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Mount Cory |
| Elevation 2825m Height Gain Time to Reach Summit Degree of Difficulty Scenery Date of Most-recent Ascent |
A long and demanding scramble. There's additional elevation that is lost/gained as the approach is interrupted by gaps. By the time you're done you'll have tagged on another 50-60 vertical meters to your day. Mt. Cory does not appear to be a very popular spot as the summit register was place there in 1993 and is still only half full. We were the third group to sign the book in 2001. Follow Highway 1 west past the town of Banff. Take the Bow Valley Parkway (1A) turnoff. After 2.0km park at a pull-off area on the north side of the road (GPS reference 51d09m51s N, 115d40m52s W). A recognizable trail heads into forest. Within a hundred meters or so the trail splits. Take the right branch but do not follow it for long. On your right through gaps in the trees you should see the lower slopes of the ascent ridge. Make a break for the steep terrain and head for the crest of the ridge. The angle is unrelenting and there are only short sections where you can rest your tired legs. After some 700 vertical meters you finally emerge on a flat grassy saddle. Turn right here and strike up slabby sections, but before you do look back to where you came up. On the return trip you'll want to stay on the right (west side) of the ascent ridge on a good trail. This leads to excellent scree further down and a rapid descent. Near the bottom head left as the gully shallows out and joins up with the trail that you had left at the beginning of the day. When you get to the top of the bump ahead you may well feel disappointed that you have to loose precious elevation before you can proceed. From this point on there is a continuous line of cairns to lead you up the mountain. You've only done half of the elevation and the summit is still hidden from sight. What you see in the distance is just the false summit with vertically tilted strata. While the cairns do a reasonably good job at guiding you on the easier paths, there is still plenty of hands-on scrambling up chimneys and along ledges. There are the occasional steep sections, but there is no exposure. As you approach the base of the false summit stay to its right and follow easy-angled slopes through a couple of saddles. Once you come over the first rise you will see Cory's twin summits ahead. To get to the first summit you have to walk just past it from below and double-back up. A sizable cairn is on top (GPS reference 51d12m12s N, 115d41m27s W). Don't bother searching for the register here - it is over at the other summit. A short 15 minute walk along the connecting ridge puts you on the marginally higher north peak (GPS reference 51d12m14s N, 115d41m13s W). Mt. Cory is on the southeast end of the Sawback range. So looking northwest, you'll see the near-vertically tilted layers of unnamed peaks. Castle Mt. is just to the left of this line-up. To the northeast, nearby Mt. Louis's arrowhead shape is not as apparent as from other aspects. The high-point beyond is Mt. Brewster of the Vermilion Range. Directly east is tri-peaked Mt. Edith. Far below is the trail heading up to Cory Pass and into Gargoyle Valley. In the distant east is a face-on view of Cascade Amphitheater. South of Cascade Mt., Mt. Rundle towers over the town of Banff and Sulphur Mt. To the southeast is the Sundance Range; in the distance pointy Mt. Assiniboine pokes above the south end of this range. To the south, Goat's Eye, Eagle Mt., and Mt. Howard Douglas make up the Sunshine Ski area. In the southwest is Mt. Bourgeau, and squarish-looking Pilot Mt. is to the east. Looking up the Bow Valley to the northeast, the prominent peaks in the Lake Louise Group are clearly visible - the most notable is of course Mt. Temple.
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