Outdoor Video Magazine

Length: 5km
Time: 2-4hours
Elevation Gain: Approx 400m (guess!)
Techincal Difficulty: Easy, trail-less hike with no exposure (possibility of some good exposed ridge scrambling if you progress further)
Exertion: High
Rating: 8/10
Time done: November 2008

Trail Summary

A good option for a short, interesting hike in the Nordegg area that gets you off the beaten path. Varied terrain, awesome views, and a sense of being in amongst the peaks for relatively little effort. The trail starts from the Hoodoo Creek ‘parking lot’ (road-side) by a large dry stream bed about 38km West of Nordegg, 3km West of Windy Point. On closer inspection, the right one has a large cairn on the North side of the road (and a small flag when I was there), and there is also a 4×4 track leading down to the stream on the South side of the road.

Detail

Start up Hoodoo Creek itself, taking either the stream bed or the faint trail to the right of the stream. The ridge you’re heading up is the one on the righthand side of the creek. After 5 mins or so, there is a large, square, yellow boulder/rock outcrop on your right. This is a good spot to find a faint trail leading away from the creek bed through the trees. Follow this (and make you’re own way) up the obvious ridge. The going is steep through the trees, and good views of Lake Abraham quickly open up behind you. There is a little bit of easy rock scrambling that can equally easily be bypassed and no hands used at all. As you gain height, the trees thin and a number of flatter sections are encountered. Keep pushing on, and eventually you break out of the trees completely and there remains just a short push to the top of the easy part of the ridge, distinguished by a flat area with no trees. This is where we turned back, being in a foot or so of snow. The ridge would be passable for a little while further, if you navigate a fairly tricky looking narrow section. I didn’t fancy it in winter, but may have given it a look in summer.

Return the way you came, taking care not to drift too far to the left on descent or you may get lost in the trees as you try to find your car again.

As always I’ve been delayed with my trip report, and this particular hike took place a 2 months (and more) ago on a Saturday at the beginning of November. It was another UAOC trip (University of Alberta Outdoors Club) that is really a weekend of debauchery and drinking in the Nordegg Youth Hostel, titled Cabin Fever. With a wee bit of hiking. 40+ students take over the hostel for the weekend, and have two very fun nights as a group and then split into smaller groups for day-time activities…normally groups are determined by hangover strength.

I was in the least hungover group…who following an idea from Brett had decided to have an off-trail hike/scramble (though no hands are actually needed) to the start of the Mt Stelfox ridge. This trail starts from the parking lot immediately to the East of the Cline River on Highway 11 (by Abraham Lake, as always). The trail head is the southern/western end of the Stelfox Loop.

You go along the very obvious (and boring) flat-ish trail for around 3km. The point you’re looking for is just after a long incline that initially gives you views of the gorge to your left, and then re-enters some trees. It’s just before a long descent, and there is a faint trail heading off through the trees to your right.

This faint hiker’s path takes a direct line up the slope towards the top of the ridge. Don’t worry if you lose it, just follow the slope up and pick a path through the trees. Take care not to drift too far right which will become cliffs higher up.

The way is relatively tedious…although at the time when we did it there was increasing amounts of snow as we got higher up. This provided some nice walking conditions (if a bit tiring with all the slipping, it’s a fairly steep slope) and our first wintery conditions of the 2007/08 season. Views up the Coral Creek and Cline river valley’s open behind as you gain height.

Eventually (an hour of ascent since the main path?) you break onto some level ground where you can bear right to follow the obvious and stunning cliff top to stupendous views over the valley below and Lake Abraham itself. This viewgasm (made up word, one of my favourites) provided the perfect lunch stop for us, where a bitterly cold wind strained at our goretex and persuaded most of the group to head back down again shortly. Mark, Julia and I (the usual suspects) were having none of it, and scampered to the main crest of the ridge (though not the summit of Stelfox, which remains a lot further along the ridge past some technical scrambling). We were soon in knee deep snow and a wintery blizzard blew in providing some exciting walking conditions and obliterating the view. From the first cliff view point to the ridge crest is probably just another 20mins more. Exhilarated, our descent back the way we came to the valley bottom and the main trail was quick and fraught with amusing slips in the snow. We caught up with the others not far along the trail where we returned to the trail.

