Heart Mountain & Grant MacEwan Peak
Route Map
Summit Elevation: 2035m, 2148m
Elevation Gain: 1130m
Round Trip Time: 4hrs 25min
Total Distance: 11.55km
Technical Rating: Moderate Scramble
Difficulty Notes: The Heart Mountain loop is a great introduction to moderate terrain, and should be doable in the counter-clockwise direction even when wet. See Alan Kane's Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies for a detailed route description.
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I usually scramble solo, both because I know few people who can match my fitness, and because there is zero overlap between that group and people who are game for a sufferfest (Like it or not, that's what remote scrambling is to your average sane human being). That changed for once on the evening of May 13, when I headed out with my friend Chris to bag Heart Mountain.
It didn't take long before I realized just how fit Chris is in comparison to myself. I'm usually among the fastest people on a given trail, but even so Chris consistently zipped ahead and I took few photos as a result of trying to keep up with him. The moderate terrain up Heart Mountain was fun without being concerningly difficult (we do call it moderate, after all) and we passed by the summit at 1842hrs. I say "passed by" because I didn't even stop for a summit panorama - Chris was a man on a mission!
(I should note that I did not take a single picture of the crux or other moderate terrain on the ascent, and that unprepared parties could be pretty freaked out. I know few people from Edmonton who would attempt this. To any hikers reading this report, remember that this is moderate scrambling and consider yourself warned.)
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Chris mentioned he had an acquaintance who had done the route a few days prior and informed him that it was "dry". He and I both assumed that this was a "hiker's dry", but we quickly realized that was not the case, and that said friend must have been referring to a "climber's dry" (where cruxes and other potentially dangerous parts are dry enough to be at a summer difficulty). We ran into a fair bit of snow on the ridgeline between Heart and Grant MacEwan, though not nearly enough to mandate spikes.
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Chris had floated traversing from Grant Macewan to Jewell Peak when we were planning the trip, and I had agreed to at least stick my nose into it. The downclimb is generally considered to be difficult scrambling, and I typically don't engage with that level of risk - but I'm not one to turn back without at least sticking my nose into things and seeing what the nature of the beast is.
With that in mind, we marched right past the summit and had a look. The look, unfortunately, was not all that great. The downclimb is absolutely difficult and I was just not interested. To Chris's credit, he both encouraged me to look closely and fully respected my veto. I poked around to the west and found some downwards-stepped slabs which looked much more workable with the insanely grippy soles of my approach shoes, and might have even gone for it - but we noticed rain coming in over Canmore and decided to be content with the two summits we'd already bagged.
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We returned pretty quickly to the summit, where I realized I'd forgotten to unpause my watch after marking a lap (dang it!). We stopped briefly for water and a panorama, and then started our descent along the southeast ridge at 2005hrs.
Neither of us was excited to get poured on and we set a pretty brisk pace, hoping to get as much distance out of the sunshine as possible. There was enough snow on the ridgeline at one point that Chris pulled out his jacket and went sledding on it! I unfortunately carry a lightweight 50D rain coat, and so I missed out on the fun to keep my gear in one piece.
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I suggested we don our rain jackets as the first few drops hit; a quick look at the sky showed we'd be seeing much worse before things got any better. It's a good thing I made the call when I did, as the wind came in hard and I struggled to get my arm in the last sleeve.
The rain started going sideways, and I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculous nature of Rockies weather. Even with the relatively stable weather of shoulder season, you can go from a beautifully sunny day to a biting rain shower in under 20 minutes - and I've seen this countless times, and it's still ridiculous.
We encountered the odd bit of moderate terrain on the descent, and took our time descending it thanks to our good soaking. I'd proposed that we run most of the descent when I first brought up Heart Mountain with Chris, and so we did wherever possible.
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There were few sections where we walked once below treeline, and we made good time back to the highway pullout, arriving at 2147hrs.