2011 Mountain Season Begins - Prairie Mountain

Each year, the combination of short cold winter days, snow and increasing avalanche conditions drive outdoor mountain enthusiasts to smaller and less complex mountains. Many people simply stop climbing and scramblign mountains, instead opting to climb aboard a chairlift that guides them to the summit where they then strap two waxed 2x4's of wood and slide down the slopes. For those, however; that continue to walk and climb up the mountains, the longer days in March are a warm welcome in the midst of cold temperatures

With the coming of March in the Canadian Rockies, the physical and mental preparation for spring, summer and fall scrambles and climbs to taller and more complex peaks begin. It is this time of year that I like to perform increasingly longer hikes and scrambles to increasingly higher elevations (as long as conditions permit). These usually take me to the familiar mountains and peaks of Canmore, Lower Kananaskis and Bragg Creek areas.

Today Prairie Mountain became my first conditioning hike for the upcoming 2011 scrambling and mountaineering season. The forecast was to be partly sunny with a high of -17C, it however ended up being overcast and a high of -26C (thanks to my new Eddie Bauer First Ascent Summit Mitts (review to come shortly) my hands never felt the cold one bit). This hike was also the first of my trips where I will be pushing my pace and endurance as I prepare for my Mt. Meru - Mt. Kilimanjaro expedition scehduled for February 2012.

Prairie Mountain is an innocuous mound of forested rock located across the road from Elbow Falls about 20 minutes past Bragg Creek Alberta with a summit elevation of 2210m (7252ft). Its not an exactly an exciting or visually appealing route - which is one of the reasons I had avoided doing it previously. What it is though, is a sustained climb of 716m (mostly through trees) over a distance of 3.8km (an average slope of approximately 21%, with a maximum slope of almost 51%). The ascent provides little in the way of scenery as there are only a few places where you are close enough to the edge of the forest to overlook the prairie expanse below. After starting out realtively steep from the roadside, the trail flattens for a distance, this is a nice reprieve considering the trail unbeknownst to first-timers, is about to get steeper. In winter I would recommended micro-spikes or crampons as many people were using the trail to descend down on their bottoms - compacting and smoothing the snow making the steep sections quite slippery for those ascending (I had crampons, just opted not to take the time to put them on). As the trail winds its way through the forest, you can lose sight of the summit, but by looking pwqrds you can see the tree crowns stopping, this gives hope that the summit is near. After the final cluster of switchbacks the trail emerges from the trees to an open alpine prairie and a wide gentle approach to the summit begins. This final approach takes about 10-15 minutes in winter.

The summit approach provides fabulous vies of Canyon Creek Valley to the north, Moose mountain however is hidden until you reach the actual summit. The summit cairn consists of a giant pile of rocks with a 10ft branch sticking out the middle. From the summit you get a sweeping view of the surrounding mountains and if you look at the sumit of Moose Mountain, you can see the old fire tower on the summit.

I have had a few people ask the scale of mountains, so I have added a profile of the Prairie Mountain hike and added in a scaled CN Tower image to show the scale.