Mountain of the Week - Mt Kidd North

No more 85-year olds or women with bionic feet, this week's mountain was a real scramble with an elevation gain of 1350 m over 11 km and the highest point at 2950 m. I was tired when I reached the summit. Walking up scree sucks, it's two steps forward and one back. Walking down scree is much better, you're basically gliding down the mountain. An even more entertaining way of getting down the mountain is glissading, which means that you find a snow covered slope, sit down on your bum and slide.

The weather was so-so, during the day. It was raining during the night which made me worry that there would be new snow on the mountain. You do want snow because it is easier kick stepping up snow covered slopes rather than walking up scree but new snow lays itself in a layer on top of the old one and it can easily cause small avalanches leading to accidents. Luckily there was no new snow and it didn't start to rain until we returned to the parking lot after nine hours. However, the mountain was covered in mist most of the time which made the navigation a bit tricky. The guide book said "after the ridge you will see an obvious gully to follow to the top". We saw nothing, but our organizers got us to the summit even if we did take a bit of a detour.


This day 85 year old Ed wasn't on the trip but instead we had a 66 year old crazy Iranian. He is fitter than most of us but has a tendency to wander off on his own and get lost. Once they had to call in the rangers (or Bush Police as he called them) to find him. They found him on the highway trying to hitchhike back to Calgary.


The bear of the week was on the roadside when we went past in the car. Someone yelled "oh, a bear" and this time I actually saw something black by the road.