Fun day!

Length: 26.6km Elevation: 1400m - 2480m (2700m+ if you scramble peaks)
Time: 3 Days
Effort: Medium (some long uphill).
Rating: 7.5/10

26.6km over 3 days?! Well that’s what the book told me. “If you are strong and very, very fast this hike can be done in two days”. Hmmmm. I would say if you were strong and very, very fast you could do this in ONE day. Two days is relaxing. Three days is extreme. I read a whole brand new boook from cover to cover, did three separate sidetrips scrambling up 3 mountains, wasted tonnes of time stalking marmots and goats. Invented games with stones. Etc. Lets just say I had some time to kill. And I still only took 2 1/2 days.

So Canada Day 2007 has come and gone, but my post for the long weekend is 2 months behind schedule.

Originally I was planning to go rock climbing in a place near Golden, B.C. for 3 days with a bunch of friends. But my poor, poor fingers were over-tired from too much indoor climbing and I fancied having some time alone. So I got them to drop me off along the David Thompson (Highway 11) on their way to Golden. They would (hopefully) return in 3 days to pick me up.

I got dropped off at the trailhead at 10pm in the pouring rain and decided to camp right there, which was right next to a garbage damp (fenced at least). Smart huh? Anyhoo, no bears turned up, but the banging of the huge metal door drove me nuts and I started hiking at 5am the next morning because I couldn’t sleep.

The first 8km of trail are kind of boring as they pass through wooded terrain on a seismic-line/quad trail. The result was that I found myself halfway though the hike and at my campsite in a secluded alpine meadow by 10am. This is a gorgeous area once you escape the trees and you enter a lovely alpine bowl at around 2400m. I passed the next few days on my own reading in the sun (wrapped in a -10C sleeping bag in the sun!), scrambling the three surrounding 2700m peaks, and watching my marmot and squirrely friends at play.

The best peak to scramble is Littlehorn it’s self, the one directly across from you as you crest the first pass. From the second pass, amble up steep grassy slopes to your right until you attain the ridge and then it’s easy scrambling (hands in pockets style) to the top. From here you can actually continue into a ridge walk, descending steep talus on the far side following the ridge over another couple of humps until you carefully pick your way down steep grassy slopes at the far end.

The photo shows the trail in green…the scrambling route I took in red, and two optional descents in yellow. The route I took down was not ideal, ending at cliffs in two different places and involving some backtracking up steep slopes to find a way off. The yellow routes LOOKED bettter, but no guarantees!The other two peaks I ascended (OK, one I didn’t make it to the true top) were the ones either side of the first pass. As you approach the pass from the start of the hike, the summit to the left is inaccessible except to CRAZY scramblers. You can ascend the steep, loose scree slope to the ridge easily enough, and you are treated with nice views off the the precipitous farside, but to travel to the true summit would involve some crazy exposure and difficult climbing. The summit on the right of the pass is somewhat easier to obtain up slightly less steep scree along the ridge edge.

All was perfect except for the two nights. I only had the fly of tent, not the inner. So when a scratching woke me up in the middle of the first night, I found my nose inches from the face of an inquisitive ground squirrel. He ran away. Then came back REPEATEDLY all damn night to nibble on my stuff. I even resorted to (gently) swatting him (sorry animal lovers) to scare him off. He was unperturbed. I zipped my sleeping bag up fully, scared he was going to run inside and cause havoc (can you imagine a toothy, excited, nut-loving squirrel loose in a tight fitting mummy bag? yikes)

I woke up the next morning, to find he had run away with one of my gloves. Leaving me with a freezing left-hand in extremely windy sub-zero conditions. I hope he made good use of it. To cap the night off, i found the squirrely b******s had also got into my food, which I’d hung of the highest boulder I could find.

