Jumpingpound Mountain

Sat. 24 November:  Jumpingpound Mountain

Only a week to go until the winter gates swing closed for another long season.   I was keen to choose a destination beyond the gates.  In a last-minute decision, I chose Powderface Mountain.  The trailhead is at a high point along Powderface Trail.  This narrow, gravel road, although well maintained, was snow packed and icy.  Luckily there was almost no traffic on it, and so I took my time driving the first ten kilometres from the northern end at Sibbald Creek to the start of my hike.

Nobody had been up the summit trail since the last snowfall.  This made it a perfect snow shoe journey up the steep forested hillside on the well graded switchback trail.  The sun shone through the trees but it was a cold morning, perhaps around eight degrees below freezing.  Halfway up the summit trail, the ground eases off a bit.  Don’t be fooled!  There is plenty of climbing still ahead to reach the ridge.  And then there is more climbing still, before one breaks out of the trees onto the open slopes leading to the summit of Jumpingpound Mountain.

There was plenty of snow along the ridge, but the final open section to the summit was almost snow-free.  I stopped to take off my snowshoes and to put on my MICROspikes for the final few hundred feet to the top.

Jumpingpound Mountain, at 7,350 ft., is the highest point along the whole line of ridges stretching from Cox Hill in the north to Powderface Ridge in the south.  Yet it is one of the easiest summits to reach from a road.  Of course, the views were spectacular, particularly on such a bright sunny day. The line of snowy peaks stretched across the whole western horizon.  There was a line of cloud above the mountains, but it was bright and sunny eastwards from there.  A biting wind blew across the open hillsides, although it was very pleasant in the sheltered, sunny sections.

Stretching eastwards from this summit is a line of gentle ridges which eventually connect to the enormous bulk of Moose Mountain, 7,995 ft.  I decided to head east to the first and most prominent peak along the way.  A trail could be seen on the open snow-free sections.  Soon after dropping off the summit, I entered a forest where the snow was deep.  I put my snowshoes back on and slogged down through the trees to the col and then up the other side to the open hilltop.  Here I could enjoy the view back to the summit, which looked high and remote.  

To the south and east stood Moose Mountain, with the fire lookout clearly visible on its summit.  The full trek to Moose would make a great summer hike, when there would be plenty of time to make a long one way trip or a strenuous circuit of ridges.

Today I turned around at this first hilltop along the east ridge.  I fought my way back down and then up through the trees across the snow.  As I arrived back at the summit, two women strode up the ridge.  We exchanged cheery hellos and I told them I had made a trail for them to the next peak to the east.  Since they didn’t have snow shoes, they wouldn’t have got far.  In fact, they did very well getting to the summit.  On my return down the ridge, I saw that they had come up the long way from the south, and not up my access trail.

It was a fast descent down the perfect snow shoe trail to the car.  I had seen no other travelers.  I decided to continue southwards along the twisting, narrow Powderface Trail, driving extremely carefully as it would have been very easy to have slipped off the side of a cliff or into a deep ditch.  Luckily I saw perhaps one car coming the other way, and a few parked trucks.  The occupants of one truck were securing a large Christmas tree in the back – surely illegal! Finally after about twenty kilometres of cautious driving I came out into the Elbow River Valley. 

The section of road over the Rainy Pass was slick and snow packed.  I passed the winter gate, knowing that it would not be until next May that I would next be driving over that Pass.  But I might just come back in mid-winter for a long ski trip, past the gate and into the silent reaches of the upper Elbow Valley!  

Statistics
Jumpingpound Mtn + East   Ridge
Sat. 24 November
Total Dist.	8.4 km (‘shoe) + 0.4 km (hike)  = 8.8 km
Height Gain	1,785 ft.
Max. Elev.	7,350 ft.
Time	3 hrs. 36 mins.

Other Stats.
Dep. car:        8.59 am Summit:       10.25 am 1st Top:        11.04 am Summit:       11.42 am Ret. to car:   12.35 pm	Temp: minus 8 C to about zero Sunny, a few clouds over mtns., cold breeze on the open slopes