Gate is Open

Driving back and forth lately I haven't seen any one at the gate. It looks like it is finally closed for the season. The road to Red Rock is still open. Usually they close that at the start of Nov. or when the snow flies.

A little Something To Get The Blood Pumping

Passed by this little sweet heart the other day, too bad she,s melted into oblivion already.

Mt. Ward

Did a solo trip on Mt. Ward on Saturday, was a really nice sunny day with medium wind on the summit ridge. I had good intentions to do the ridge traverse to Mt. Alison but with little energy and not enough time I called it a day. There is a good base started and the snow was consolidated enough to kick good steps. If the face gets more snow, avalanche hazard might be an issue as there was soft sluff avalanches falling from Mt ward/Alison ridge all day.

What was anyone else up to this weekend?

Cheers
Scott

Conditions in the Crowsnest

On the weekend I had the opportunity to hike out to the plane crash in York creek and get about half way up Crowsnest Mountain. The trail out to the plane crash is in excellent shape if not a little muddy in the warm afternoons. The few peaks above the plane crash area are in full winter conditions (north aspects) with large drifts formed and small point release avalanches in the higher bowls, there were plenty of ice daggers and seaps to get the blood pumping but all of these are tiny and will melt out in a week I'm sure. Heading up Crowsnest Mountain on Sunday got a little sporty in the middle cliff band area, the narrow gullies were icy and the scree was frozen solid making the hike a little hazardous. Our hi - point was at the end of the chain in the final chimney, the last twenty feet or so was very icy and we didn't have our crampons or axes and we figured caution was a good idea for early season. The few ice climbs on the half way ledge are starting to form ice but unfortunatly the three climbs on the seven sisters are getting blasted by the sun and have not formed yet.
Chris

Logan's Pass

While at the Jerry Johnson hotsprings this weekend I ran into a couple of workers from Glacier. They indicated that the Logan's pass was closed due to some mud slides and undercut sections of road. On the East it was closed from Jackson Glacier overlook. Apparently on the West one could still go quite high due to the road work.

For more information check the Glacier Park News Page

Waterton Web Cam

UPDATE - See Waterton Lakes Lodge's Webcam here

With the Glacier web cam down now, I thought I would try and replicate as best as I can. Since I don't have a high speed hook up in the park, setting up a normal web cam may not be too reasonable for me. Instead, i figure I will try and snap a quick picutre from my car during my commute. Hopefully as high speed wireless is slated to be coming to the area late this fall, I may be able to work on getting a web cam set up at my house. Until then, check the sidebar image.

Elk are out

elk
Originally uploaded by cgoble72.

Driving in from Missoula last night I noticed two herds of Elk out on the Pass Creek Meadows. One was down by the Dardenelle's road, the other was over by the Hay Barn past the stables. Driving out this morning the herds were still there. It looks like this might be a reasonable time to do some elk spotting.

Night of Lies

The Night Of Lies is being held up at Mountain Magic in Banff on Oct 15th at 7:00pm. This will be a series of slide shows of a number of different sports.

Nice Day in the Park

P1010010
Originally uploaded by cgoble72.

Some people don't like fall. I do. The colors in the morning are gorgeous. The snow makes the stunning color contrasts even more dramatic.

I took this shot on my commute to work. The elk haven't been on the road the last two days. I think they are probably feasting on the broken branches from the storm. They haven't yet hearded together. I would give the another couple of weeks. Once I spot them on the road, I will post it.

Chief Mountain Beta

I know a bunch of you have done Chief Mtn before. Can anybody tell me the logistics involved? Drive down Chief Mtn Highwawy, cross the border, then what? A group of us are planning to hike up the scramble route. Any info would be appreciated. Also, how long of a trip is it?

Expert's

Brett and i went to Expert's Choice yesterday and did some rock climbing. The last bit of fresh snow left a lot of water dripping over the rock. The stuff to the right of the falls had enough water dripping on it that we decided not to climb there, so we hiked over to the climbs to the left of the falls. Still some wet stuff there but still spent the day climbing. The rock was quite cool but the sunshine made for another fun day in the mountains. If this weather keeps up the rock climbing isn't going to last much longer.

Sentry mountain

Had an excellent afternoon of scrambling on Saturday. Tim Davies and I hiked up Sentry Mountain in a nice little rain squal only to have the rain turn to very windy snow about a third of the way up. The trail up the west ridge is in very fine shape except for the top third where the snow had covered most of the trail. The narrow ridge near the top got a bit sporty with the ground getting icy and the wind gusting up into the 70 to 80 km/hr range. I would definetly say the crux of the day was crossing the creek at the bottom of the mountain due to water volumes being pretty high. Look for logs crossing the creek both upstream and downstream of the old rock pit from where you start this scramble. Round trip time was five and a half hours going at a nice slow pace.
Chris