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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
02 Aug 98 |
4:38 |
1:17 |
02 Aug 98 - There are two Storm Mountains (the other being in Kootenay).
This one is just south of Highwood Pass. You can park at the Lost Lemon Mine parking lot
(4.4 km south of Highwood Pass), but I would recommend parking on the side of Rt 40 about
100 yards north of that parking lot. To climb this mountain, you will want to gain the
southwest corner of the ridge. You can do this two ways. The easiest way is to come through
the gully on the south side of Storm Mtn (shown here on the right as SG). If you're going this
way, you will want to walk all the way to the back of the gully before angling off to the left
and up treadmill scree slopes. You can also come down this way, but be careful with the scree...
it is only a couple of inches deep and under the scree are rock slabs, turning the scree
into marbles.
The other way up to that ridge is through the gully in front of Storm Mtn (NG). This way is much
more technical and involves a lot of scrambling up a steep and dangerous rockband. If you're
going this way, walk to the back of the gully, then angle up rockbands to gain the ridge.
If you're experienced at scrambling up rockbands, I would suggest going this way. If rockbands
aren't your cup of tea, then stick to the south gully.
Avoid making the mistake of trying to gain the ridge at the west end of it (which splits the
two gullys). You'll end up doing some serious downclimbing, which will result in backtracking.
I know this from experience. I tried to gain the west ridge five times, each resulting in
backtracking all the way back to the gully.
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02 Aug 98 - Once you gain the southeast corner of the ridge, you will need to
head north to the final summit. You will see a path along the east side of the ridge. Follow that
over to the north summit. Then start going up more scree and on to the summit.
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02 Aug 98 - From the summit, you have two ways down. The quickest way
is practically right in front of you. You can slide down a slight gully on the north
end of the summit (shown here). The other option is to go back to the southeast section of
the ridge and then down into the south gully. I slide down the gully shown here, then
crossed over the west ridge into the south gully to see what I missed. Knowing how much
I like to scree ski, and knowing the rock slabs under this particular scree, I would have
busted my butt coming down into the south gully. I made the right choice. The descent route
into the north gully is very steep. It's a rough ride, but it's really quick. If you go this
way, hold on!!!
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