Today, I decided to try to find a route up Gargoyle Mountain. I parked in the same spot as yesterday and crossed Corral Creak. I walked a ways down the road before turning into the forest. I wanted to find the Eastern most ridge of the ridges leading to the main approach ridge. I reached it and I really liked the forest on the ridge since it was more open and grassy. I found a trail further up the ridge that I followed until it connected with the main ridge where it seemed to disappear. I had to scramble through minor cliff bands to reach the main approach ridge. Once above the cliff bands I had to bushwack up the forest to reach the top of the ridge. Once at the ridge top the remaining approach was pleasant with good views and even a trail.
Once I reached Gargoyle Mountain it looked like there were 2 possible ways up. One was to traverse left around huge rock ribs and up miserable scree. The other way up was to head up the South East face up snow to reach a ridge further up. After trying the scree I decided that I would rather go up the snow. I put on my gaiters and got out my ice axe and up I went. I could have exited the snow at a low point on the ridge but I decided to take advantage of the snow and exit higher. Unfortunately the nice snow became postholing higher up and my progress was slowed. When I got near the edge of the snow I found that I needed to put on crampons since there was ice at the edge of the snow. Once on the ridge there was some fun scrambling to the summit ridge. I had to go down some scree at one point to go around a rock rib.
Once on the summit ridge I came to a point where it was very thin and exposed on both sides. Fortunately, I was able to scramble down to scree on the West side which I followed to the summit. The summit register had only 4 entries since it was placed there in 2000. I recognized one familiar name in it. The view from the summit was outstanding. Many peaks in Northern Jasper that hardly anyone sees were visible. Even if you completed the North Boundary Trail you would never see these beautiful mountains.
On the way down I decided to descend the Western slopes into a valley draining into Corral Creek. The previous day I got some photos that showed that my descent would work. I had a wonderful snow run all the way down to the valley bottom. Once there I noticed a small peak and I decided to climb it. It was sheltered from sight from most directions, so I called it Hidden Peak. I climbed it for fun since I had some extra time. I had some fun scrambling up it too. No summit cairn so I may have made the first ascent.
Descending further to Corral Creek turned into miserable bushwacking. I tried to climb up the slopes a bit to avoid some of the slide alders but the forest was just as bad if not worse. I decided to descend back down to Corral Creek and face the alders again. The miserable bushwacking continued on for at least an hour and a half before the forest got taller and the bottom filled with nice moss. Every now and then I found a trail that I could follow which was very helpful. Eventually I made it back to the car and headed to Jasper for nice greasy burgers. The ascent took a total of 15 hours from 6:30 to 9:30

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