Iron Creek Mountain

Iron Creek Mountain
Kananaskis, Alberta
November 29, 2008
Distance: 10.7 km (6.6 mi)
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 768 m (2520 ft)

When Dinah and I climbed Sentinel Peak earlier this year, we considered also ascending the unnamed peak (808674) south of it. We didn't so now we returned to climb it.

We started from Bear Pond trail on Highway 532 and reached the frozen lake in ten minutes. After following the east shore, we continued to the Iron Creek north fork trail junction. Instead of hiking all the way to the junction, down to Iron Creek valley, we took a shortcut. We broke off Bear Pond trail and bushwhacked west to intersect the north fork trail. The shortcut saved us both elevation loss and distance. We still lost 60 m of elevation, dropping us back down level with the trailhead.

Because of the snow cover, we couldn't tell if we stuck to the north fork trail; likely we followed animal trails, bushwhacking at times. We kept left of a drainage at first but later crossed it. We continued west and climbed out of the trees onto a grassy slope. When a rocky ridge appeared on our right, we stayed left and worked our way around it to reach a saddle. From the saddle, we could see Iron Creek Mountain above Iron Creek Pass.

The terrain between the saddle and the mountain was a pleasant high plateau. We soon found ourselves hiking along the Hailstone Butte Lookout access road which took us to the base of Iron Creek Mountain. We hiked up the open slopes to the summit.

The surrounding scenery encompassed snow-covered peaks under cobalt skies. Views at the top were fine, but then we enjoyed the scenery throughout the trip.

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