01
Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Wendell Shoulder Peak
- Location: Canmore
- Activity: Scrambling
- Height: 2,054 m (6,739 ft)
- Elevation Gain: 1,440 m (4,725 ft)
- Distance: 16.7 km / Loop (10.4 mi)
- Avg Steepness: 9.8°
- Estimated Time: 7.5-9 hrs
- Technicality: Intermediate
- Fitness Level: Hard
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Apparently there isn't much information about the true summit of Wendell Mountain. We could only find Nugara's successful trip report, Bob Spriko's attempt, and a guy whose name is Wendell Mountain on Facebook. We made such a stupid mistakes to prevent us to summit the true peak but I will report my trip anyway. I'm pretty sure someone can make use of it.
We parked at Yamnuska Parking and took the normal east Yamnuska route until we got on Yam's shoulder. There was a small trail lead to CMC valley which we followed for a while, then we decided to take a shortcut and bushwhack because we wanted to go more to west. My suggestion is to take the "Better Route" on the map since there is a nice wide opening in downhill terrain. I am guessing the opening is near the chimney on Yam's route. So stay on little longer on Yam's shoulder rather than go down as soon as you get on like we did.
We made mistake to get up on GR297670, but the actual route to the true summit is to follow the drainage which comes from west instead of from north (from Wendell east peak) as far as I understand from Nugara's description. (Line "Correct Route?")
To get back, we decided to aim the col between Yam (west route) and Goat Mountain, even though this way requires more elevation gain than taking our ascent route. We hiked along Goat's cliff for sometime and hoping there was no difficulties on the connecting ridge to Yam. However we saw a dip and couldn't see how deep the drop was, so we didn't take chances, and we went down the hill for 100 m or so and avoided the dip. We saw another visible trail to the col on Yam's side. As far as I could tell the trail was literally "straight forward". We should have took that trail instead. (See page 5)
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Wendell Mountain from Yamnuska's shoulder.
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Yam-like rock wall of Wendell.
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Walking toward west in CMC valley. The weather forecast said it would not be much sun that day, but it was so wrong. Exception of 1 or 2 hours in the morning, we had plenty of sun.
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
I was checking possible alternative descent routes. We ended up taking the red line, but orange line seems easier as I noted in page 1. (Mouseover) Where both red and orange line meet is where Yam's west route trail is.
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Since Wendell is not in Gem Trek's map or my GPS's map, I had to plot waypoints for the summit in my GPS software to plan the route. So I did and I read Nugara's route description and drew track to the summit. However Christian who had his GPS, told me that I plotted the summit on the wrong place... When we found out about that we were close to east peak's route. So all the planning I did was all wrong, and now we had to rely on Shaun's edited print out of Nugara's and Bob's website. He showed me the picture from Nugara's website and pointed out we were supposed to go up this rubble slope. At this point, I stopped checking my GPS and trusted my eyes and Shaun's print out.
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Little break on the way up.
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Sill more rubble to go up…
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
As I went higher I noticed I no longer could see uphill slope. I thought "ok, it's probably flattened out." I kept going, then I saw downhill instead of uphill or flat surface… Nooooooooooooo!!
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
CMC valley and Mount Yamnuska.
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
So now what Shaun… Are we supposed to climb up the crack?
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Shaun checked the print out again. Nugara never said anything about going up the slope we came up. ヽ( ~д~)ﾉ
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
So we pointed figures at each other. And yes, Christian!! You were wrong too buddy!! My summit in GPS was right. So the route I had in my GPS was correct!! If you didn't convince me that I plotted the summit in wrong peak, we could have summitted Wendell!! Boooo (｀ε´)
(Photo By Chris Ravary)
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Apparently some people came here before us. We named here "Wendell Shoulder Peak" (GR297670). From left, Christian, me, then Shaun.
(Photo By Christian Ravary)
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Mouseover to see routes. Orange line is the route to the east peak (from Bob Spirko's). Purple line is the route to the true summit (at least this is how I understand from Nugara's description). At last, red line is route for people who don't know how to use GPS or don't know how to read English. I can't believe we made such stupid mistakes... Cannot believe it...
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
Some hikers on Yam's west route. I waved at them for more than a minute, but they totally ignored me… No one ignores the man!!
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
At the Yam's west route col.
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Wendell Mountain Attempt | 2010-03-13
At least we enjoyed scree run.
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