The next night was not much better, with Mr Glove Lover returning (presumably for the right-hand) at regular intervals. The highlight though was when I woke up at 8am to find a MARMOT sat nibbling grass within my tent, 5 inches from my face. I was very amused and watched him for a few minutes, until he turned his attention to my sleeping bag, then he got the boot from my tent too (not literally).

Other highlights were watching the marmots ‘box’ over territory, seeing the TINIEST baby mountain goats, and waiting 7 hours for my friends to pick me up after the hike. Wait…that wasn’t a highlight. Thanks guys!

Time: 5-7 hours (just hiking time from book) - 11 hours total for us!
Elevation Gain: 1500m
Highest Point: 2580m
Difficulty: Moderate
Scariness: 1/3
Map: Not really needed
Book: Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies - Alan Kane
Trailhead: Morro Slabs. just East of the bridge over the Athabasca River on Highway 16, a few kilometers East of Snaring River campground.

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This is a LONG day’s scramble with considerable vertical gain and NO water along the way. The terrain is variable and interesting, the views good, and I would definitely recommend it if you’re feeling up to the distance.

Starting of on the obvious Overlander trail (which allows mountain bikes) the hike initially contours the side of the mountain sticking fairly flat for around 35-50mins. Keep an eye out for the first drainage you cross (a dry stoney creek bed probably) and this is where you turn left off the obvious trail and find a fairly well beaten track that will take you up the mountain proper. Starting through brush and then eventually a large burned area, the trail quickly steepens and will never really let off until the summit now. You follow the edge of a cool canyon for some of the way, and apparently there is a waterfall if you follow it all the way to end. When you’re up above the first small cliff band, hang right and follow the base of crags along to the ridge above the next drainage area. From here it’s essential to pick up the fairly obvious and well trodden trail again (marked with cairns and pink/orange flagging tape) and follow it up to the start of the scrambling.

Here is the ‘crux’ according to Alan Kane, but I have to say the ‘5m chimmney” is not really is difficult as it sounds. With little/no exposure and some good holds it won’t cause any problems. If it does it can easily be by-passed via an easy line to the right where there was even some webbing for hand-support when I was there.

From here an obvious trail leads up to the right, following a fairly steep drop on your righthand side. This bit sketched me out a bit, especially coming down. The trail was dry and loose with dirt and some rock, and a slip could have been far from amusing. Don’t let me fool you though, this part was still easy (I’m just a wuss!). You could take a more rocky route than this in parts if you fancied scrambling some more.

Topping out above the rock, you’re back in spruce again (by a cairn with some big horn horns). The trail now follows the ridge crest through the trees and is well marked with ornage flagging tape the whole way. As you approach the tree-line there are some fun places for some slab-bouldering (see video).

From here to the summit is an enjoyable slog up talus, across scree and up some easy rock scrambling (you can usually find a trail if you prefer, ot a harder rock-line if you want!). Don’t be fooled by thinkign your near the top until you are looking down in every direction…Hawk has on of the worst most consistent false summits I’ve seen!

From the top there are great views of the surrounding mountains including Mt Robson, Pyramid, Edith Cavell, and some other HUGE ones further away that I didn’t recognise. lol. Check out the crazy coloured pounds the far side of Highway 16 too. We saw a bear sat on the train tracks from this vantage point too, and the resulting bear jam. Put a quick note in the summit register, feel free to add a plug for outdoorvm.com haha, and begin your descent the way you came.

By this stage we were all pretty short of water, it being around 30C out. I had gone through 3 litres already. 3 of the 4 of us dosed up on Ibuprofren to ready our aging knees for the descent (yes, I’m only 24).

Once you get back to the canyon, there is an optional detour if you find a safe descent into it and want a bit of fun. We all LOVED this part of the descent. We followed the canyon bottom the WHOLE way back to the Overlander trail. There are numerous small (up to 4m) would-be waterfalls (it was all dry) that make great fun to downclimb. Some involved walking down trees, some had to be jumped, some downclimbed in VERY interesting fashion by certain members of the group. See video! This whole part provided great comic relief to a tired and sore group of people.

