North Summit

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A Bridge Too Far, IV, WI 4+

North Summit

Page Type: Route

Location: Alberta, Canada, North America

Lat/Lon: 50.89440°N / 115.1875°W

Route Type: Mountaineering

Season: Summer

Time Required: Most of a day

Difficulty: Moderate Scramble

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- 3 Votes

Page By: Dow Williams

Created/Edited: Sep 15, 2005 / Feb 20, 2006

Object ID: 166758

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Page Score: 86.51% - 2 Votes

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Table of Contents

Approach

This is a 4700’+/- ascent day. Park at the Galatea Creek trail head. I chose to bike in, although with a broken hand this was not necessarily any quicker on rooted single track. Cross two bridges on the Galatea Creek Trail and then turn right onto Terrace Trail. Continue north on bike for approximately 10 minutes to a large creek bed bisecting the trail. It was dry in October. Park the bike and head up the right side of the creek bed and find a faint trail heading west above the north bank.

Route Description

This trail leads into the huge drainage bowl for Mount Kidd. The drainage starts to show water as you enter the bowl (October). Continue following the water making your way up the right side of a waterfall via solid rock ledges. Follow the drainage on the right side, staying right of a deep water worn gully. Continue on steep ground realizing you need to constantly bend right working your way to the right side of some steep rock protrusions and finding a gully or two breaking through rock bands to the broad sweeping southern scree field of the southeastern ridge of the north and true summit of Mount Kidd.

The last 1000' up this scree is tedious to say the least, but I stayed somewhat right of the TV repeater tower on the summit (you can easily see the top of this tower from below) so I could use larger talus on my ascent. Despite not having a functioning camera, the views from the summit were grand, including Mount Bogart to the immediate northwest as well as the 11,000+ Mounts Assiniboine, Sir Douglas and Joffre to the west and south.

There was a summit register in 2004. On descent, I chose to see more of the mountain towards the south side of the bowl. I descended straight down fast scree and then traversed right on a faint trail, zig zagging my way through ledges to the very right of the bowl. There is a cool “window” type feature on the connecting ridge from the south summit clearly visible on descent. Eventually, traverse back left to where you ascended above the waterfall. I thought I was moving slow this day because of injuries, but still finished well under 6 hours. The guide book calls for 6-9 hours.

Essential Gear

Bear Spray and Helmet, Alpine Ax, Gaiters and possibly Crampons if Snow/Ice Conditions Prevail.

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