Bull Creek Hills Challenge

Sat. 23 April:  Bull Creek Hills Challenge

  I almost overdid it today.  But in the end, I made it down safely off the high, snowy ridges of the Bull Creek Hills. 

Just by looking at the time it took me to cover the route (nine kilometres in seven and a half hours) is enough to indicate that this was no ordinary hike.  To reach the summit of these hills, I had to negotiate wave after wave of steep hillsides and ridges, becoming ever more steep and snowy.  Somewhere just below the summit, my legs started to cramp up and for a minute I thought I was going to have to use my emergency beacon – but I reached the summit safely.  However, as the story will tell, that was not the end of the Bull Creek Hills Challenge.

Today, for a change, was cloudless, with no prospect of any change in the weather, except that it would warm up to double digits in the afternoon.  A perfect day to be in the outdoors.  I loaded my mountain bike into the back of the car, figuring I could bike at least a short way up the Kananaskis Highway beyond the winter gate at Highwood Junction.  I was wrong.  The snow still covered the road as it rose up the hill beyond the gate.  

Plan “B” was a hike up the Bull Creek Hills.  So I drove back along the Highwood Valley for a few kilometers to the Kananaskis Country border, where I parked in the snowed-in Highwood picnic area.  The Highwood Valley had looked stunning as I had driven in from Longview, with the large herds of cattle grazing in the open fields, with the mountain wall behind.

It is more or less a direct route up from the road to the eastern ridge of the Bull Creek Hills, except that, after a few hundred vertical feet of climbing, one enters the forest and heads back down again into a hidden valley, Marston Creek.  Then the climbing starts to get serious.  To start with, I had my MICROspikes on, but at the top of this first hill, I switched to snow shoes.  There was deep snow down through the forest, and I simply could not have travelled any further without the ‘shoes.

Once in Marston Creek, I turned west for a few hundred yards then started climbing up the wide ridge, once more swapping ‘shoes for MICROspikes.  I negotiated an easy cliff-band, then climbed up to a low pass, before heading directly up a steep slope overlooked by more cliffs.  It was already hard work, and luckily at that point, I had no idea what was ahead of me.  

Once up over the second cliff-band, where I stopped for a rest and a panoramic view of the valley far below, I struck deep snow, and sank to my thighs.  I quickly reverted to snow shoes, which I needed for the rest of the trip until returning to Marston Creek.

Now I was up on a wide, snow-covered ridge, part of the eastern arm of the Bull Creek Hills.  But I was nowhere near the top yet. Ahead of me soared the snowy hillsides to the summit, far above me.  To reach the summit I first had to gain the next, higher level of this eastern ridge.  From there, the ridge swung westwards and then steeply upwards to the summit.  This final climb took all the skill and energy I had, for the snow was deep, and some of the slopes were very steep, passing over some steep rocky sections.  It did strike me that some of this high country might be avalanche prone, but by now I was fully committed, and so I kept close to the very top of the ridge and close to the trees.

There is one particularly steep piece which passes an interesting rock formation, a single pillar of rock below a leaning cliff.  Here I started to get some cramp in my leg, and had to rest a short while before struggling up the snowy slopes.  But I made it, and soon the summit was ahead of me.  Needless to say, there was no sign of anyone else having been up here recently.  

The summit consists of a narrow ridge with a simple metal pole stuck in the ground.  The views all round were of course breathtaking.  To the west Holy Cross Mountain and all the Front Ranges, and to the east, the slightly hazy foothills and prairie with Calgary only just vaguely visible in the haze.

I did not stay long.  My return route will not be found in any guide book, and now I know why.  Continuing westwards I dropped down a wide ridge to a col.  From there I dropped directly down off the mountain into an open, narrow steep-sided valley.  To reach the valley floor I enjoyed a short controlled bum-slide down the slopes.  

By now, the sun was melting the snow, and my snow shoes sank more deeply into the snow.  The surface was looking glazed, and would ice up overnight to form an impossibly dangerous slope.  Once down into this valley, or “chute”, it was an easy snow-shoe stride down into upper Marston Creek.  For a minute I relaxed, thinking I was now safely off the mountain.  But I had overlooked the fact that I had about a kilometer of very difficult bush-whacking in front of me.  

There was no obvious trail, and once again I had to stop to allow my legs to recover.  I plodded down through the snowy valley bottom, which in summer would be a wet, boggy creek.  Bushes and trees made the going tricky.  Soon the creek became impenetrable, so I climbed up onto the steep valley side, steadily finding a way through forested and open sections, in snow which no longer held my weight.  I knew where I was going, and roughly how far it was, so I just kept to my task and slowly and steadily forged a way through the nightmare.  Eventually I came back down into the meadow where I had turned up onto the ridge, and now knew I would be safe.

But I still had to struggle back up the final hillside through the trees, before the final descent to the car.  High above the road, I stopped and relaxed in the now warm sunshine.  All the way up the ridges I had been treated to spectacular mountain views.  By now, the sun had swung over to the west, and a warm wind was blowing.  The final descent passed by several very scenic limber pines, clinging to the  hillsides, and several large stumps, the remnants of those not-so-lucky pines hit by summer lightning.  

Back at the car, I checked the time to find out that I had been up on that hill for over seven and a half hours.  I felt lucky to have returned in one piece.  Today had truly been a challenge.

Statistics
Bull Creek Hills
Sat. 23 April
Total Dist.	2 km (hike)   + 7 km (‘shoe)  = 9 km
Height Gain	2,550 ft.
Max. Elev.	7,150 ft.
Time	7 hrs. 26 mins.

Other Stats.
Start hike:       8.43 am Summit:         1.29 pm Ret. to car:      4.09 pm Up:       4 hrs. 46 mins. Down:  2 hrs. 40 mins.	Temp. -3 to +10 deg. C Cloudless, with warm westerly wind higher up.  Deep snow.