| The Fist | |
| Elevation: 2700m | Gain: 770m | Difficulty level: Difficult |
| Ascent time: 3.5 hours | Total trip time: 7 hrs | Conditions: Dry (Storm on descent) |
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Parking area: Mt Shark/Engadine Lodge access Road. You will pass the turn off to Engadine lodge. The trail parking lot is on the left, approximately 0.9 km from the Smith-Dorrien
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The Fist offers some very fun technical scrambling and in theory some pretty impressive views of the Spray Lakes area, as well as Mount Assiniboine. The approach should be relatively short, but we ended up being delayed after seeking shelter waiting for lightning to pass. I suspect this would be an outstanding scramble if we had seen the summit views in full sunlight. |
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| ROUTE | |
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Follow the old logging road from the parking lot. Ignore the cairns on the right. When you come to a fork in the road, take the right turn off |
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| Follow this
trail until you come to an open meadow. If you look to the right, you will
see Mount Smuts and the Fist (see below). Take the avalanche chute closest
to Mount Smuts. The foliage is pretty dense, and the bushwhacking is far
more tedious than one might initially suspect. Feel free to try other
avalanche chutes, but unless you really enjoy dense bushwhacking, they
suck!
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With the annoying bushwhacking behind you, head right on the ridge to the Fist. The positioning of Mt. Smuts and The Fist reminded me a lot of Niblock and Whyte. Once you access the ridge, what seemed like an impenetrable face reveals the path (hidden from view from the meadow). |
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The final approach takes you up a very steep gulley. Scramble up the gulley until you can go no further (sharp drop-off fortuitously blocked by a large boulder acting as a rail). The view up here was fantastic, but I couldn't find enough room to take a picture :) Head left and scramble up to the top. |
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| The gully was a lot of fun scrambling, and reminded me of the tunnel on Edith (S peak), but it was longer and much steeper. I enjoyed the fact that this was a technical scramble without 'airy' views. However, as with any difficult scramble, slipping in the gulley would likely be a life altering event. Furthermore, as is always the case, the descent is harder than the ascent. It wasn't too bad, but there was one tricky section, where downclimbing is easier if someone can spot hand and footholds (not shown due to a lack of desire to show downclimbing people's bums) | |
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