Grotto

July 20, 2018

Second acclimatization hike. Kat and I drove out to the quarry at the base of Grotto Mountain's south ridge. It took a bit of poking around to find the trailhead as it is not marked, but we prevailed in the end, finding a small dirt parking lot with a hidden trail through the bushes. Once on it though, a very well maintained path began ascending gradually until it crossed a service road. Here a cairn marked a faint path, but the well maintained trail continued in the same direction about 10 meters off to the side. We debated which trail to take and decided on the wide one. This took us into a spectacular canyon, and then to a cave with some sort of base camp setup with lots of signs and barriers warning us to keep out. The trail stopped here and some map consultation showed us our error, as the trail we were supposed to be on was on top top the canyon wall high above us. Some flagging behind the tent showed a faint, but very steep scramble route out which we followed. This worked and one steep, dirty pitch even had a rope hand line set up for aid. A short walk through the forest brought us to the proper trail and we began a steep ascent up the ridge. The rocks underfoot were full of fossils which made great footholds on the smooth limestone slabs. As we climbed higher, the trail became steeper with lots of loose switchbacks and the occasional step of rock to be scrambled over. The climb was relentless and our calves were burning due to the constant friction moves on gravel encrusted dirt. When we hit the alpine, a fantastic lookout with a sheer drop to the valley floor below provided a perfect perch for a snack before continuing on our way upwards. From here on, the terrain was a blocky alpine scramble, which was much nicer than the dirt slog through the woods. Katja was slowing down though, so the final 300 meters of this took a very long time. It was fun scrambling though, with a narrow ridgeline and a couple of gendarmes to work around, after which we popped out onto the false summit with spectacular views in all directions. It was now noon so we sat down for lunch and after figuring out how much time it would take to traverse over to the real summit, a few kilometers away (and back) we decided to call it a day. The descent was slow. The scramble down the alpine zone was fun with some route finding necessary to pick suitable lines. Once back in the trees, the relentless, steep, dirty trail took some more time to negotiate safely. Thankfully it was not raining, otherwise this would be a very slippery and dangerous trail. We met two other guys near the lookout, but otherwise saw no one else on this beautiful day. We popped out on the service road at the cairn, chiding ourselves for the error in the morning, but it did provide a neat walk in the canyon that we would not have seen otherwise. We finished back at the car after a little over seven hours of hiking.

Lost in a canyon.

Fossils along the way.

Breaking out of the trees.

Arriving at the false summit.

Looking over at the true summit

Looking down at Canmore.

One of the nicer parts of the decsent trail.

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