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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
25 May 03 |
incomplete |
incomplete |
| 2nd Time |
31 May 03 |
2:39 |
2:05 |
25 May 03 - Mt. Crandell sits right above the Warden's Station and Information
Booth overlooking both of the Waterton Lakes. The Bear's Hump is a part of Mt. Crandell
that overlooks the start of the Akamina Rd and the Waterton Townsite. Bear's Hump offers
some of the best trad climbing in Waterton, so in the two attempts I've made at Crandell,
we decided to make the scrambling more interesting by doing some technical trad
climbing first, then continuing to the summit. Our first try, we ascended Cusak's Crack
and were later turned around just below the summit by an oncoming storm. Our second try
was in cloudy and rainy weather, and we ascended Lichen Line. This time, we were able to
reach the summit in a more timely manner. This picture was taken from the townsite after
the thunderstorm rolled in on the first attempt. In the middle of the picture, you can
see the hump behind the street light. Follow the ridge from there straight to the summit.
By the way, you can't see the true summit from the road. What you see here is a false
summit.
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25 May 03 - From the top of the hump, the scrambling starts off pretty easy. There
is actually a trail, but feel free to deviate from it when you are in need of something
more exciting. For the most part, you just stay right on the ridge. From time to time, you
will encounter lots of 5.1-2 climbing, but if you stay on the trail, the climbing is kept to
a minimum.
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25 May 03 - All along the ridge, the views of Waterton Lakes and the townsite are
stunning. In the lower right-hand corner, you can see the Akamina Highway. We parked
in a pulloff at the hairpin-left turn.
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25 May 03 - Here we see Blair casually strolling along the ridge. At this point,
the actual trail is below the cliff on Blair's left.
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25 May 03 - Eventually, you come to a notch in the ridge, but if you look at it from
the side, it looks like a window. This is where we turned around on our first attempt. From
the window, scramble up to the ridge and follow the ridge to the summit. At this point, you
can see the summit, which contains a big weather station.
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31 May 03 - This is on our second attempt. Here we see Kevin standing on part of
the ridge. If the weather is good, the visability can be outstanding.
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31 May 03 - Here we see Blair scrambling up and over a different window. Because of
the angle, the window is hard to make out, but it really is a full window. Blair and Todd
climbed on top of this, then climbed back down the other side. I simply went right through
the middle of it and continued to the summit.
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31 May 03 - After that notch, seen a couple of pictures previous, the scrambling gets
pretty easy. You just hike up to the ridge and follow the ridge to the summit. Here we see
Kevin making his way toward the summit.
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31 May 03 - The closer we got to the summit, the more we were in the clouds. This is
the final section of the summit ridge. The summit weather station is seen on the far left.
If you look closely at the ridge, you can see Blair making his way.
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31 May 03 - As we were up at the summit, a cold wind blew in with a fine mist. We decided
to pack it up and head back down... someplace warmer. Here we see Blair and Kevin wearing the
Gore-Tex on the descent. Once we got back to around 7,000 feet, we were back in the sun.
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