Mount Ware

Mount Ware and Little Ware
Kananaskis, Alberta
May 22, 2022
Distance: 15.0 km
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 719 m

Mount Ware is a stately little peak, worth a second visit, I thought, especially if I included Little Ware. Little Ware shares the same ridge as Mount Ware, and I regretted not climbing it the first time. And the hike would be a treat for Dinah since she had never climbed Mount Ware. Zora came along too, even though she had done both peaks. It's that time of year when we have to settle for repeat trips in the front range if we can’t ferret out new ones.

Where is Ware? It is in the Sheep River Area next to Gorge Creek. In fact, Gorge Creek trail conveniently delivers hikers to the mountain's doorstep. That's the trail we started on.

Snow lingered in the mountains and was melting on the trail when we set off. We followed the path as it alternated between snowy, muddy and dry, not to mention up and down. Indeed, the trail loses 50 m of elevation after it leaves the parking lot. If you don't notice the ups and downs on the way in, you will on the way out.

Eventually we hit the fork below Little Ware and took the trail going up. A little later, we kept right again and started up the trail for Little Ware. When the trail disappeared under a layer of snow, we followed tracks in the snow and even encountered the fellow who made them. A resident of Turner Valley, he had an early start and was already descending after doing both peaks. His tracks strayed from the trail hidden in the snow, but they led us unerringly to the summit block of Little Ware. We hiked around to the backside and reached the spacious summit.

Before descending from Little Ware, we had a good look at Mount Ware and the intervening forest we had to cross. We could, however, see tracks leading to the edge of the forest. We followed the tracks in the snow to the open slopes below Mount Ware. Now we could finish our ascent up Mount Ware. It begins on gentle scree before transforming into a steep, talus slope. But we reached the summit to find satisfying views all around.

From Mount Ware, there's a trail that avoids traversing back through the forest and instead drops more directly down to Gorge Creek trail. But finding the trail under the snow would have been a hopeless task, so we followed our tracks back to Little Ware and down to the creek trail. All that remained was the undulating trudge back to the parking lot.

KML and GPX Tracks

A black bear and three cubs cross the road