Junction Hill II

Junction Hill II

February 7, 2010

Mountain height:         2236 m
Elevation gain:            700 m
Ascent time:                2:50
Descent time:              2:15

Solo hike.

Super Bowl Sunday. This would be my 30th consecutive year watching the ultimate game of the greatest sport on the planet and so I was extra motivated to get home to see how the Saints would fare against the mighty Colts. I was also a walking disaster, courtesy of the previous day’s stupendous, but brutally exhausting ascent of mighty Mosquito Mountain. As such, I chose the not-so-mighty objective of Junction Hill.

I thought the recent warm weather would have diminished the snow-cover on Junction Hill, but was surprised to see the lower slopes completely devoid of the white stuff. This made gaining the southeast ridge fairly easy. The far south end of the ridge was very interesting – some multi-coloured outcrops of rock, a few twisted trees, and good views of the west sides of Holy Cross Mountain and Mount Head.

Soon, trees took over the ridge making travel a little less exciting, though there were several surprises where the ridge on the left dropped off with exposed uplifts of tilted rock. My pace was pretty darn slow throughout. The excellent weather and improving views the Continental Divide peaks did, of course, provide plenty of motivation to finish the ascent.

After three previous ascents in the area (two of Coyote Hill and a previous ascent of Junction Hill), I finally was permitted to enjoy a cloud-free panorama and a terrific one it was! Of particular interest was the fact that while the skies over the mountains were completely clear, low-lying fog and clouds covered everything east of the Foothills. Apparently that cloud layer extended all the way into Saskatchewan.

For descent, I went down the southwest ridge and slopes. Like the ascent, the most interesting sections occurred lower on the mountain, where view-blocking trees were less of an issue.

Although Super Bowl XLIV didn’t provide the recent, nail-biting finishes of:

XLIII: Pittsburgh 27 – Arizona 23; Santonio Holmes makes, arguably the best touchdown catch in Super Bowl history with 35 seconds remaining, to lift Pittsburgh to victory.
XLII: New York Giants 17- New England 14; David Tyree makes the famous “ball on the helmet” catch, followed by Plaxico Burress catching the winning touchdown, again with 35 seconds remaining in the game.
XXXVIII: New England 32 – Carolina 29; Tom Brady marches the Pats down the field with 1 minute, 8 seconds to go in the game and Adam Vinatieri kicks a 41 yard field goal with 4 seconds remaining.

And of course, my personal and sentimental favourite:

XXXIV: St. Louis 23 – Tennessee 16; the Rams take a 23-16 lead on a 73 yard bomb from Kurt Warner to Issac Bruce, with less than 2 minutes to play. The Titans then drive the ball down the field, but on the last play of the game, Kevin Dyson is tackled 1 yard shy of the endzone by Mike Jones. That play is now known as “The Tackle”.

……it was an excellent game and could have been the first Super Bowl that went into overtime, were it not for an untimely interception near the end of the game. Final score: New Orleans 31 – Indianapolis 17.