Font
Font is an excellent, rarely done scramble. It probably is a touch harder than difficult on the modern easy-moderate-difficult scale. There is a quarter pitch of 4th class / 5.3 and a long half pitch of 5.4-5.6. Rock quality is quite good - for southern alberta. Views are nice, and there are a number of different lines through the crux bands - provided you've got a rope and some gear.
The easiest way up the peak is via the Sage creek drainage. This means a long drive in from the Corbin or Morrisey roads is required. The Morissey road is well used so no 4x4 is needed. I'm not totally positive about the Corbin access, but I remember it being a bit rougher (Subaru or 4x4 needed?).
The ascent has minimal deadfall. Just head up a steep slide run with lots of beargrass for 2000ft or so. After that you need to pick which side of the peak you want to ascend (north, south east, or other).
You can come in from the West Castle side, but bring a bike or quad as it makes for a long hike if you're on foot.
Here's an old video from the first generation of digital camera's (0.3MP). I lost all pictures, so this is the only record I have. This shows the ascent from the west (Sage creek side), and then up the south east face and south side of the summit pyramid.
Apparently the FA in the late 60's was via the south ridge / face. The FA's were impressed with the north side chimney's but never ascended them. Rick Collier indicates an easy ascent of the peak via some judicious route finding. I'm not too sure there is a very easy way up, but I could be wrong.
UPDATE: As of 2021, here is a video showing the ?3rd? class ground on the north side of the peak
There is a very cool "font" or pedestal on the east side of the mountain. It is reminiscent of desert tower blobs. The base is very narrow and the top is a big round boulder. I don't think anyone has been on top of it. Native offerings were often left near the font. People used to go up and collect the arrowheads, skulls, feathers etc. No artifacts are left. Archaeologists could probably find a fair bit of stuff if they dug around the nearby talus.
Labels: Scrambling, scrambling route descriptions
1 Comments:
There is an easy (non-technical) route to the summit from the east side of the peak as well as a second relatively easy route on the east side of the north face.
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