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Mount Galwey
Waterton, Alberta
June 25, 2004
Distance: 6.0 km (3.7 mi)
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 950 m (3117 ft)
Mount Galwey is the best scramble I've done so far in Waterton. Although it doesn't have the views of, say, Hawkins Horseshoe, Mount Galwey offers some good hands-on climbing. After the first time I climbed it years ago, I vowed to return with a camera. And so I did, along with Dinah.
The route starts on a trail from a picnic spot before ascending a ridge that leads to a scree slope below Galwey. We followed a trail that angles across the slope. After rounding a corner, we ascended a steep gully and reached the crux. Oddly, I found the crux – a traverse on small ledges – easier years ago when I was less experienced. But like my first ascent, I had trouble finding the way up to the summit from the window after the crux. What Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies calls "the path of the least resistance" is actually a chimney left of the window.
MOVIE
Mount Galwey
Hiking up the lower slopes
Some wild scenery can be found on the lower slope
Mount Galwey from the abutting ridge
Hiking up a slope covered in the red argillite
Looking back along the ridge
A trail cuts in the scree on the left and leads to the skyline ridge (mouse over for a close up)
Nearing the top of the scree slope
After angling up the slope, the south peak comes into view
We can see the mushroom rock on our left
Heading to the top of the gully
Near the top of the gully
Scrambling up
The crux is just around the corner on the left
Looking east at Bellevue Hill
The crux: traversing small ledges to the window
It's a long, slow traverse
Looking back at the traverse from the window
Dinah scrambles up to the window
I reached the window (mouse over to see the backside)
Left of the window, we ascended a chimney to the summit
Mount Crandell seen from the summit
Dinah starts down from the summit
Coming back down the ridge
82 H/4 Waterton Lakes
