Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

October 16, 2011

2045m

David Thompson Country, AB

This is my first time joining UAOC (University of Alberta Outdoor Club). They usually don’t organize ambitious scrambling trips, so a hike like this is probably the most serious trip in their agenda. I signed up too late and I was put in the wait list… Luckily for me, most of the participants dropped out probably due to the midterms. We met in University of Alberta very early in the morning and drove to David Thompson Country. This is also my first trip to Highway 11 (David Thompson Highway), but too bad, Coliseum Mountain is the front-most peak, so I didn’t get a good perspective of this area.

Under the crystal clear fall sky, we were all excited about the trip. I had done several scrambling objectives, but for most other hikers, this was their first hike in a while. This trail was a bit confusing as there are several unsigned branches. They all lead to private properties though. Once we started gaining elevation, it was consistently steep for the rest, until topping out on the ridge crest. During which we got very little views.

The terrain got rockier on the ridge crest and we slowed down considerably as some people were not confident on “scrambling”. We omitted the lower east summit, but directly aimed for the main west summit. The connecting ridge is surprisingly scenic. We had to ascend a brief loose section to gain the summit. The most attracting view was towards Abraham Lake, which I had never set my eyes on.

Due to the coldness, we didn’t linger too long on the summit, but soon started going down. We all had different descending paces, but we all made back without incidence. A great trip led by Robert McLeod.