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Wendell Mountain (attempt)
Kananaskis, Alberta
June 2, 2007
After climbing the East Peak of Wendell, we decided to go after Wendell Mountain itself using Andrew Nugara's website account of his ascent. Starting from Yamnuska Mountain parking, we hiked over the east end of Yamnuska to the CMC Valley. We followed the valley eastward to the drainage west of Wendell Mountain. We slogged up a scree slope until we reached the rocky ridge that we scrambled up, reaching a point between two pinnacles. That's as far as we got.
A couple of navigational errors cost us time, but mostly it was the heat that stopped us. The hot weather slowed us considerably.. By the time we reached the ridge, we realized we needed to conserve our energy for the long return back. We turned around a kilometre before the summit.
Easy bushwhacking at the west end of the valley
A piece of wood appears to be attacking a white dryad plant
We headed to the basin left of Wendell Mountain
Looking back, Yamnuska in the background
Approaching the scree basin
We face a long scree slog
We headed up the scree on the left
Cliff bands on our right
Near the ridge crest we hugged the rock on the right for solid footing
Scrambling up a chimney to the ridge (mouse over to look back)
Second pinnacle
Looking along the ridge toward the false summit
We found this huge (24 cm), ancient dinner knife on the ridge
Association Peak on the right
Descending the scree slope