Mount McPhail – September 17, 2005

Mountain height:   2,865 m (9,397 ft)
Elevation gain:       1,290 m 
Ascent time:          6:20
Descent time:        3:30

Scrambling with Mark.

We first saw Mount McPhail in October of 2004, while ascending GR617954. Its shapely pyramidal form immediately caught everyone’s eye and we put it on our “hit-list” right away. The perfect diagonal of the south ridge appeared to provide a straightforward ascent route and could easily be approached via a 10 km bike ride, followed by 3.5 km hike up a headwall to a col, shared by McPhail and Mount Muir.

We were prepared to bring along a full compliment of climbing gear, however, as luck would have it, a recent message on the “Live-the-Vision” website revealed the south ridge to be nothing more than a steep hike and so we were able to travel light – a good thing, given that the previous week’s excessive precipitation had turned much of the McPhail Creek trail into a muddy swamp. The predicted 1.5-2 hour bike ride became a grueling 3.5 hour combination of rough riding, walking the bikes through deep puddles and sloppy mud, and several river/stream fords (hip-waders or runners, a must!).  Fortunately, the views towards Mounts McPhail and Muir were impressive throughout.

After ditching our bikes, we followed a good trail up the very scenic headwall (great waterfall) to the even more scenic landscape of the Weary Creek area: a shallow tarn, back-dropped by McPhail, rolling hills, snow-covered Mount Muir, and a host of  other shapely peaks to the west.

In order to try and make up some lost time, we headed directly up McPhail’s southeast ridge – a somewhat foreshortened scree slog with some terrific scenery over the east face of the mountain. As we gained elevation, the quality of the view to the south (Muir, Strachan, Shankland, Armstrong, etc.) increased exponentially, more reminiscent of a scene from the dead of winter than mid-September. The increasing volume and depth of fresh snow also enhanced the ascent, although higher up we found ourselves postholing passed the knees.

As mentioned, the slope was quite foreshortened and our turn-around time of 1:45 pm soon became 2:00, which then became 2:30, which eventually ended up as 3 pm. Great weather and outstanding scenery kept us moving, even though we had to be back in Calgary before 8:30 pm. We dragged ourselves onto the summit at 3:05 to an absolutely phenomenal view in all directions. While the valleys had managed to rid themselves of the recent snow, significant amounts of the white stuff clung to every mountain within eye-shot: Mounts Bishop and Loomis dominated to the north, beautifully back-dropped by Mist Mountain and company; the southeast face of Joffre and King George towered over everything to the northwest; and the Highwood Range, with Holy Cross and Mount Head at the south end, looked particularly interesting with the snow-cover. Once again, however, the array of striking peaks immediately to the south was the show-stopper.

Our summit stay amounted to no more than 10 minutes. We were approximately 2 hours behind schedule and wanted to get down fast. Fortunately, the snowy terrain allowed for some rapid elevation loss initially, as we went directly down the centre of the south face, glissading in a few places. Lower down, a significant rockband forced us back to our ascent route, left (east) of the centre gully.  Without the snow, this gully would have provided a great ascent route with lots of hands-on scrambling. By the same token, with a great deal more snow, one could probably glissade down the entire peak using our ascent route, more east of the middle. The entire descent was thankfully quite fast and the slightly downhill, 10 km bike ride back to the car, mercifully easier than the its uphill counterpart. Our only regret of the day was that we didn’t have the time (or the energy, for that matter) to ascend equally easy Mount Muir, south of Weary Creek Gap. A bivy at the tarn would be an excellent way of getting both peaks and enjoying some outstanding scenery.

Overall, a wonderfully rewarding and scenic day out.          

An early morning look at Mount Muir

Mount Muir (left) and Mount McPhail (right) from near the start of McPhail Creek trail

Same as above (note the stylish hip-waders!)

The perfect diagonal of McPhail's south ridge

More beautiful scenery along McPhail Creek

Some short-lived, easy bike riding, towards McPhail 

Mount Muir; the headwall is at the right

Ascending the headwall, again with Muir in the background

The tarn and Mount McPhail

Ascending easy slopes of the south face

Same as above

Mark on the slightly steeper grades, higher up

Looking over to Mount Muir

Vertical rock scenery of the easy face

One of the terrific views to the south; Mount Shankland (right) and several unnamed peaks

Mark, ascending the upper slopes 

The upper slopes 

Mark on the snowy upper ridge

More drop-offs on the east face

Almost there; summit cairn visible  

Holding up a Gummy Worm at the summit

The summit view to the north; Mounts Bishop and Loomis in the foreground, Mist and company in the background

The summit view to the southeast; the Highwood Range, with Mount Head and Holy Cross Mountain in the background

A northwest view, with Joffre (centre) and King George (far left)

A closer look at Mount Joffre

A closer look at Mount Muir

Another snowy, south-facing summit view

Heading down the centre of the south face

Back at Weary Creek Gap, looking at Mount Muir

Same as above, but looking north to the south face of Mount McPhail; we ascended the right side of the slope and then descended down the centre, for a short distance

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