Porcupine Loop Route Map (see link in desciption - or click here - for interactive version).

The route up Porcupine Ridge starts along Porcupine Creek, on the east side of Highway 40. There is a small "parking lot" but the access drops off the side of the highway abruptly...The clearance on our car is pathetic so we played it safe and pulled off on the opposite side of the road. The beginning of Porcupine Ridge is left, with Wasootch Ridge's summit visible to the right.

There are a couple of easy creek crossings early on.

A little over a kilometer in, the creek splits in two, and the route ascends the steep, treed ridge directly in the middle.

Once on the ridge, there's not much to do except follow it!

Ooh! That's neat.

At one point, we followed a trail as it traversed below the ridge crest...

...but eventually had to scramble up some steep slabs to regain it anyways ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .

Wonder why this isn't labelled as Porcupine Tower...?

Looking back down the ridge.

Almost immediately after passing the impressive tower, we realized that we had to backtrack slightly, and drop down to climber's left of the crest, to avoid a cliff band.

Once back on the ridge, it was just a short hike to the summit of our first objective, Porcupine Ridge!

Bryant Ridge Peaks 5 and 6, Mount McDougall, Old Baldy, Kananaskis Peak, and Wasootch Peak, all rise over Wasootch Ridge, blending in in the foreground.

Much more of a drop off this side of the ridge! Looking towards the remainder of the traverse with Boundary Ridge, Boundary Peak, and finally Tiara Peak rising over the two Crown Peaks visible, from left to right.

My dad's been having some fun with the wide angle lens on his phone recently. Photo credit: Dad

Summit cairn.

Some welcome excitement was added to our day, as the ridge narrowed significantly, immediately after leaving the summit of Porcupine Ridge! Photo credit: Dad

Looking back to my dad, following me down the exposed ridge.

More of the ridge.

Eventually the ridge widens again, and we easily traversed around (climber's right) the next slabby highpoint, coming to this disheartening view of a densely forested dip between us and Porcupine Tower...

Luckily the drop is only about 40m, and we were soon regaining it on the other side, remaining in high spirits (for now...) with birds chirping, and warm sunlight breaking through the forest canopy.

The previously mentioned sunlight illuminates a unique tree stump along the way.

Unfortunately, those high spirits were soon vanquished, as the trail started to fade...We soon found ourselves bushwhacking, while trudging through crusty, knee deep snow (that just randomly appeared!), all while the slope began to steepen, as neared the next highpoint, Porcupine Tower! After thrashing around in the bushes, up ever steepening slopes, we soon had our fill and traversed to climber's right until we exited the forest.

Looking ahead, towards Porcupine Tower.

Tiara Peak rises up between Crown Peaks East and West, as we top out on the summit of Porcupine Tower.

Old Baldy's east face dominates the view to the southwest.

Zoooooom.

A wall of rock rises beyond Wasootch Peak, comprised of Mount Bogart, Ribbon Peak, Mount Sparrowhawk, Wind Mountain, and the other three peaks of Mount Lougheed!

Pano to the west is nearly identical to that of Porcupine Ridge, and includes some of "The Bryants", McDougall, Old Baldy, Kananaskis and Wasootch, with Wasootch Ridge blending in below them.

Checking out some cool rock formations on Porcupine Tower. We still had a long ways to go, so we didn't venture very far before starting back along the ridge.

My dad descends a steep gully, as I scramble up a short, steep rock step, to reach a small, adjacent "block" that I thought might be slightly higher.

There wasn't much room on top, with a sheer drop down to the ridge below! Not going down that way...

Descending from the "block" the way I came. Photo credit: Dad

The descent gully we chose (between the two "summit blocks") was quite steep, and required some moderate downclimbing to avoid some slick, lingering snow patches.

Looking back up to Porcupine Tower. I guess it actually looks more like a tower from this side...So the name isn't quite as silly as I originally thought ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Our descent gully is characterised by the narrow strip of snow breaking through the cliffs on the right.

Boundary Peak is one of the more significant peaks we're looking to bag in our ridgewalk loop. It's starting to look closer!

Continuing along the ridge. Photo credit: Dad

It wasn't long before we were heading up scree slopes again, this time leading up to Crown Peak West!

Making the final steps along the summit ridge, with the ridge we just ascended to the left.

Tiara is starting to get bigger...! An easy scramble route circles around the other side of the summit block, and ascends tamer scree slopes (visible here) up the back.

Some B&W action :).

Some B&W action :).

Tiara Peak, along with Bryants 3,4,5, and 6.

Summit selfie! There are so many "summits" along this traverse that I'm not putting one in every time...But here's a random one for ya ;)!

The next stage of the traverse. Boundary, Crown Peak East, and Tiara (not ascended in that order), from left to right.

Heading towards the second of the two Crown Peaks.

The two Crown Peaks aren't far apart, and we were standing on the summit of Crown Peak East in no time. Although both are named, I'm just counting them as one combined summit.

Boundary Peak (left) and Tiara Peak (right), with an unnamed bump between them.

Mount Lougheed's four distinct summits poke out over Mount Allan.

Just one more drop, and then it's all up to Tiara!

Some really neat rock formations along this traverse.

Boundary Peak rises beyond a wide, snowy chute, leading to the drainage below. (Note the interesting clouds above!)

Continuing up the ridge.

Footprints.

Still quite a bit of snow on these north-facing slopes!

Looking back. Crown Peaks rise to the right.

Bryant 5 is rather impressive from this angle.

Nearing Tiara's daunting summit cliffs.

