 Gap
Peak - Canadian Rockies
Friday September 26th
2003
My original
objective, Banded Peak, is a long day. I was laying in bed,
healing/sleeping when it occurred to me that although I had missed my
opportunity for Banded Peak, at roughly 10:30 AM there was still
enough time to get to a scramble I had completely forgot about, Gap
Peak.
With that realization
I bolted from the sack, suddenly energized with the realization that
I could be on a summit near the Bow Corridor, on a beautiful fall
day.
That's an incredible
enticement to me!
After the
preparations and drive I found myself under way, going up, at 1:00 PM.
On the way at last I
was surprised by the familiarity of it all. I thought
summer was over but on a day like today, a beautiful fall day, it
seems that all of the best is saved for the last. The fall colors
and temperature were perfect.
 n such pleasant conditions, I reflected on my
growing belief that difficult exercise, alone in such demanding yet
awesome settings does not grow strength but power.
The distinction being that power unlike strength garners more
personal responsibly. You have to harness it like a flame, or it'll
burn ya!
It had been a long
time and I was grateful to be on the mountain again, in excellent
settings and conditions.
I was going up slope,
had great views, could smell the forest and fresh air and was on a
great peak.
This little Bow Corridor peak was more demanding than I thought
it would be. Unlike it's neighbors Exshaw Mountain and Doorjamb
Mountain, this one demands a few more hours of exertion.
After about an hour
you exit the trees onto a pleasant slope of firm scree.
Up the scree is a
cliff that must be circumnavigated. There's a trail on the right
(east) side. After that is a steep slope with trees. The slope
tends back to the left after rounding the base of the cliff.
Lo and behold you
find yourself at another obstacle. A short amount of scrambling
brings you to another cliff.
This time you have to
go on the other side of the cliff. I'm not bluffing! Go to the left side (west) of it.
After that more
slopes. Argggg! Just keep on plodding.
Once on the narrow
summit ridge you can finally see the summit proper. Uh...., oops...,
the false summit.
This last part
is fun, but be cautious. Although it's not terribly exposed, the wind
can be gusty in this region of the Canadian Rockies. You have to
walk with deliberate steps, anticipate each foot placement and
generally crouch to maintain a low center of mass and therefore be
less bifurcating.
The ridge is a good
scramble but please be cautious as even a small fall can have lethal
consequences. At one point my concentration lapsed for just a split
second and I stepped on a rock that rolled under foot at an exposed
section.
It was a freak rock!
I reacted perfectly
but it just goes to show how with a long ridge like this, with gusty
wind, care and
attention are tantamount to survival unscathed.
After a 25 minute
break for food, water and panoramas on the summit, the increasingly
hostile gusts forced me to abandon my hard fought throne.
The down climb was
more difficult, as always, but the knowledge that I had succeeded
helped.
I was buoyed!
|
Looking back to
the Canadian Rockies at sunset
On the way home |
CANADIAN MOUNTAIN PANORAMAS
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| Mountain / Image |
Java |
VRML |
Jpg |
Size |
37. Gap Peak  |
Link |
Link |
Link |
513K |
 he
poetical impression of any object is that uneasy, exquisite sense
of beauty or power that cannot be contained within itself; that is
impatient of all limit; that (as flame bends to flame) strives to
link itself to some other image of kindred beauty or grandeur; to
enshrine itself, as it were, in the highest forms of fancy, and to
relieve the aching sense of pleasure by expressing it in the
boldest manner.
William Hazlitt
1778-1830, British Essayist
©
CanadasMountains.com + Tim L. Helmer
Friday February 08, 2008 11:19 AM
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