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Jumpingpound Mountain |
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Trip No. 109 Elevation Height Gain Time to Reach Objective Degree of Difficulty Scenery Date of Most-recent Outing |
Head west from Calgary on Hwy 1 and take the Sibbald Creek Trail exit (Hwy 68). At the Powderface Trail junction turn left and drive south to the Lusk Pass day-use area (GPS reference 50d59m14s N, 114d57m16s W). As of this writing the sign for this spot is missing. Just look for a large clearing on your right to park. This is just before a small bridge (signed) crossing Jumpingpound Creek. The trail starts across the road from the parking area. Immediately after crossing the footbridge the trail rises into sparse forest. As this trail is used by mountain bikers it never gets too steep. There are numerous switchbacks as you make your way up to the crest of a broad ridge which divides Cox Hill and Jumpingpound Mountain. By the way, if you're doing a late start you should keep an eye out for bikers zipping down the trail as they're unlikely to hear hikers on the trail. If you hike at a constant pace you would have covered just over 3km after one hour. At this point you arrive at a T-junction (GPS reference 50d58m29s N, 114d55m33s W). The branch to the left takes you to Cox Hill. You want to go right here and follow the traverse up open slopes to Jumpingpound ridge. There are two minor highpoints along the way for the next 3km as you lazily gain 165m to the summit. The view is splendid as you advance up the grassy slopes. As you near the summit the trail forks. Take the left branch. Within minutes you're at the top (GPS reference 50d57m03s N, 114d54m23s W). Looking down to the east, a broad ridge connects to Moose Mountain's north ridge. The summit panorama is one of the finest you'll see from the Front Range. Although you're quite far away from them you can easily recognize all the landmark summits. Starting with Banded Peak directly south - this is the pyramid mountain with the dark band sandwiched near the top - the high-point immediately north is Mt. Glasgow. To its right Mt. Cornwall will likely still be snow-covered. In the foreground is 7km-long Nihahi ridge. Further right is Fisher Peak with the right-to-left up-sloping strata. Mt. Bryant is next, followed by numerous unnamed peaks. Almost directly west is Belmore Browne Peak. Mts. Bogart, Sparrowhawk, and Lougheed of the Kananaskis Range fill the distant north-east skyline. Familiar mountains in the northern view include Grotto, Fable, and Yamnuska. Cox Hill is the lush green ridge immediately to the north.
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