Prior to this trip, indirectly, I received a comment from Engadine lodge that there was/is some snow on Mt Shark, but naturally they could not see how much from the road. Although this put off at least one participant, 3 intrepid ramblers left Calgary at 7.00am on a beautiful but cool Sunday morning.

Starting from Mt Shark trail head 35km south of Canmore at 9.00am in zero temperatures, we made good time on the park trails to the impressive Karst Springs 4km away.

Karst spring

A few photos and then some steep bushwacking (not too bad) brought us to the ridge base with a few small cairns. Straight on, it looked intimidating, but the rock was relatively good as we ascended straight up on good holds.


Mount Shark

The views improved with each metre gained, but also the wind increased though never to a dangerous state. Just before the first hump, the ridge narrowed and Mel expressed concern and decided to turn back. John and David continued along the narrow ridge.


Bryant creek from ridge of Mount Shark

The really exacting parts were passed to the right and despite a few cms of new snow with occasional ice the cool small summit was reached at 1.15pm. We quickly signed the register and descended some metres to get out of the wind for lunch while admiring the extensive views which included nearby Assiniboine.


Mount Assiniboine

Spray reservoir

At least a couple of eagles were observed in the thermals above. Life was good, only disturbed by the rattle of the occasional helicopter. A couple of young fellows passed, one wearing shorts, which he later admitted was not such a good idea in the cool wind.


Another party descending Mount Shark

We started back down but soon encountered Mel on his way up. After some nourishment, he had changed his mind and was summit bound. So John and David soon found another sheltered spot for an early second lunch. About 40 minutes later, all three of us descended together gradually warming up and shedding clothing especially in the trees out of the wind. Some caution was neccessary not to knock rocks on each other, but this would be more of a concern with a larger group. It was good scrambling in the SC6 range.

For some reason, we did not find the best bushwack descent, but it did not really matter and we reached the car at 6.00pm on a very pleasant Sunday evening. We returned to Calgary via Canmore which was slightly shorter in distance (~140km) but the the same in time (2 hours). From the car we saw several moose. Thanks to Mel and John for joining me David on this recommended Kane scramble. Only about 40 to go for this scribe.