Solo ascent to Mount Lougheed, peaks 2 and 3, Kananaskis, Sept 05, 2020

Solo ascent to Mount Lougheed, peaks 2 and 3, Kananaskis, Sept 05, 2020

I started my trip at 08:30 on August 5th 2020.  A couple of cars were already parked by the trailhead, a couple more pulled over as I did final preparations. A few hikes will later become my temporary companions, as they also were going to Lougheed 2 and 3.

As always, the first couple of hours were spent by walking through  the forest, passing by Spencer Creek. Not much excitement, nor photographs were taken until after I emerged above the tree line into the valley between the wall of Mount Sparrowhawk on one side 

 

and Lougheed on another.

The path goes over the meadows, almost flat, and then follows a small canyon, rather a drainage, which needs to be  crossed at some point, towards the Lougheeds.

The real ascent starts after passing through the meadows and to the hill . From that point on the scree is the theme !

There is a rather long and not too steep scree cone, leading up to easy-moderate scramble over the small cliffs.

The famous 'notch'  becomes visible as a trail beacon, one needs to go to. There was a moderate scramble path to the left from the notch, however the notch looked as a safer alternative to take.

 

I made my way over to the other side of the notch and after a short ascent I ... lost the trail.
At that time the other group of 3 hikers caught up with me. Together we found the trail rather quickly and held close together until after we reached the top of Lougheed 2.  

Five other hikers were already there. I took a rather long break, perhaps 30-40 minutes, had my lunch, enjoyed the views. The near perfect visibility allowed to see Canmore in a distance, behind Lougeed-1

 

Me on Lougheed-2, this is the highest peak of mt. Lougheed.

After the break I followed my  companions, descended on the other slope of Lougheed 2 and ascended to the neighboring peak of Lougheed-3. It took less than one hour to loose and regain about 200 meters of elevation. 

 

After the short break on Lougheed-3 we started descending through yet another scree cone, leaving Windy peak on the left.

On the down slope there are still a wreckage of the Cessna plain, crashed in 1986.

Coming down by the drainage

Do you see a life on these stones ?

After finishing the scree, the path to the car goes through the same valley, now mount Sparrowhawk on the left. My companions pushed ahead and I finished the last couple of hours of the trip alone.

I was in my car by 19:30, by about 20:40 I was in the hostel.

Elevation profile. Timer stopped shortly after descent started from Lougheed-3