Scrambling Photos from Cinquefoil Mountain

September 7, 2008

Cinquefoil Mountain is a very enjoyable ridge to go hiking up. Although it is not technically difficult it is long and steep. You will definitely be sweating a lot on this mountain. It is on the South side of the Yellowhead Highway East of Jasper between Roche Miette and Hawk Mountain.

This trip was the second day out for my brother Roy and I. He wanted something easy and short for our second day. We chose this mountain thinking it would be easy since Alan Kane described the mountain as the first highpoint of a long,lazy ridge. However I would describe this mountain as being quite the opposite. There is not a lot of hands on on this mountain unless you deviate from the trail. You will spend most of the time working your quads. Further up on the mountain I deviated from the path to scramble up the rock instead which was much more enjoyable. From the top we got a great view of Jasper Lake and the West side of Roche Miette. As with the previous day we were hiking through fog quite often on this trip.

The trail is very obvious to follow when you start the trek. The trail starts along an old backpacking trail that no one uses anymore. It diverges left toward Cinquefoil Mountain after a short while. It is impossible to miss where it diverges as the scramble path is much more worn down than the backpacking path. Parks Canada also seems to have decided to maintain the trail up to the summit. By maintain I mean cut anything down that is within 2 meters of the path. You will have no trouble finding this trail just follow the path of destruction. Not sure why they decided to level everything within 2 meters of the trail but they did

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Spotted Tussock Moth Caterpillar I found at the trailhead.

Spotted Tussock Moth ...

The small Lake mentioned by Alan Kane in his guidebook.

The small Lake mentioned by ...

Looking down to Jasper Lake.

Roy hiking through the fog.

Roche Miette to the North East.

Roche Miette to the North ...

Looking up the ridge to a false summit.

Looking up the ridge to a ...

Hawk Mountain to the South West. Mount Colin on the left in clouds.

Hawk Mountain to the South ...

A bit of hands on where we deviate.

A bit of hands on where we ...

Roy with the Yellowhead Highway and Jasper Lake behind him.

Roy with the Yellowhead ...

More fun hands on where we deviated from the main path.

More fun hands on where we ...

The ridge can be mostly seen in this shot.

The ridge can be mostly seen ...

Jasper Lake on the left and Talbot Lake to the right of the highway. Roche Miette on the right.

Jasper Lake on the left and ...

A panorama of the Colin Range to the South West. Hawk Mountain on the far right with Mount Colin to the left of it.

A panorama of the Colin Range ...

Mount Colin to the South.

A partial panorama from the highpoint of Cinquefoil Mountain. Looking North West to North East. Mount Greenock on the left.

A partial panorama from the ...

Looking to the summit of Cinquefoil Mountain from our stop point. The summit is actually a high point along the long ridge that is Roche Jacques. The actual summit of the ridge is quite far away.

Looking to the summit of ...

Roche Miette zoomed in.

Looking West to the Snaring River Valley.

Looking West to the Snaring ...

Looking back down the ridge on descent.

Looking back down the ridge ...

Esplanade Mountain to the West. Looks very scrambleable.

Esplanade Mountain to the ...

Looking West across the Athabasca Valley. Chetamon Mountain on the left. Esplanade Mountain right of center.

Looking West across the ...

Mount Greenock to the North West.

Mount Greenock to the North ...

Please send me any comments, suggestions or mountain/flora identifications ecoulthard@gmail.com