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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
04 Oct 03 |
1:46 |
0:50 |
This was one of those early morning headlamp scrambles. Obviously, this picture was
taken on the way down. We had some trouble getting started. We walked around the
Little Highwood Pass parking lot, trying to find the Valleyview Trail. We were expecting
a well defined trail about two feet wide. When we got back down, we figured out that
the trail was more like a gravel road. After about 10 minutes of looking for the trail
(by headlamp), we got a glimpse of the silhouette of the Gap/Elpoca col. We decided to
stop wasting time looking for a trail and just start bushwhacking. We bushwhacked up
a drainage, which was fairly light bush, aiming for the red dot shown in the picture.
It took us about an hour to get to the col. Coming down this gully was a lot of fun.
The terrain is more like a crush dirt, and Paul and I were able to practically run all the
way back to the road. For going up, if you stay truly in the gully, there is a seam of solid
rock about a foot wide. This is good for going up. Otherwise, you're groveling up the
loose dirt.
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Once we reached the col, there was enough light to turn the headlamps off, but he sun still had not
come up. This picture was taken on the way down. No, that's not my thumb. It's actually the shadow
of Elpoca on the slopes of Gap Mtn. The red line shows the general direction of where to go. There is
a good trail here, so it's kind of hard to get off route. The crux is about in the middle of this section
where you cross some exposed slopes. I didn't think it was too bad. Once you reach the ridge, the rest of
the way is pretty easy going.
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This photo was taken on the way up, but brightened in Photoshop. Basically, it shows the long ridge
that leads to the summit. There are a few false summits along the way. Just continue along the ridge,
and you'll eventually make it.
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Here we see Paul standing on the ridge. Again, this photo was brightened up a bit.
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This is one of Paul's pictures, which was taken on the way down. Here we see me standing on the ridge
actually taking a picture (seen below). You can't quite see the summit, but it's not far past the false
summit seen here.
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This is the picture that was being taken by me above. I'm not sure why mine turned out so bright, but
the two pictures were taken at the same time. This picture gives a little more definition to the ridge.
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This was taken when we were at the summit. Watching the sun come up over the shoulder of Mt. Rae and Elpoca
was pretty cool.
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This is looking from the summit toward the Kananaskis Lakes. As you can see the sun is starting to shine
on the mountain tops across the valley. Really good photo opportunities.
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Here we see Paul standing at the summit.
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