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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
28 May 04 |
incomplete |
incomplete |
This is Copper Mtn as seen from the summit of Pilot Mtn, which sits directly across Redearth Creek. The red
arrow shows which gully you ascend to reach the summit, but as Kane points out as optional descents, there are
many gullies that run to the summit ridge.
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The approach to Copper Mtn is pretty straight forward. You need to ride a bike 7.2km up Redearth Creek
to the Lost Horse Campground. From there, circle a bit back to the right and find the bearproof food storage
cables. Stash your bike and you'll see a small table. This is where I took the picture. In the middle
of the picture is a large pinnacle, which I cut through easy forest to reach. I found a narrow gully which led
up to the base of this pyramid face. From there, I contoured to the right to ascent the gully immediately right
of the pinnacle.
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This is a picture of the narrow gully system that I ascend to reach the base of the pyramid face, which I
assumed was the big pinnacle that Kane writes about. Since it was raining all morning, the rocks in this
gully were slippery, and actually rather dangerous.
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On the way up, I came across a grouse that was trying to stay dry by hanging out in the trees.
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Here I am at the base of the big pinnacle / pyramid. There was a snow gully that I went up, which ran right
along the base of the slab wall on the left.
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Most of the morning, the clouds were thick, and you couldn't see much below. It made it hard to estimate
where you were on the mountain. I guess where weather fails you, GPS helps out.
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Here is where things went wrong (unless they went wrong from the beginning). I was going up the snow in
the left gully. I paused for a five second breather, looked below me and saw a cairn about 100 ft down
in the gully to the climber's right. For some reason, I figured I must be off route. I went back down
to the cairn, crossed into the other gully, and went up. Unfortunately, the right gully ended in some
serious scrambling, so I turned around. I went back to the cairn to re-evaluate. Given that I was soaking
wet from the steady rain, I didn't know where I was on the mountain, etc., I chose to turn around.
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On descent, I came across this nice Ptarmigan, whose colours were in transition from winter white to
summer brown. Notice the clouds below me where starting to clear-up. As I was driving back to Banff, the sun
was actually starting to come out. Doesn't that just piss you off.
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