Scrambling Something Bald

Ok, a bit of delay in posting this, but here it is. Sunday, August 15th was my first scramble of the year. I had intentions of doing one scramble per month from May on, but raising my kid and taking care of my wife was my priority. So now that things are settled, I organized a scramble and off I went.

Here is GPS data, if you want to get lost like we did.

This scramble brought along new friend and dude I work with who just moved from High Level. Woop! Another northerner! His girlfriend came along as she was visiting from Saskatchewan. Also, an old friend came along as well. So four of us trudged out to Mt. Baldy on a Sunday afternoon.

This was the view looking from the road. The summit there is actually West Baldy, attainable through a traverse from the summit ridge, but we never made it to there. But I’ll say we did.

The ascent was actually a nice hike through the woods along a dried up stream bed. Overlooking us the entire time was the ridge to the north. For some reason I thought we were supposed to be ascending via the ridge, but perhaps we’d get there in time.

We quickly ascended and gained some elevation. The pace at first was quite quick, but we slowed down as the grade become steeper. It was also at this point that I realised we were ascending the descent route. We were supposed to ascend via the ridge as I had originally (and the guidebook said) thought.

The trees quickly gave way to a scree slope, which is fun to descend, but tough to ascend. You can see the summit ridge that goes south west to West Baldy summit.

The push for the summit ridge along the scree slopes. Always a challenge to climb this stuff.

I really liked this shot, as it shows the entire ascent. You can see the road way down there and Barrier Lake across the road. It also shows the ridge to the north that we should have ascended.

There was a good spot for a photo, so as I hiked out there I asked fellow scrambler to take photos. Once I got there, however, my batteries died, so no hero shot.

I was happy that someone else got the photo cause it turned out well!

The views to the east toward Calgary were fantastic as Baldy is on the front range, so you’re way above the rest of the landscape. BTW, I was handing a camera to her, and I didn’t even know this photo was being taken.

There was one spot with some technical scrambling, and I really enjoyed it! I love spots like this.

I know, I know… so many photos of me! But again, the advantage of climbing with other people who enjoy taking photos!

Ah the summit! Such a perfect day for climbing.

The best part about the ascent is eating food while at the top!

This was their first scramble, and Barrier Lake provided a fantastic backdrop for a rather photogenic couple!

The nice part about scrambling with other people is that they take photos, and every once in a while, a nice hero shot comes out! This was totally unplanned!

Along the descent, we found a Flintstone couch which provided a great group photo op! I really like this photo!

We came down this slab, and unfortunately we came down the wrong side of this ridge. We should have come down the other side of the ridge which would have kept us on the main path. But alas, we lost the trail on the descent and had to bushwhack back to the road.

And when I say bushwhack back to the road, I mean it! A few game trails, but pretty much steep moss and loose sticks. No biggie, we made it!

So yeah, I finally got to climb Baldy. A good climb, but perhaps I will take the ascent route next time! I’m hoping to have time for at least once more climb this year before the snow flies! Stay tuned!