Storming the Fortress

On Friday Tom & I thought we'd take advantage of the Stampede Parade keeping the crowds in town while we got the heck out. We originally opted to hike up to the Headwall Lakes, a 14km round-trip with only 430 m of elevation gain, with the possibility of tacking on the Fortress or popping over the ridge to come out on the Chester Lake trail. Instead, we ended up doing both, so hiking up the Headwall Creek canyon, climbing to the Fortress, and then out Chester Lake for a total hike of 20.8 km loop with 1115m of elevation gain, most of it at the Fortress.

I tried putting labels on the profile but for some reason every time I've tried to upload it the words are missing. The Headwall Lakes are after the first steep slope on the left ~7km, the sharp pointy part is the Fortress ~11km, and Chester Lake is on the right at ~17km.

The trail started off on wide cross-country ski trails rated blue and orange (which are the easiest here rather than the yellow and red equivalents back home in Ontario).

After about 45 minutes or so we took a small trail marked by a cairn and headed up the Headwall Creek trail.

Headwall Creek:

The forested trail shortly gave way to a rough bouldery trail marked by small cairns (rock piles).

Once again we hit snow, pretty minor at first...

But then more snow... and by the end of the trek my ankles were a bit chilly from having snow packed around them and my socks were a bit soggy.

Lower Headwall Lake - that's ice on the lake in the foreground.

Tom checking out the cut-throat trout in the Lower Headwall Lake:

View down the valley from the top of Headwall Lake. At this point the creek was gushing out of the ground. A combination of thick scree and karsting of the limestone means that the creeks run underground for a while.

Upper Headwall Lake:

Some crinoids on a boulder - centimetre scale at the bottom. Tom laughed at me because I had my scale card stashed in camera case. With preservation this good I wish I could poke around the bed this came from to see if there was a calyx to go with it.

First view of the Fortress:

Entering the sub-alpine valley above Headwall Lakes with Headwall Creek running through it.

The steep snow-covered slope leading up to the ridge separating Chester Canyon from Headwall Canyon, with the trail going up to the Fortress starting from the ridge-crest.

On the trail up to the Fortress looking back at the ridge-crest...

We found a geocache at the top of the Fortress!

This is the view from the Fortress looking back to Headwall Canyon.

The view slightly to the right of the last, looking towards Chester Lake.

360 degree panorama from the top of the Fortress:

The scree trail leading to the Fortress:

The scree slope leading from the ridge-crest down to Chester Lake. Just below this we hit deep snow. It was so steep we decided not to toboggan down it, but it was a pretty good, although precarious at times, boot-ski.

Finally off the rubble trail, looking back to the Fortress. Chester Lake - the wild-flowers were amazing!

The well-groomed gravel trail that leads from Chester Lake to the parking lot. This part of the trail is rated easy.

In the end it took us just over 5 hours of moving time, more like 7 total though once snack time, photo-ops, and lounging around various lakes and the top of the Fortress were taken into account. Made for another sweet summer day though! Needless to say, we decided to take it easy today...

Mountain Trip

Last week I went on a trip to the mountains with the other new hires at work, really it was just a bit of geo-tourism to familiarize ourselves with the local foothills geology. I thought I'd share some of the neat things we saw (okay, neat to geo-geeks maybe).

A view of the dam near Mt. Yamnuska where several of the following pictures were taken.

Dinosaur tracks:

I believe these trace fossils are Rosselia, which is generally interpreted as the dwelling tube of a terebellid annelid (a type of worm). This is the trace fossil Ophiomorpha, which is a combined dwelling and feeding burrow created by shrimp by lining it with fecal pellets.

This trace fossil is Diplocraterion, which is a U-shaped tube with spreite within the "U". The organism lives in the tube and moves the burrow up or down depending on sedimentation, erosion, or growth of the organism. Trace maker unknown.Trace fossil: Asterosoma, trace maker: unknown. The organism would have been farming the sediment by burrowing down and then digging burrows out from the main tunnel in a star-shaped pattern.

Mt. Kidd - one of the most photographed mountain in the Rockies. The structure here is the result of a fault-propogation fold. I had planned to sketch out how it formed in photoshop but haven't gotten around to it... so this photo may be updated at a later time (or not).

Panorama of Mt. Lorette - Tom and I took shots of this last season when we hiked Wasootch Ridge. Lots of neat thrust faults here that give repeating stratigraphy (that I also had planned to sketch in and might do later).

Mt. Indefatigable (aka Mt. Fatty)

Tom & I headed out for another hike on Saturday - it was weird not having Kali with us, but she's not quite up to it anymore with her bad elbows. We've been wanting to hike Mt. Fatty, a 7.6 km round-trip with 920m elevation gain (although our GPS recorded around 1100 m). The trail started with a brief foray into the woods, but with an instant hit of steady climbing.

This is the view from the lower slopes of Mt. Fatty back towards Upper Kananaskis Lake.

Out of the trees and up the rocky slope: I paused here to take this pan:

Our first view of the peak of Mt. Indefatigable:

The Opal Ranges with Kananaskis Lake in the foreground. At 2266 m we hit snow. Most of the trail wasn't too bad - compacted footprints made for decent footing and closer to the top the drifts had been blown away. Tom making snow angels: A snow-filled valley looking up to the peak of Mt. Fatty:

Getting close to the peak:

From this point we decided to take an impromptu ramble towards the northern outlier of Mt. Fatty. This is a view back down to where we came from.

A view of the wild flowers growing up the slope of the northern outlier: A view of the northern outlier from Mt. Fatty: A peek over the edge of Mt. Fatty:

Tom on a lower peak, but the highest we got to.

From the secondary peak up the ridgeline towards the real crest of Mt. Fatty - it was a bit more than Tom's hand could handle. Tom suiting up to take the fast way down. If you strap a wind-breaker to yourself you can use it like a toboggan and slide down the snow (note to self: always pack wind-breaker on a trip like this!) Tom getting the hiking poles ready for braking: Tom en route: Since I didn't have a wind-breaker with me I had to settle for boot-skiing down the snow. Heading back down, and loving how beautiful the day was - great hike, great weather, and a beautifully lit fold =o)!