June 2007

Parking area: Side of the road (Highway 541). 1km west of Sentinel Parking Lot

I'm not much of a fan of the Don Getty area, but with all the recent rain and snow; the front range seemed like the best option. Holy Cross Mountain has been getting too much attention lately, so we set out to do the nameless peak to the south. In keeping with naming peaks after defunct Calgary hospitals (Holy Cross Hospital), I figured I'd call this peak "Colonel Belcher Mountain".

From Longview, head up Highway 943. Park on the right hand side of the road, 1km west of the Sentinel Parking lot. The trailhead lies to the right of Gunnery Creek, and is marked by red tape and a yellow plastic cap stuck on a tree.

Head up Gunnery Creek Trail. The path can be found in the Highwood & Cataract Creek Gemtrack topo maps.

2: At some point, turn left onto any one of the numerous animal trails. Bushwhack in a NW direction (North is the upper right hand corner of the map). The bushwhacking is steep, unpleasant, and unavoidale.

3: The second rockband cannot be bypassed until reaching the cliff at the northern end of the face (3). The cliff overlooks a valley which leads to Holy Cross Mountain. The final stretch involves a bit of route finding and moderate scrambling, but if in doubt traverse in a northern direction. 

The crux consists of a short climb which accesses the ridge (below right). There is a rock wall to the left and a sheer drop off the cliff to the right, making for an Imodium moment. Before proceeding, bear in mind that this will have to be downclimbed on the way back. There are no other options for bypassing the second rockband.

After the harrowing crux, its an 'easy ridgewalk' to the summit of "Colonel Belcher". The ridge itself consists of moderate scrambling with a single Lady Mac ridge moment. Theoretically, "the Belcher", Holy Cross, and Mount Head form a contiguous ridge system; however, the downclimb necessary to access the Holy Cross Ridge system is plain nasty. Looking beyond, a couple of pinnacles, gendarmes and down-climbs did not inspire confidence. I'll leave exploration of the full ridge system to people braver than myself.

Aside from the thrill of exploration, the scramble itself was rather uninspiring. Having said that, I don't find the views from mountains in this area all that interesting.