Wild Flowers and Wild Peaks
Today was an exciting day of route finding and exploring a remote ridge in Kootenay NP. I had daydreamed about getting a close look at Whitetail peaks since last year, and I had drawn out a route on Google earth but I didn't know if it was feasible as a hike/scramble. So, with no knowledge of previous reports, my dad and I set out to see these peaks up close. We started out in an avalanche gully just south of Vermilion Crossing which thankfully had a long snow patch running a couple hundred meters upslope, but we soon parted from it and gained a steep, vegetated ridge. We followed this ridge for about 900m until it brought us to another connecting ridge. This ridge zigzaged for a couple kilometres until we finally trudged up high enough to see this majestic panorama of the Whitetail peaks. The nearly perfect pyramidal shape of these peaks was a sight to see, and the fact that I didn't even know if this ridge was doable made it even more exciting and fulfilling. The whole trip took my dad and I about 8 hours, and in total theres about 1400m of elevation gain and maybe 12km round trip (just estimating from maps). A tough trip not to be taken lightly, but well worth it if you have the stamina to reach it!
I was struggling to find a decent composition along the ridge until I noticed a small clump of bright purple wildflowers growing in this unlikely crack in the rock. There's always something special to find even in the most seemingly-desolate places
Wild Flowers and Wild Peaks
Today was an exciting day of route finding and exploring a remote ridge in Kootenay NP. I had daydreamed about getting a close look at Whitetail peaks since last year, and I had drawn out a route on Google earth but I didn't know if it was feasible as a hike/scramble. So, with no knowledge of previous reports, my dad and I set out to see these peaks up close. We started out in an avalanche gully just south of Vermilion Crossing which thankfully had a long snow patch running a couple hundred meters upslope, but we soon parted from it and gained a steep, vegetated ridge. We followed this ridge for about 900m until it brought us to another connecting ridge. This ridge zigzaged for a couple kilometres until we finally trudged up high enough to see this majestic panorama of the Whitetail peaks. The nearly perfect pyramidal shape of these peaks was a sight to see, and the fact that I didn't even know if this ridge was doable made it even more exciting and fulfilling. The whole trip took my dad and I about 8 hours, and in total theres about 1400m of elevation gain and maybe 12km round trip (just estimating from maps). A tough trip not to be taken lightly, but well worth it if you have the stamina to reach it!
I was struggling to find a decent composition along the ridge until I noticed a small clump of bright purple wildflowers growing in this unlikely crack in the rock. There's always something special to find even in the most seemingly-desolate places