South Volcano Ridge

Fri. 30 November:  South Volcano Ridge

That’s it!  The winter gates are now closed – but not before I had one final adventure in the snowy back-country.

It was an overcast morning in the city.  The frost was heavy on the trees, making it a pretty sight in the pre-dawn half-light.

Halfway up the Sheep Valley I surprised a large herd of elk which quickly moved away into the trees.  Later in the day, a large group of bighorn sheep grazed beside the road.  From tomorrow they will have the valley to themselves.  For the winter gate closes at 8 a.m. tomorrow (Dec. 1st).

The narrow Gorge Creek road was covered by slippery, packed snow.  So I drove very carefully, especially along the section which clings to the hillside with a steep drop to Gorge Creek below.  At the end of the road, at the Gorge Creek trailhead, a truck with its horse trailer was parked.  Two riders (or one person with two horses - as I later figured) were already on the trail somewhere ahead of me.

I had planned to do a snowshoe/ski trip, but as I drove west up the Sheep Valley, it was clear that there wasn’t enough snow for skis yet. My idea had been to hike/snowshoe northwards up the low level Gorge-Ware connector trail, then ski back along the road.  Instead I did a much more strenuous high level trip.

Dropping down to Gorge Creek from the trail head, I sensed a difference from my last trip here in June.  It was silent!  Gorge Creek, usually a lively stream, was frozen up.  Crossing the bridge over the icy creek, I turned north, through meadows with a light snow cover on the ground.  Horses and hikers had been here since the last snowfall, so the route was easily hikeable (with MICROspikes).

Turning left onto the Volcano South trail, I followed the narrow valley, first flat, then steeply up the endless hillside to the ridge.  I remember this had been hard work in June, but today I managed it fairly easily.  The steepest section is right at the top, just when you think you’re there.  Turning left along the ridge for a few hundred metres, I came to the first viewpoint of the day.  This open hillside gives great views west towards Bluerock Mountain (9,150 ft.) and Mt. Ware, as well as northwards up the gentle slopes of Volcano Ridge.  These vistas were half hidden in swirling mist, but there was also plenty of sunshine. There were also a couple of snow flurries.

Returning to the trail, I stopped to put on my snowshoes, then followed the cutline down and up to the high point of the trail.  Along this section I came upon the two horses from the trailer I had seen in the car park.  Only one horse had a saddle.  The other would be for carrying the hunter's trophy off the hill.  Their owner was somewhere up on the mountain.  A little later I heard the sound of distant gunfire.

To my right, at the trail summit, rose the shapely peak of South Volcano Ridge, a destination that no hiker could resist.  To reach the top I had to do a tiny bit of climbing up the north face, a slippery, snow covered prospect.  Here was the perfect place for lunch.  On my first visit here, back in 1992, over twenty years ago, I had also enjoyed lunch in thick mist, with no views at all.  Today the light was flat, but the snow-covered hillsides rose up into the mist in spectacular fashion.  This was not unlike some of the scenery I recall from winter hikes in Northern Scotland way back in the 1970’s.

Slipping down the steep snowy ridge, I returned to the trail.  Here I found a new trail marker, which led me down off the mountain on a perfect snowshoe route.  This is a brand new trail, called Volcano Link, and was created in 2010.  The guidebook describes this as “Cockerton’s Corkscrew” after the trail designer.  This gives one the general idea of the route, as it plunges over a thousand feet down through the trees to the valley floor.  Along the way it passes beside a superb viewpoint of the eastern foothills.  Up here in the sunshine I could look east to where the low cloud enveloped the prairie and the lower hills.  Calgary today was dull and overcast, hidden somewhere beneath that cloud layer. 

Reaching the valley floor, I turned left and followed the forest trail out to the old abandoned Gorge Creek Trail road.  Now turning south, I trudged along this snowy roadbed for over three and a half kilometres, up over a high point on the road, then down to the gate, back to my original trailhead.  There was about six inches of crusty snow on the road, and animal prints, which, together with the long uphill, would have made it a very difficult ski.  I was better off with my snowshoes.

Reluctant to leave the Sheep Valley, I drove west to the end of the road.  A young couple was pulling their baby along the road in a sled.  There were only a couple of other cars along the way.  I walked down to Tiger Jaw Falls to photograph the ice building up around the tumbling water, and the icicles on the rocks.  It was starting to feel cold, and the sun was setting behind the mountains. 

Before the sun would rise tomorrow, the winter gate would be swung closed, and then this end of the valley would fall silent until next May.  I hope the horse rider got safely off the hill in time.

Statistics
South Volcano Ridge
Fri. 30 November
Total Dist.	9.1 km (‘shoe) +   6.3 km (hike)  = 15.4 km
Height Gain	1,525 ft.
Max. Elev.	6,300 ft.
Time	5 hrs. 25 mins.

Other Stats.
Dep. car:        9.02 am W View:        10.41 am Peak:            11.27 am Road:             1.12 pm Ret. to car:     2.27 pm	Temp: around minus 5 C Sun, cloud, flurries, no wind