We left the Evan Thomas day use parking area at 8:30 AM and hiked along the old road for 1.8 km. We then turned left and followed the trail up Evan Thomas Creek for about 15 minutes, to where the trail forked. The trail up the SW ridge has very obviously become the normal route to access Old Baldy Ridge. The upper section through the boulder field is a bit of a pain, but otherwise the trail follows a good line with a moderate grade. Once on the South end of Old Baldy Ridge, the group stopped for a ten minute rest and re-hydration break.

Old Baldy Mountain from the South end of the ridge

Enormous snow cornice on Old Baldy Ridge

We traversed NW along Old Baldy Ridge to the base of Old Baldy Mountain, where we donned our helmets.


Ron, Carl, Kris and Alda at the base of Old Baldy Mountain

After ascending the lower vegetated slope, the middle section follows talus and rock ribs to the West ridge of Old Baldy Mountain.


Brian on the rock ribs on Old Baldy

The slabby summit block of Old Baldy Mountain

Kris and Kevin coming up the slabs

Kris a few metres below the summit

The summit block is easy slabs with some rubble.


Gary admiring the views from the summit of Old Baldy Mountain

Rambler group summit photo

Looking West towards Old Baldy Ridge from the summit

We were all on the summit by 1 PM. The summit of Old Baldy Mountain was a bit breazy this day, but we did spend 30 minutes on the summit having lunch and taking in the views.


Starting the descent from the summit

Bill and Jeanette coming down the slabs

Hiking back across Old baldy Ridge

We retraced our ascent route back down to Old Baldy Ridge, where the sun finally started to show itself more fully. The hike back down from the ridge and along the road had us back at our vehicles a few minutes after 5 PM.

The most amazing aspect of this trip was the fact that Sim, in spite of hundreds of scramble ascents, had never done Old Baldy Mountain before.

My thanks to all my co-adventurers Sim, Bill, Alda, Carl, Jeannette, Brian, Gary, Krzysztof for their great company and for joining me Kevin (C/S) on an enjoyable scramble in Kananaskis Country.

Total elevation gain 1250 metres

Total distance 16 km

Total Time 8.5 hrs

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