Back on the Overlander, it’s nearly over with just a quick, fast, flat march back to the car. Interestingly enough I predicted 11 hours for our trip before we set off. We were back a few seconds under 11 hours 1 minute. Pretty good eh?

Another good route description is given by dowclimbing.com along with some good photos, but not a patch on mine of course

I need to stop going to the mountains every weekend (8 of the last 9 weekends!!). I am generating a huge backlog of video to edit, photos to manage, trip reports to write and there’s always my real job to do too……

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So anyway, a few weeks ago(!) I went to Jasper for a climbing and scrambling trip with Katie and Mathieu. The plan: to leave Edmonton after I finished filming a wedding 11pm saturday evening, scramble sunday, and climb in the Hidden Valley on Monday.

We ended up leaving late, and arriving around 3am at a convenient little ‘campsite’ just outside the Park Boundary on Highway 16. It’s a down a 4WD road on the left, 100m before the gates. But ssssh don’t tell everyone. Wait, is this internet thing public? ooops.

It was also raining when we arrived, giving Matt the oppurtunity to tryout his ‘waterproof’ sleeping bag (nearly a bivy0bag, but not quite). Katie and I sensibly chose the tent.

Morning found it still raining, with cloud level at road level. Visibility zero. Brave, nature-boy Matt had retired to the car after his ‘waterproof’ bag got him very, very damp.

With the inclement weather, and the lack of dry bag for the next night, we headed into Hinton to find a laundry place for his bag. A few hours later we were ready to hike! And the weather was still terrible…oh well.

We could barely make out the looming shadow of Roche Miette through the clouds as we set off on the trail. With all the wetness I forgot the wise, wise words of my friend Jen who had explained how NOT to get lost on this hike. We happily followed the directions from the book for a few hours, trudging up steep ridges through misty forests until we finally made the tree-line just as the clouds cleared. Wrong damn place. Way too close to the big, steep scary rock face! Just like Jen had done before us, we had taken the climber trail to the huge cliff-face, not the route to the summit. Realising our error, we spotted the trail on the ridge opposite, and decided we had the energy to bushwack down an avalanche path to the valley below, and then scramble up the far side. It didn’t actually take more than 45mins.

Back on the correct trail, the weather suddenly co-operated and we found ourselves in blistering, hot sun under deep blue skies. Perseverance paid off. On yellow, rocky slopes we headed further up the mountain, taking a brief (pun intended!) rest when Ewen changed his pants to shorts and aired his boxers…giving rise to the brilliant idea of a naked photo shoot if we made the top (thanks Matt!).

Pressing on, the weather closed in again as we came to a gorgeous narrow bit of ridge, on route to the saddle that marks the start of the scramble. At this point we found a beer, full, kindly left by some previous hikers. Downing half, we carried on. Helmets in place. The scramble proved a bit trickier than it should as we veered off path (damn cloud and visibility zero). Eventually we spotted some pink ribbons and found the much, much easier route to the top. If you stay on the easy route the whole time, this would be an easy scramble. We were definitely more in the moderate to difficult area. The route is definitely not exposed in any way though, just steep and loose.

At the top, we did our naked photo shoot, with just boots and helmets allowed. Mucho fun, and caused havoc on facebook when the photos were posted! Unfortunately you only have the right to view mine on this site!

Overall, with the detour it took around 5 hours to make the summit. And another 3 to get down. We were going slow though.

This is an awesome hike, and I would definitely recommend it. Very fun all around, good scrambling, good hiking, nothing too scary, and nice and close to Edmonton (just a few km from the Jasper park boundary).

The only thing that marred the fun of the day was that Katie’s BRAND NEW tent had been stolen from our impromptu campground. There were tire tracks and empty beer cans, and our sleeping pads. But the tent was gone. Sorry Katie