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Brock Knoll
Kananaskis, Alberta
July 8, 2000
I was relatively new to scrambling when I embarked on a trip to Mount Hood with Dale, Chris, and Kari. We began our ascent up King Creek, following the advice in Scrambles to look for a sheep trail on the creek’s right side. Although we didn’t find the sheep trail, we discovered a path leading to an Indian Vision Quest site. Continuing our climb, we unsuccessfully searched for the sheep trail and realised we had ascended too high. Instead of descending back to King Creek, we chose to keep going, unsure of what awaited us. Our ascent was random, yet we managed to avoid cliffs and reached a small point.
Reflecting on this decades later, I can’t recall the specific details or difficulties, nor can I describe our route. I didn’t have GPS at the time, as reliable versions weren’t yet available. However, we did reach the knoll between Mount Brock and Mount Blane, but closer to Brock. Although we didn’t summit a named peak, we successfully climbed a pleasant high point. At the time, I dismissed it and didn’t share it, but in hindsight, I believe it’s worth reporting.
A year after climbing Brock Knoll, I returned to King Creek. This time, we ignored the trails, stayed in the creek, and summited Mount Hood.
We ascended the knoll between Brock and Blane (seen from King Creek Ridge)
Hiking up King Creek
We were surprised to see snow
The canyon held a few difficulties
We got on a trail that led to an Indian Vision Quest site
Looking down the scree gully near the col
Kananaskis Lakes
On the summit
Running down scree
As I recall, we ran into tricky terrain below the scree
Returning to King Creek