Tue 3 Jul 2007
Scrambling Roche Miette - Jasper National Park (video)
Posted by Ewen under Hiking , Alberta , Video , Scrambling[2] Comments
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……
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 a
valanche 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. Do
wning 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 
Highway 1 heading to Calgary. There is a gravel pull off after a few hundred metres, just before a creek (which is actually Heart Creek). The first routes (First Rock) are around a 10min walk following the very obvious trail along the side of the creek. Expect this area to be busy, especially First Rock and Bunny Hill, and especially weekends.
of a friend on the phone who said he was leaving for Nordegg, right then, and would be passing my housein 10mins if I wanted to come. Yikes. I said ‘yes’ of course, and packed in a crazy rush. My food for the day being an apple and a loaf of bread and a lump of cheese, all I had knocking around.
From the top, it was an easy rappel down in two stage. Easy-ish. Easy if you weren’t the one going first who had the problem of one rope getting stuck and hanging in the air, ultimately just rappelling on one half of the double rope, trusting the end snagged on the rock would hold. Matt.
This is a fantastic summer hike, especially if you include the ’scramble’ up to the of Cirque Peak, which sits just under the 3000m mark. It is one of the most easily attainable peaks of this height in the Canadian Rockies, with absolutely spectacular views.
The trail starts off through some fairly open pine forest, giving you some nice views of the Icefields Parkway valley (is this still called Bow Valley this far up?) as you climb steadily. After 45mins or so the trail steepens as you start to climb out of the trees, and you soon break into the Helen Lake valley. This area is beautiful if you catch the alpine flowers in june/july. From here the trail heads easily onwards to Helen Lake. Awesome views of the Dolomite Range and Cirque Peak surround you. Watch for bears…this is prime grizzly country. The trail is sometimes closed if a bear is known to be in the area.
For Cirque Peak, follow the obvious trail anti-clockwise round the lake, and begin to ascend the high ridge over looking the lake. This is still all on a fairly easy trail, so even if you don’t fancy ascending Cirque Peak, it is worth to top out on this ridge for a view Eastwards over Katherine Lake to Dolomite Pass.
But there is no exposure at all to worry about. When you reach the top (the first obvious top)…you can be amazed by the tinyness of the summit you just ascended with ease. It’s extremely precipitous on the backside, but you can keep well away from that if you want. If you want to obtain the true summit, there is a little bit more exposed (but still very easy) scrambling to do as you head right. If you don’t have a head for heights, don’t worry. The view is much the same from the both summits.
Looking out across the Icefields Parkway, you can see Bow Glacier, and the gorgeous looking hanging lake right above Bow Falls which I now HAVE to visit one day. If you like spotting peaks, I’m sure you could name about 20 of the tops you can see from this vantage point.
I have not done this particular descent, sounds nice though!
Initially the ride is all up hill. At first it’s quite gentle with nice relaxing scenery. After the first 3km things get steep (see video on right…the slope doesn’t really do it justice!), very steep and towards the end you will need to push some parts. It’s just too steep and rocky. But once you reach the top, you know that’s the hardest bit of the ride over with and you have a long, fun 100% rideable descent down a rocky/muddy tree-lined trail. But first take a while to enjoy the nice view, and maybe ride/hike up to the nearby summit.
