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