Indefatigable Ridge

Dist: 4.9km    Elev: 500m    Time: 3h    Difficulty: 3/5

When weekend skiing plans unfortunately fell through at the last minute, I decided to make the best of a free day and a promising weather forecast by heading to the mountains for some solo exploring instead. Mt Indefatigable has been on my hit-list for a few seasons now, and a recent post by Matt Clay inspired me to check out the area during the winter months. To try to summit would be foolish this time of year, but the eastern ridge avoids most avalanche risk and offers arguably equal scenic reward for half the effort. Starting from the Upper Kananskis Lakes parking lot, the trail was easy to follow due to some old yet still very discernible snowshoe tracks. The only difficulty posed by this modest objective was deep powder for much of the climb - a problem easily solved by snowshoes. However, I foolishly (yet again...) decided to leave my pair at home, convinced I would be better off with boot spikes than flat-terrain snowshoes. While my snowshoes may not be the most aggressive model available, after numerous sections of post-holing in waist-deep snow I was certain anything would have been better than my chosen system. Despite the self-inflicted drudgery, views from the ridge were spectacular and I thoroughly enjoyed being back outdoors after the week-long Alberta deep freeze.

Upper Kananaskis Lake.

First views to the south as I emerged from the trees. Lower (left) and Upper (right) Kananaskis Lakes below.

Climbing north along the ridge. Lower Kananaskis Lake below.

My car in the parking lot, far below.

Top of the ridge.

Beautiful winter scenery and dramatic sky.

Soaking it in.

Perfect spot for some solitary reflection.

Mt Indefatigable from the parking lot. I climbed to the top of the ridge on the right.