Scrambling Photos from Indian Ridge

July 5, 2009

Indian Ridge is a lovely easy scramble near Jasper. The ascent route is well described in Alan Kane's scramble guide. Allison and I came up the gondola at 10am and hiked past tourists to the summit of Whistler Mountain. From there we descended into lovely meadows to the start of the ascent ridge. The majority of the ascent ridge consisted of steep hiking. The final section involved some route finding in scree/rock to the summit. We followed the wrong trail as snow covered the correct path. Because of that we had more interesting scrambling and more exhausting scree.
The summit view was excellent. A lovely alpine pass was below us to the West with big mountains on the other side. The mountains to the North and East were pretty hazy. We took a nice long break at the top before heading down. We followed the correct trail down and it was much easier. After awhile, thunderstorms started approaching, which was concerning. We made it back to the gondola just before it started to really rain.
The gondola can't run when there is lightning so we were stuck up there. We didn't really fancy the idea of heading down the trail in the rain and mud. So we had dinner there figuring we might as well. The rain stopped and a couple loads of people made it down the gondola. But then another storm hit, stranding us longer. We finally got down after waiting 4.5 hours. So don't count on getting back down in guide book time. A thunderstorm might ruin your plans. Aside from that it is a great scramble with a wonderful view

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