Pincher Ridge June 13, 2018

Today we were back in Alberta in my new favourite area.  The South Castle is a spectacular area and today was more proof of that.  I'm thinking with Waterton's ban on hiking right now this area will become more popular.  Well we started out with a large group today and headed up to the ridge spine on the east side of the summit.  This approach was pretty awesome.  There was a fair bit of route finding involved and lots of hands on scrambling and climbing.  Not for the faint hearted if you don't like exposure.  We had some beautiful views all around.  I will say the only real dis-tractor of hiking in this area is the Shell Gas Plant that sticks out like a sore thumb in such a beautiful area.  The descent route on this hike is also awesome, you have this great scree slope that you can descent quite nicely and it is so fast to go down.  There is a little bush whacking at the bottom to regain the quad trail and then a 3 or 4 km hike back on the quad trail.  Great hike with great views all around.

View of summit from start of hike we climbed up the centre of photo and climbed the ridge on the right

Neat looking dead tree

Our first view of the ridge to the summit we would tackle

Beginning of some of our climbing

View to the south of Drywood

Surveying which way to go

We went left and up the crack in the middle

Our scout scouting out the way

Little peak-a-boo from Castle Peak poking it way out from the ridge, Victoria on the right

Last section of ridge, still a ways to go

Faint trail on the right going up

We definitely didn't go on the left

More route finding

Stopped for lunch in a nice grassy area blocked from the wind

One of the final climbs with a huge rock above covered in yellow lichen

First view of Summit

Summit Shot

Great view of Windsor, Castle, and Victoria

Skiing down the great scree slope

Beautiful valley we kept starring at on descent

The Bush at the end

Shot of Drywood where people do rock climbing and in the winter ice climbing

Summit Video

Panorama on Summit

Track of Hike