East End Rundle

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East End Rundle

Trip No. 126

Elevation
2564m - 1st summit

2568m - 2nd summit

2623m - 3rd summit

Height Gain
899m - 1st summit

903m - 2nd summit

958m - 3rd summit

Distance (one-way)

2.81km to 1st summit

2.96km to 2nd summit

3.69km to 3rd summit

Time to Reach Summit
2.0 - 3.5 hours to 1st summit

Add 0.25 - 0.5 hours to 2nd summit

Add 0.5 - 1.0 hours to 3rd summit

Degree of Difficulty
1.5 of 5 to 1st and 2nd summits

4 of 5 to 3rd summit

Scenery
2 of 5

Date of Most-recent Ascent
July 6, 2003

Download GPS Track

From Canmore, follow signs to Spray Lake. Keep going past the Nordic Center. Once you pass the Grassi Lakes turn off the road degrades to washboard gravel. This is the north end of the dusty Smith-Dorrien Highway. At the top of the reservoir just before the road drops downhill, park on a clearing on your left. Alternatively, you can leave your car at the Goat Creek parking lot at the bottom of the hill (GPS reference 51d03m43s N, 115d25m05s W).

Walk back up the road to the sign marking the boundary of the Bow/Crow forest. The trail head is about 10m past the sign on your left (GPS reference 51d03m55s N, 115d25m02s W). As of this update the sign is missing; only the black metal frame remains.

The trail rises in moderate angle and clears treeline in less than an hour. As you come to the first few clearings check out the sheer cliffs of Ha Ling Peak to the east - a popular climber's milieu. Further on the path leads you up rockier terrain, overcoming rockbands through convenient notches and bypasses.

After just over an hour the summit ridge comes into sight. It is here that you first get a sense of the enormity of the Rundle uplift. As you look west, a number of the Rundle peaks are in view.

In another 20 minutes you arrive at gentle sloped meadows. Many people will give in to temptation and wile the rest of the day away in this idyllic setting. The first summit objective is still 30 minutes of stiff hiking away.

Make your way up moderate angled scree towards the ridge up ahead. You want to stay right of the first summit and attack it from the east. At first the cliff bands seem impenetrable, but as you get closer you'll realize that everything here looks like a giant staircase. There are only a couple of spots of real scrambling above some mild exposure. At the end of this section sneak through a notch and up a steeper section of rubble. The first summit lies just beyond (GPS reference 51d04m50s N, 115d25m16s W).

From the first summit a short traverse along the sometimes-ragged ridge-top puts you at the slightly higher second summit (GPS reference 51d04m50s N, 115d25m27s W).

Looking down to Canmore, the development of this once sleepy town is all too obvious. Directly north across the highway is Mt. Charles Stewart; to its right Mt. Lady MacDonald. Further east is Mt. Grotto. To the east, Ha Ling Peak lies inconspicuously below Mt. Lawrence. The mountains that form the Goat Range are to the south, with Old Goat Mt. to the southeast. You should be able to spot Old Goat Glacier nestled within its western flank.

At the second summit, work your way west along the ridge. You'll loose some precious elevation as you proceed, but this is the least of your worries. As the ridge rises again after the dip you're confronted with two back-to-back narrow sections each some 4-5m long. Both are similar to the crux at Mt. Lady MacDonald: High angled slabs on the left and exposure on the right. You'll likely be straddling parts of this knife-edge as you work your way across. If you find this stuff exciting it's only a teaser. When you come up against rock thrusting straight up you'll have to drop down to the right to proceed. For the next 50-60m you have to traverse along narrow ledges high above the north-facing bowl. This section is exposed, and although the drop is not very long you'll definitely want to be careful here. There is only one feasible line of approach, so don't bother looking up or down for something easier. Eventually you'll come to a small clearing on top of a gully. Cross this and go over one more hump, then head left and scramble up steep rock for some 10m. Toil up the last short section of rubble and you're at the third summit (GPS reference 51d05m05s N, 115d25m47s W). The view really isn't any better than the first two summits, and the elevation is a paltry 60m higher. This is truly a scrambler's objective.

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