Having read some trip reports of the 'scramble route' being in good condition and a good forecast i took the chance on a late start, having had a haircut in canmore at 930am. From the car park weather looked great and temps were nice (especially for sept!) I pushed fairly hard on the up with the ambition of scouting the route to put in a fast effort some time in the future. I almost missed the turn off onto the moraine but once i got going there seems to be some fairly well worn trails through all the talus, route finding was simple until i hit the headwall, i accended one of the incredibly steep scree slopes pretty sure i was on track but it soon became steep and overly commiting and technical for what i was expecting, after a bit of searching and unpleasnt traversing i found myself in the correct gully that has a well worn scree chute and a small cairn was reassuring. Once that was done its an easy grind up the ridge, i put on microspikes for the last snow ridge but most of the snow is avoidable. I txt my partner to let her know id summited and checked the watch (about 2hr10 to car to summit) and realised i had plenty of time to decend so started a quick and easy decent sticking to the same accent gully on return, this made for fast travel but lots of rock moving and would not be ideal if anyone else was coming up. Lower glacier was bare ice and rock covered so no spikes required then a case of fast decent and retracing a quick line down the lower moraine and along the road past tourist buses!
Athletes
Route variation
AA Col, car-to-car
Multi-sport
No
Para athlete
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Unsupported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
3h
10m
17s
Verification
GPS track(s)
Athabasca_FKT_.gpx3.4 MB
Report