Utopia Mountain

Utopia Mountain
Jasper National Park, Alberta
July 22, 2006
Distance: 9.8 km (6.1 mi)
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 1320 m (4331 ft)

Bagging Utopia Mountain closes the Jasper chapter in Scrambles for Dinah and me. This is a good thing. If the price of gas keeps rising, we won't be able to afford the 400 km drive to Jasper in a few years!

After our second night at Whistler campground, we drove to Miette Hot Springs where we met Trent whom we had run into the previous day on Pyramid Mountain. When he learned we were doing Utopia Mountain he said he was interested in joining us.

After doing over a hundred Kane scrambles, we were wary of omissions or vague descriptions. On this trip, however, the route description unfolded with no surprises. We followed the Sulphur Spring interpretive trail and took the stream branch soon after passing a new wooden bridge. We followed intermittent trails on the east bank. When the trail disappeared, we easily boulder-hopped up the creek.

Eventually we came to a trail that led up alongside a huge washout. The hike up this steep trail brought us to the first ridge. Scrambling up this was more difficult than I expected, but we found a weakness that took us to the crest next to a cairn. After ascending this ridge for a time, we traversed the slope to the second ridge. Downclimbing a crack landed us in the grey scree gully.

We didn't attempt the crux on the second ridge. It had already rained once and the forecast called for a risk of thunderstorms. We didn't want to be caught on an exposed ridge in rain or lightning, so we slogged up the scree gully. I scrambled up a ledge adjacent to the gully for a short way, but when I could, I dropped to the gully and rejoined Dinah and Trent.

After a long slog up wretched scree, we came to the plateau where we could see both the false summit and summit. Aided by a trail, we continued up more scree, reached the ridge and trudged to the false summit. We took the crux just before the summit in stride, or rather in scrambling, and arrived next to the summit cairn.

After spending 20 minutes on top, we headed back down. After we reached the top of the scree gully, dark clouds moved in and it began to thunder. Fortunately, we were on the edge of the storm and only received a few drops of rain.

We descended the detestable scree down to a grass slope. From there we made our way down and right through trees. The bushwhacking wasn't bad as we stuck close to the base of the cliffs on our right. In a short time, we were back at the creek. After some boulder-hopping down the creek, we came to a trail that led back to the washout. Other than being a hot day, the rest of the trip was without incident. We made good time following the trails and creek back to the main trail.

Jasper is a beautiful area. Maybe we'll return and do some non-Kane scrambles if gas prices don't become outrageous!

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