Dist: 5.8km Elev: 805m Summit: 7191' Time: 3h Difficulty: 4/5
Baldy Mountain is one of the first peaks to greet southbound travelers along Highway 40 and, as such, I have given it many passing glances while en route to more "worthwhile" Kananaskis objectives. However, while searching for something that would be short and close to home, yet still offering the potential for interesting summit views, I decided it would be worth a go. And so a plan was hatched and Byron and I headed off for yet another questionable winter excursion.
Knowing the stats ahead of time prepared us for the short and steep ascent requiring constant grind and frequent hands-on scrambling sections. I have grown quite fond of this sort of pseudo mountaineering and enjoyed the numerous "choose your own adventure" opportunities along the way. Views of Barrier Lake below were increasingly impressive and we arrived at the summit in what felt like no time at all. There was only one factor detracting for the otherwise all-around excellent trip: frigid and relentless wind blowing directly in our faces for most of the morning. Having become somewhat numb to these kinds of conditions, Byron and I were prepared with enough layers to make it work, but we certainly were not looking to prolong our summit stay much beyond capturing the customary hero shot.
Mount Baldy was a short, interesting, and surprisingly scenic scramble given its close proximity to Calgary. And it is always nice to bag a respectable peak with a buddy and still be back home in time for lunch and an afternoon with the family.
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| Getting higher. |
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| Barrier Lake below. |
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| Summit hero shot. Hard to tell here but we were literally being blown off balance. |
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| Byron tolerating another photo op while slowly freezing to death. |
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| Returning back down. |
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| Scenic descent, headed straight up that rocky spine. |
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| Final look before dropping back into the trees. |
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