Wedge Mountain

Wedge Mountain and Greenhill Mine
Crowsnest Pass, Alberta
September 1, 2007
Distance: 3.9 km
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 453 m

Dinah and I wanted to attempt a peak in the Flathead Range on Saturday, but after driving to Crowsnest Pass we learned the area south of Highway 3 was closed due to a fire ban.

We decided to keep our original plan to do Crowsnest Mountain on Sunday, but instead of a one-day trip on Saturday, we would do two short trips. Referring to the Hiking the Historic Crowsnest Pass book, we hiked up Wedge Mountain north of Coleman, a modest peak with an elevation (according to my GPS) of 1923 m. After parking at the south end of the mountain, we followed a vague trail up the south ridge.

Just below the summit, we were overtaken by a German travel journalist, Bernd Wagner. Bernd writes travel guidebooks and was researching information for his next book. On the summit, we talked at length, and I invited Bernd to join us in climbing Crowsnest Mountain the next day. (After descending Wedge Mountain, he told us he decided not to include Wedge Mountain in his book because of the poor trail.)

After parting with Bernd at the bottom of the mountain, Dinah and I went to see the abandoned coal mine on Greenhill Ridge near Blairmore. The site has several intact buildings that can be explored. We couldn't follow the book's instructions to reach the upper mine because of intervening private land, but we did explore the lower mine. In our age of plastic and microchips, it was fascinating to see bulky equipment comprising cast iron and wood dating back 100 years! Eight years later, we returned to climb Greenhill Ridge.

KML and GPX Tracks

Wedge Mountain seen from the visitor info centre