May 21st Saturday 2016

The scramble starts at the Baymag Plant turn in just before Grotto Pond Day Use, coming from Canmore. Cross the small gravel pit and look for a cairn and trail into the woods. Follow trail as best you can always heading slightly left to avoid the small cliff band hidden in the trees. The picture below shows the cliff band. Do not try to go around to the left there is a route through the center at this point. On our return we tried a different route down through the cliff band more to the east but it proved to be steeper and nastier. Next is the break out of the trees and the fine red gravel to the first major rock band. Go right to go around. At the end of the cliff go left and up a loose steep scree patch to the view of the next cliff band. Head to the left. After passing under the cliff go right up towards the pinnacles. There is a lot of loose scree and we tended to go to the left ridge I see other hikers preferred the right. Either way at the pinnacles you can have some fun and scramble over them and look through the rock window or detour around to the right. Now you can see the ridge to the summit but it is still foreshortened. Part of the ridge is fairly wide and the last part a bit craggy with a bit of exposure. We returned mostly the same way but there did look to be opportunities to crash down some scree gullies into Grotto Canyon. I will leave that adventure for another day.

Distance return 9.5 km Time return 6 hrs ( inc 30 min lunch ) Elevation Accumulated gain 1310 m Elevation to Summit 1170 m Summit height 2488 m

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