascade Mtn.

[geojed]

Here's a flickr photo set of the Kananaskis area and my climb of Mt Tyrwhitt.

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyAtog2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's another photo set of my hike along the Great Divide Trail and hikes I did in the Lake Louise area. +1 on Mt Temple. and another good one in the Lake Louise area is Fossil Mtn.

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjtsbUSj" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[steelfrog]

Great information! Thanks guys!