Well I finally got them all done. Today was a great day, it would have been perfect if the wind had been less in Waterton, but that doesn't always happen. My son and I got up early and headed to Red Rock Canyon. We had a beautiful sunrise and started hiking. I wasn't sure which route we were going to take, as I had read a few online. But once we got there we elected to take the South ridge route. It seemed the easiest and we could see a fair amount of snow on the ridges around the summit so we figured it would also be the safest. So we headed down the snowshoe trail for about 2 km and started heading up the creek bed. We went a ways then left the creek bed and bushwhacked for about an hour. It's funny because a few peoples' reports on line said that they dreaded the bushwhacking, but we found it actually not bad at all. There was a time or two that it was tough, but compared to bushwhacking up Mt. Cleveland's west bowl it was easy. Anyways we cleared the trees and it was scree or scrambling the rest of the way. From here, though the wind really picked up and we dealt with a very windy day the rest of the way. It made things difficult on the snowy ridge near the top because as we hiked along the ridge spine at times we almost had to crawl so we wouldn't get blown down the cliff on either side of the spine. We eventually summited, didn't stay long because of the wind, and some of the pictures were hard to take because the camera was being blown around and couldn't focus with the movement by the wind. On our way down we came across a lone hiker on his way to the summit. We gave him a few pointers and wished him luck. We descended the same way we came and finished the hike early for once. My wife was quite surprised we had finished so early. All in all a great day, but the best part was I am finally finished all the named Waterton Peaks!!!!!
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| Beautiful sunrise on the way to Waterton |
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| We were the 2nd vehicle at Red Rock that morning, Glendowan is the summit in the center of the picture |
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| Heading up the creek bed (Summit on left) |
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| Paused in a clearing for a break from bushwhacking |
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| Summit Block in sight |
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| Hiking on the snow |
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| Looking down on the valley below with Mt. Anderson behind |
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| Nearing the top (snow covered Mt. Blakiston behind) |
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| Summit block, we scared away 4 goats, they are in the middle of the picture running away |
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| Getting ready to climb the summit block looking back at the snowy ridge we traversed |
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| Heading up the summit block |
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| Summit attained |
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| My final Waterton Summit |
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| On our way down, the snow was melting and we could see the difference on the way down |
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| Picture of Carter in front of the summit block |
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| Cliff shot looking down the snowshoe trail valley |
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| Picture in the bushwhacking |
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| Looking back up at the summit ridge, hardly any snow now |
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| Driving out on Red Rock Road with beautiful fall colors on the trees |
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