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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
17 May 98 |
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| 2st Time |
15 Aug 98 |
2:52 |
1:48 |
Middle Sister is a long hike. It isn't very strenous, but it's
long. It's hard to explain how to get to this mountain. Basically, you want to park on the
TransCanada Highway about 100 yards west of the "Welcome to Canmore" sign. The above picture
shows the west side of three sisters. When you are approaching the mountain, you will be on
the east side of this trio. From the road, walk toward Little Sister. You will come to a
field about fifty yards wide. You'll see the makings of a road running through the middle of
this field. On the south side of this field, you will see a better road, which you should follow.
This is where it gets complicated. Because of the new subdivision being built (Three Sisters
Resort), there are hundreds of dirt roads running through here. Just try to make your way toward
Little Sister. Eventually, you will come to a rocky creek (Stewart Creek). This is where you
will want to leave the road and go upstream. You'll usually find an old logging road on the side
of the creek. Starting out, the road will be on the west side of Stewart Creek. Then the road
appears on the east side. Be very careful not to follow some of the trails on the east side of
the creek which lead up a hill away from the creek. You should never be more then ten yards
from the creek, and most of the upper part of the creek, you will actually be in the creek.
Don't worry, you won't get wet.
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15 Aug 98 - Follow Stewart Creek until it ends. At one point, the creek
will split, but you will want to stay right. The book reminds you of not heading for Middle
Sister too early. While going up the creek (no pun intended), keep in mind that you have to
get to the back side of Middle Sister. In this picture, you will see the grassy hill. You
will circle this hill counter-clockwise, then end up in an upper gully. From the gully, make
your way up scree slopes to gain the ridge.
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15 Aug 98 - Here we see the beginning of the ridge. This is a long ridge,
and the summit doesn't become visiable until the end. As you're going up, ignore trails which
might branch off to the left. These are actually descent trails for scree skiers like myself.
On descent, you will traverse over there and make a straight shot for the upper gully previously
mentioned. The summit has wonderful views of Canmore, Lady McDonald, and Grotto Mtn. Little Sister
can be seen as well, but there isn't a way to scramble up that one. It's all roped climbing.
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