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Brock-Blane Knoll
Kananaskis, Alberta
June 12, 2000
I was fairly new to scrambling when I took on a trip to Mount Hood. Dale, Chris and Kari came along, and we started up King Creek. Following the suggestion in Scrambles, we looked for a sheep trail on the right side of the creek. We didn't find the sheep trail, but we found a trail leading to an Indian Vision Quest site. We continued climbing and looked for a sheep trail without success only to realize we had climbed too high. Rather than drop back down to King Creek, we decided to keep ascending.
Writing this decades later, I don't remember the details. It wasn't easy, but I can't recall the difficulties now. Nor can I describe our route. I didn't have GPS then; reliable versions were not yet available. But we managed to reach the knoll between Mount Brock and Mount Blane. Although we didn't reach a named peak, we successfully climbed a nice little high point. At the time, I was dismissive and didn't post it, but looking back, I think it's worth mentioning.
A year after climbing Brock-Blane Knoll, I returned. This time we ignored the trails, followed King Creek and summited Mount Hood.
We ascended the knoll between Brock and Blane
Hiking up King Creek
We were surprised to see snow since summer was only nine days away
The canyon held a few difficulties
We got on a trail that led to an Indian Vision Quest site
Looking down the scree gully we ascended below the ridge
Kananaskis Lakes
On the "summit"
Back on the scree
As I recall, we ran into tricky terrain below the scree
Returning to King Creek