Banded Peak


			Canadian Rockies Scrambles and Panoramas by T. L. Helmer

Banded Peak - Canadian Rockies

Mountain Photography
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Banded Peak from Rainy Pass

1/2 hour up the wrong drainage
I don't know it yet!

I think I see Outlaw peak at the upper left.
WRONG. It turns out to be my objective.
I'm at the spot marked with a red x in the picture below

Thursday October 2nd 2003

Wow what a big day. And it was awesome for an October day too. I knew, looking at the brilliant fall colors on the way through Bragg Creek that it was going to be a special day.

This trip is a big one. First you have to mountain bike up the Elbow River on a fire road to Outlaw Creek. That's about 16 kilometers.

Then comes a long valley with much scree.

But the trip is worth it. It's some of the most spectacular mountain scenery I've seen. I like this area of the Canadian Rockies. It's pristine.

Alan Kane's guide book says Outlaw Creek is at 15.2 kilometers. I guess my odometer is out of whack. It registered 15.9 k to the drainage I took up the mountain.

As I traipsed up the valley I was wondering what the heck Kane is talking about? A path on the slope above the creek? I don't think so.

A map of the scramble portion of the route with some additional information

After several hours I reached a high col and suddenly noticed that nothing looked familiar.

The drainage from the summit
The spot where I took the WRONG picture is marked with a red x.

The first drainage form the high col

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The summit of Banded Peak from the high col

A snow patch I crossed on the way around the peaks upper reaches. This snow patch is visible in a photo near the bottom of this page that I took back at the mouth of the WRONG drainage

Oops! Wrong drainage. No wonder there was no cairn. Hummm!




Oops 5MB medium-res move

As luck would have it Banded Peak is a large conical mountain of scree slopes and one can just re-navigate to where one should have been.

Harrumph.

After 4 hours and 39 minutes after starting from the parking area I was at the summit. The ride in took 56 minutes so the scramble took 3:43.




USA smog 1.8MB lo-res movie

I took over the roost from a pair of crows. Caw Caw Caw.

I replied back with the same.

Collembola?
Nope!
I saw them hopping but after closer examination of data I think they look like Cicadas.
(order Homoptera)
Any suggestions?

Me wearing a t-shirt.
20 Deg, no wind, Oct 2nd,... Huhh??

Telephoto of Mount Assiniboine

The intervening mountains may be Mount Blaine on the left, Mount Evans Thomas on the right

The Ultimate Outlaw

This 6274x1090 image is a 673 KB compressed JPG, stiched, telephoto image of Outlaw Peak and Mount Cornwall




Caw Caw 500KB low-res movie

Next came the down scramble. I decided to take the normal way out that being Outlaw Creek. I knew what to expect having been down the drainage 4 years ago. It doesn't seem that long ago.

Banded Peak from the Outlaw Creek drainage

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Looking down from the same spot

Along the way I thought about going alone and how I do it. I thinks its defiantly the music. If I didn't have tunes it would be a lot tougher to go alone.

I stopped on the way down at the same spot where Rob Davidson and I had a snack four years ago. Rob shared his cheese with me and I think the oysters were mine but I'm not sure. Henry was behind for about 10 minutes.

Rob's wall. I caught up to Rob here four years ago and he was gorging himself. We shared snacks

I stopped here again for grub. Rob's Grub wall.

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Our camp that night was at the small cluster of trees at the bottom.
Those were the good ol'e days.

I also photographed the spot where we camped for the night.

On the way down this time the trail is noticeable on the east aspect of the valley. I'm sure we would have seen it four years ago had it been as well used as it has grown to be. This valley has seen a lot of traffic in the ensuing years. They do a race to the summit every year!

The trail is visible above our old camp

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The trail is excellent loose scree. You can really fly down it!

Looking back up the trail.
Can you see the trail switch backing in the shady section?
Outlaw is still visible.

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Looking down from the same spot. The main fire road is only 10 minutes away

I fueled myself with dates and raisins at many stops as well a one when I got back to my bike.

Back at the WRONG drainage after a one kilometer hike down the fire road.
Banded peak is visible as the distant peak at the upper right. You can see the snow patch I crossed.

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My bike was waiting patiently for me.

Trusty steed!

Then the race back out to the car. It's fast; you can really fly coming out of this one.

If you are a scrambler treat yourself to a great day in the mountains. Fit hikers can do this mountain too.

Have a good one!

Fall colors on the Elbow River

CANADIAN MOUNTAIN PANORAMAS
Mountain / Image	Java	VRML	Jpg	Size
38. Banded Peak	Java	VRML	JPG	360k

Famous Quotes <-- click

know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism have brought me to my ideas.

Albert Einstein
1879-1955, German-born American Physicist

omething that irritates you and won't let you go. That's the anguish of it. Do this book, or die. You have to go through that. Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.

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