Mt. Alderson, Waterton National Park

July 24th, 2015
The Crew: Susan A, Kim Archie

 Overview
 Ascent:
Cameron Lake Parking Lot to Summit ridge (2 hours)
Summit Ridge to Alderson Peak (1 hour 15 minutes)

Skills/Equipment: no hands on scrambling, would be a good introductory scramble for newbies (maintained trail to the ridge, somewhat of trail in the shale from the ridge to the peak)

General Route:
Start this scramble at the Cameron Lake Parking Lot. You take the Carthew-Alderson Trail to what is called "the summit", (it is the summit of nothing, actually a saddle between two peaks). This is a maintained trail, lots of switchbacks up to summit lake which makes for a good break spot. You reach the lake in about an hour, then up to the summit ridge in another hour.

When you reach summit ridge you will see Mt. Alderson, the peak on your right hand side if you are looking east from the summit ridge. Its the big mound of yellow-brown shale. Note that it has multiple small ups and downs before its summit. Take the trail down from the summit ridge as though you were going down to the lake below you. Before you reach the lake simply start walking up the mountain. You will pick up a trail that has been beaten down by people if you stay to the left of the ridge of the mountain at first. There is no need to gain all the elevation of the ridge of the mountain yet. Stay left of the ridge until you can't stay left, then stay right (as a general rule of thumb). You should be able to stay to a worn path, but I found I lost it a couple of times and then regained it again. There is one section of down before the last push up. This down section has cairns (man made piles or shale to mark a path), but they are pretty well camouflaged with the rest of the rubble, so keep an eye out for them. This down bit will help you avoid cliffs.

We took the scenic route on the way down from Mt. Alderson Summit. One of the worn trails took us down to Alderson lake rather than across the mountain and down. It was worth the little bit of unnecessary elevation loss for a visit to the lake. We went around the lake and regained the "summit" ridge, then followed the easy trail back to the parking lot.

Summit Lake, a good break spot on the way up

Descending from Summit ridge, with Mt. Alderson ahead of us

The descent before the final push to the summit

Mount Richards, Waterton Park

July 18th, 2015
Crew: Soutthy O, Susan A, Emily Archie
 

Overview 

Distance: 9 km up to the ridge + more for the circumvent and final ascent to summit
Ascent:
Bertha trail head to Bertha Lake (1 hour, 20 minutes)
Bertha Lake to Summit (4 and a half hours)
Descent:
Summit to the ridge to start the circumvent (1 hour)
Circumvent to ridge overlooking Bertha (40 minutes)
Ridge to SW corner of Bertha Lake (1 hour and 20 minutes)
SW corner to trail head (2 hours)
Skill/equipment: I recommend hiking poles for lots of loose rock, and for balance along steep traverse. Hikers should be comfortable with steep shale climbs/traverse. At least a couple members of the group should be comfortable with hands on scramble/climbing for guiding group over a spot or two close to the summit.

General Route:
We started at the Bertha Lake Trail head at 9 a.m. We took the north way around the lake, but recommend you take the south way around the lake as it has less elevation changes. We reached the SW corner of the lake, and went up the large drainage. Only a few minutes of "bush whacking" needed on this to reach the shale. Then angled to the left and up towards the ridge, aiming to get to the ridge at about where the trees met the beginning of the rocky comb. From there we decided to follow Lockey's advice, as found on his website "Explore Waterton", and circumvented the trickier scramble which would be found if you took a right on top of the ridge and went straight for the summit. Our circumvent included descending from the ridge to the south side of the mountain, traveling across shale and grass, following along where the cliff bands met the shale. We followed this to the most south ridge of the mountain. Once this ridge was gained, we could look upwards and see the summit straight above us. We scrambled up straight to the top, one section of hands on climbing a ledge required, about a 6 foot ledge.

We descended the exact same way in reverse, except took the less strenuous way around the lake, using the trail on the south side,  and were back to the trail head around nine o'clock (refer to the approximate times listed in the overview as we spent ample break time up top and otherwise).

resting up after bushwhacking, about to go up to the left

Following along a little creek up to the shale

This is looking north west. We are still coming up the drainage.

This picture is looking North East towards the ridge we descended from. We are circumventing towards the south to avoid tricky climbing. I recommend hiking poles for this part!

We have just finished our circumvent and see our final push to the summit

                                   

The down climb of the one ledge we encountered