Mt Allen, Centennial Ridge

Scramble at 2900m

In step with keeping the weekly escapes fresh it was time to hit some serious peaks again and high time to tread some rocky slopes after weeks of mostly snow. Sparling , Brooks and I hit the Ribbon Creek parking lot late morning with clear skies , a light breeze and ambitions of ascending the highest established trail in all of Canada. Yet again we were the only ones in the parking lot, the Rockies seem completely deserted and abandoned in popular opinion. Apparently there was some sort of important pig skin punting game going on in Toronto on the same day. Something about glorified obesity, never mind , back to hiking. Centennial Ridge must first be gained and in order to accomplish that you need to negotiate a long and relatively steep series of switchbacks. Once we had gained the ridge we found ourselves eventually looking down on the highest run at the Nakiska ski resort. We pitted for a quick lunch at this point watching young slalom hopefuls running through the paces far below us. As we continued along the long ridge we were treated to spectacular views on either side of us. The ridge was virtually free of snow as it is exposed to a great deal of wind, which was also the case for the day we traveled it. The ridge is also fascinating in that the environment atop it continuously shifts, at times to the completely unexpected. At one point, after negotiating a long boulder field, we found ourselves in a landscape that looked like it came straight out of a 70's western film. With red shale, towering pillars of rock and a narrow winding path only a few cactus and the omitting of the surrounding peaks would have made it more authentic. The ridge is long and as I said earlier, a spectacular undertaking, but nothing quite compares to what meets you at the end of the trail as you find yourself atop Mt Allen at just under 3000m above sea level. The view is staggering. On a clear day you can just make out the city of Calgary in the east, with Canmore in the west, the Kananaskis range, a sight to cherish.
Compatriots at the summit of Mt Allen.

The long route down was enough to make even our season legs weak at the knees. The posted time for the trip is 10 hours, but after 16 km and 5.5 hours I could once again go back to face the frustrating challenges of city life again. I rolled in to my evening shift at the Oval by the dinner hour and after a quick pedal home 5 hours later another day was done.

Silhouettes are always magical Go out and take care of business

Thanks to Sparling for the outstanding pictures. He has a waterproof digital and a quick draw frontal mounted pouch for on the fly picture taking, along with bearing bangers, GPS, knives...refer to MTN post.