Date: January 16, 2022
Location/Route Map: Banff
Elevation: 2025 m
Elevation Gain: 595 m
Distance: 7.9 km
Rating: Class 2
Avalanche Terrain Rating: Simple
Notes: A bad snowpack, like we had, makes reaching this minor summit a major feat! If you're set on bagging this one (you shouldn't be), I'd recommend doing it in summer and just dealing with the deadfall. The only objective hazard is traversing above the snow-loaded south face if you decide to ignore my advice and go in winter anyway.
GPS Track: Download
When we reached our car after a very long, exhausting day snowshoeing Little Copper the day prior, all we could think about was sleep! We crawled into the back of our car with absolutely no plan at all for the next day. Upon waking up, we had to quickly figure out what to do, and looked for something short and easy. Hillsdale Ridge was close, and appeared to be less of a trek than the previous day! The routes that our map showed were very roundabout to reach our destination however. Given that bushwhacking is usually less of a problem in winter, with snow covering a good chunk of the deadfall, we decided to try a more direct route, heading in a northeast direction and aiming to gain the ridge on its eastern end. (People were probably scratching their heads when they saw two dudes strap on some snowshoes, and walk straight into the forest, on the edge of the Johnston Canyon parking lot 😂.) As it turned out, this trip would fail to match both the criteria for which we had chosen it, and would force us to endure far more suffering than we signed up for!
Hillsdale Ridge Route Map (see link in desciption - or click here - for interactive version).
Starting up through the open forest, on the north-east edge of the Johnston Canyon parking lot.
Looking ahead...
It became obvious almost instantly that this trip was going to be a major struggle! Note how the snow breaks apart in big chunks. There was a thick, hard layer on top, but not hard enough! You would take a step, thinking the snow was solid and could hold you, only for it to collapse just as you transferred all your weight to one foot! The constant jolting this caused was extremely frustrating and tiring, and an absolute nightmare to break trail through! Any sane person would realize this trip wasn't worth the effort, and go do something else...but I think I have some sort of mountain climbing disorder, that causes me to endure great suffering rather than give up...
We tried to plan a route based on the contours on our map, but there were numerous ridges and valleys in the forest...none of which our map was detailed enough to depict! This added to the frustration, when we would ascend ridges, under the impression that the slope would steadily lead upwards beyond them, only for them to just be hills that we would have to descend on the other side...
Pretty much sums up the mood...lol
Yup... Photo credit: Dad
At least there were some views every once in a while! Pilot Mountain rises across the valley!
The sun breaks through the clouds for a brief moment!
Copper Mountain!
Hillsdale Ridge itself briefly comes into view! Even with our direct route, we'd have to circle around to avoid those steep, open south slopes.
We eventually got a glimpse of the treed ridge we were aiming for, which would lead us around and up to Hillsdale Ridge.
Ooh! Funky tree :)
Rather than gain the highpoint on the far-south end of the connecting ridge, we angled around it on climber's left. I had faith in the mountain, and continued to hope that the snow conditions would improve at higher elevations...Moral of the story: Don't have faith in mountains...they'll let you down, break your heart, and leave you beat up and broken 😢. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that we would never find anything other than that same trashy snow I described earlier... Photo credit: Dad
On the treed connecting ridge, heading north! Although the contour lines said it was flat, we gained this hill...
...only to have to go back down :(
This hill was actually worth it though ;)...otherwise we would've never gotten this view of Mount Ishbel!
That took a while...
Finally gaining Hillsdale Ridge!!
Pretty snow covered outcrop on the steep south slopes!
Heading up the ridge! This is nice...looks like it'll be a walk in the park now... Photo credit: Dad
Why you hurt me!! I honestly should have seen this coming...Sticking to the edge of the ridge was very risky considering the big, steep, open slope below...not to mention the absolutely horrendous snow conditions (there had been plenty of whumpfing the whole way up, and obvious incohesive strong and weak layers)! As such, we were forced to follow the ridge on climber's right, on steep, down-sloping terrain, through extremely dense bush. Are we having fun yet?!
Pilot Mountain peeks out, over the much more appealing, open ridge!
Extremely frustrated with the dense bushwhacking, we carefully followed the ridge for short sections, whenever we deemed it safe enough...
But since the trees would often push us too close to the edge of the ridge for comfort, we had to spend most of the time here :(. My dad kept trying to convince me that we'd gone far enough, and that it was time for the suffering to end, but I wasn't about to turn around when I was so close!...Mountain climbing disorder, remember? Photo credit: Dad
Gaining the ridge one last time as we approach the summit!
Looking down the open slope.
Mount Ishbel rises into the clouds, looking back down the ridge!
Summit selfie!...Or at least what we think is the summit! The contour lines on our map argued that the highest point was a few meters to the north (in the dense trees), but all we saw, was a steep slope dropping down off the ridge crest...Can't really trust our map at this point anyway, now can we!!
Cloudy view across the valley, including Pilot (center) and Copper (right) rising above the forest through which we snowshoed.
Mount Fifi and The Finger rise center-left, with Muleshoe Ridge below, to the right.
Low cloud blocks out most of Pilot Mountain.
Sundance Peak sits above the bend in the highway, leading towards the town of Banff.
Happy that the suffering has finally come to an end on Hillsdale Ridge 😂! Copper Mountain rises in the clouds behind. Photo credit: Dad
Another guy who's happy he finally gets to go down!
Carefully descending the ridge. Photo credit: Dad
Back in the tree jail!
Action shot 1.0...
Action shot 2.0! Photo credit: Dad
Following the now broken trail back down was much much easier...usually...
Woah! Look what we found!
Carefully retracing our steps over one of many "minefields"!!
Finally back at the parking lot! After a treacherous 6.5 hours of trail breaking to reach Hillsdale Ridge, we were back down in a mere 2.5 hours! (Shows you how bad the trail-breaking was!) Even so, that's still a 9 hour day, and we were pretty dead...I'm sure this picture speaks for itself 😂!
Goodnight.
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