Squaw's Tit

This summit received it's politically incorrect name from its resemblance to a breast with a large summit "nipple" when viewed from the Trans-Canada Highway.

If you dislike this bushwhacking you will hate this summit. It may be tempting to park in Harvey Heights and save yourself a half kilometer at the start, the residents of the area have a reputation for not taking kindly to people parking on their streets. With that in mind we decided to park in a gravel parking lot off the highway which appeared to be a trailhead for some hike. Study the summit from the parking lot because once you won't see it again for a while and without a trail you're relying on your memory of the features to get you to where you want to be.

The trail starts on a generally agreeable heading but quickly veered off in a direction we didn't want to go. All the route descriptions we had read warned against following the trails as none of them would take us to where we wanted to go and would just waste our time.

So as the trail began to head in the wrong direction, we looked for an opportune place where the brush was less dense and set off on our own trail. As we made our way through the brush we stumbled across dozens of old campfire rings. I'm guessing it's a popular spot for the Canmore youth to go hang out and drink.

As we made our way through the brush we encountered many game trails that we attempted to follow for as long as they seemed to head in a desirable direction and even on trail that appeared to be somewhat maintained.

The described route we were trying for went up the left ridge that runs east-west on the map. Once above the tree line it is easy to spot as you can't go past it as there is a large vertical drop on the other side.

We encountered horrible loose scree on slabs above the tree line but traversed it to the ridge and found good rock for scrambling. There are a couple narrow sections but the climbing is fun. There was really only one tricky move but seasoned scramblers won't slowed at all. It would be possible to bypass certain parts of the ridge by traversing to climber's right but the scree and slabs would probably make that option at least as sketchy as sticking to the ridge so I'd avoid it. If it were wet or there was still snow it would probably be much easier and safer to stay on the ridge proper.

For the most part the ridge will continue to climb with a couple small notches that require some down-climbing. The down-climbing is easy with as the rock is almost ladder like.

We stopped for lunch on a slightly grassy saddle immediately below the summit "nipple". While the summit block looks fairly intimidating from this angle the route up is comparatively simple. We ascended the slabs on the left of the summit block. The rock is "grippy" with plenty of good holds but there is exposure that would be magnified if the route were wet or snow covered.

Once up the slabs there are some easy climbing routes up chimneys to the summit or continue on a little further around the back for a simple trail that will switch back and up to the summit. The summit is deceptively tiny. We barely had enough room for the two of to stand on top and take the obligatory summit photo.

On the descent my climbing partner realized that he was about to run out of water. While it wasn't a hot day, we were in the sun for most of the ascent and he'd consumed almost all of his 2L. I always bring 3L and I was down to barely over a litre left. So we made the decision to descend as quickly as possible via the scree slopes as opposed to retracing our steps. While we were able to lose a lot of elevation quickly at the start the scree quickly began to lessen and we soon found ourselves on less than ideal terrain. We debated descending into the slot canyon at the bottom of the slope but without know what was down there we decided that despite the lack of water it would be worth it for the added safety to traverse back to the ledge and restart our descent from there.

We made it back to the ridge without any difficulty and managed to avoid the sections that would have made for the trickiest down-climbing so our scree attempt wasn't a complete loss. We followed the ridge down to the last of the major ribs in the mountain that led into the canyon on skier's left. At this point my climbing partner had completely exhausted his water and we were trying to ration the last of mine. We had the option of continuing along the ridge and down the scree slopes or beginning our descent from where we were into high forest on steep slopes.


We knew the ridge and scree would likely be quicker overall but it was a southwest facing aspect and we would be in the sun the entire time so we opted for the treed route to take advantage of the shade. The descent felt like it took forever but eventually the slope began to ease although with that came a thicker forest and increasingly difficult bushwhacking.

We basically followed the contours of the mountain while trying to maintain a heading that was in the general direction of the car. As you can see on the GPS track data we even crossed our path up at one point but didn't realize it as we tried to make our way through the brush.

As the terrain leveled out we finished the last of our water but were fortunate enough to find a small creek running fast and clear enough for us to feel it good enough to drink from. Feeling refreshed and knowing we were only a kilometer from the car, we set out at a quicker pace.

The brush grew increasingly thicker and more difficult to navigate as we got closer to the car. We stumbled across an array of deer bones strewn about a small clearing at one point. All polished clean. Kind of creepy actually.

We emerged from the brush onto a bike path 100m north of the car. It would be tough to think of another hike where I felt happier to return to the car. We drove to the nearest gas station and loaded up on Gatorade and bottled water.

The scrambling on the route was fun but the bushwhacking offset it enough that I don't think I'd want to do the route again. We're glad we did it, so we can check it off the list and move on to better summits.

Picasa Web Album

GPS Track Log (.gpx)