Well...shoot. Upon coming around to the other side of Tiara's cliffs, we were welcomed with this depressing sight. This is the slope that must be traversed to reach Tiara's tame backside...but it's still absolutely loaded with snow! We stood here for a while, longingly staring across the slope, but ultimately knew from first glance that we wouldn't be reaching the summit of Tiara Peak on this day :(. There was simply too much risk.

Even without reaching the summit, this would be the highest point of our long traverse - 2484m. The views speak for themselves.

It definitely hurt to be so close...standing right below the summit cliffs...the summit cairn sitting just meters above our heads...taunting us, but just out of our grasp. Oh well. That's just the way it goes sometimes. We tried not to dwell on it (keyword: tried), and turned our backs on Tiara. We've still got more peaks to bag after all! The next two of which are Belmore Browne Peak (right), and Boundary Peak (left).

Looking back to the traverse. Note the tracks venturing a short ways before ending abruptly. We noticed a small group returning down the ridge ahead of us, and concluded that they'd also planned on scrambling up Tiara, but came to the same conclusion as us.

Side-hilling around the next highpoint in the ridge.

On the opposite side of the horseshoe.

I don't know why, but this was the first time that I really noticed Mount McDougall today ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Even with side-hilling around the highpoint, there's still a significant drop to descend...But don't worry! The ascent up to the next highpoint is much shorter than it appears!

Tiara continues to impress, as we find ourselves on top of the next highpoint in no time.

Approaching the junction between Boundary Peak (left) and Belmore Browne Peak (right). Bagging Belmore Browne was the only real detour we had to make, as all other peaks are just highpoints in the ridge we were following.

Well this is unexpected! Just as we thought it was smooth sailing to Belmore Browne, this minor cliff band appeared in front of us. It turned out to be nothing to worry about, and we welcomed a chance to get our hands dirty.

Looking back up the rock step. This was still only moderate scrambling.

Once through the cliff band, we descended some steep snow slopes, bypassing the highpoint straight down the ridge, and instead sidehilling directly towards the lowpoint along the ridge to Belmore Browne.

Easily following the ridge to the summit of Belmore Browne.

Ooh! A summit register! The first of the day!

Tiara's snow-plastered northern slope. (Yup, it's still taunting me...)

When you're looking back at front range peaks, you know you're pretty much as "front range" as you're gonna get!

The contrast of the brown rock and the snow really stood out to me. I guess that's why it's called Belmore Browne!

Distant Calgary, and the not-so-distant Moose Mountain.

Next up: Boundary Peak (far-right)!

Old Baldy (left), with Gusty, Galatea, and Kidd peeking out in the distance (right), from the highpoint between Belmore Browne and Boundary.

The Three Sisters are also visible.

Can't get enough of this view of Tiara Peak!

Oof. This looks like it'll be a slog...

The "middle highpoint" rises behind us, as we reach the low point before starting up Boundary.

The sun shines beautifully on Belmore Browne as we head up Boundary's scree/snow slopes.

Summit cairn...Yes, there's also a summit register, but I forgot to take a picture of our entry. Guess you'll have to come up here to see it ;)!

The Kananaskis Range rises in the distance, with the long, paralleling Porcupine and Wasootch Ridges in the foreground (left). The wide drainage, where we began our day, is visible to the right.

Zooming-in to the aforementioned Kananaskis Range. Visible are, Fortress, Gusty, Galatea, Kidd, Bogart, Ribbon, and Sparrowhawk!

Looking north, over Midnight Peak, Midday Peak, and Baldy's three summits.

Evening light on the prairies. Black Rock Mountain stands out like a little island.

Back where we came from. Belmore Browne sits far-left, with Tiara being the highest point on the right.

Starting down the opposite side of Boundary Peak.

My dad wanted to start heading down to the drainage here already, but I still wanted to hit the highpoint along the connecting ridge between Boundary and Midday. Labelled as "Boundary Ridge" on maps, I personally don't think it's near significant enough to deserve a name, and although I don't plan on adding it to my summit count, I was so close that I thought I might a well bag it just in case.

Boundary Peak pretty much looks the same from all sides.

A splash of colour along the ridge.

Walking along the summit of Boundary Ridge, with a unique view of Midday (left) and Midnight (right) beyond. Both can be bagged as part of this loop (as described in Vern's trip report), but since we knocked them off back in March, we had no need to gain multiple hundred more meters, and instead looked for a place to descend to the drainage below (west).

We chose to descend a wide, obvious "ridge", sandwiched between two gullies.

The slope was steep, and our feet and knees didn't love it after an already long day, but luckily there were no technical difficulties. Our only hope was that we wouldn't get cliffed out further down!

Success!! Our chosen "ridge" easily led us right down to the drainage, no cliff navigating necessary! I built a cairn near where we hit the drainage, but I don't know why anyone would use this as an ascent route...

Looking back up our descent "ridge".

Following the drainage went without difficulties, and was actually quite pleasant for the first section, with multiple canyon features to admire! Photo credit: Dad

A small waterfall trickles down the steep canyon walls.

Water in motion...

...human in motion!

Hey! That's not supposed to be possible! Trees never fail to amaze me with the crazy places they grow.

Ooh, funky! Eventually we joined with a wider, more major drainage (no more cool features :(), and simply followed it the long ~4.6km back to the highway, where we began our 20km loop. It may make for a long day, but with good weather, this loop is actually quite enjoyable, and makes for a great way to knock off multiple peaks in one go (8 in total if you are able to hit Tiara and then finish off with Midnight and Midday)! When most scramble routes are still covered with snow, this makes for a great early season objective...unless you want to bag Tiara that is...Oh well, I guess we'll just have to settle for 5 peaks instead of 6 ;)!