Mt. Ishbel - 2908 m. Started 4,500 ft.We started the climb at the Hillsdale Meadows sign post. We angled up (1.5 hrs) from Hillsdale Meadows to gain the ridge up to Mt. Ishbel. This was pretty straightforward. Once on the ridge, the first 4 hours consisted of excellent scrambling on good rock. Excellent views. As we progressed, the rock deterioted somewhat until about 1 pm we came to the final section where the ridge became very narrow - exhiliarating adrenaline pumping or gripping, depending upon your point of view (ask Greg D). Two of us ( Dave M. and I) decided on the lower route-a comfortable ledge which led up to the summit. Bruce L. wanted to play on the ridge and join the other three, but there was no break in the rock so he joined us on the ledge, feeling miffed that he missed the challenge. We summited at 2:30 before descending loose really loose rock (this was almost as bad as the last part of the ridge) until we came to the first repel station-a piton. One rope length repel to the next station - a sling slung around a chock - a very interesting belay - to easier rock. We eventually made our way to gorgeous flower filled meadow (5 pm) to gain Ranger Creek. We followed an animal trail until we climbed too high and descended to Ranger Creek which we followed out arriving at the car at 8 pm. Supper in Banff and home by midnight.

Caution: if you do this route be mindfull of the loose rock. Bring slings for the raps. Great company. Thanks to all for help in route finding.

christine

For those of you not familiar with Ishbel, a nice pic was featured in AMA Westworld magazine last month. It is one of the serrated edge ridges on the north side of the Bow River corridor between Banff and Castle Mtn., opposite the valley from Pilot Mtn. The description promised a 14 hour day of bushwacking, difficult exposed scrambling, and rapels coming down from the summit. Two routes were mentioned, one over the top of the ridge, and the 2nd bypassing the last of the hardest and most exposed sections on the way to the summit. Our group did both routes. The lesser route basically follows a ledge up the last 250m on the north side of the summit ridge and avoids a series of 70 degree knife edges with challenging upclimbs. But it is still a scramble 7 with serious exposure in many places. The consensus was that the description was accurate, with difficulty ranging from 5.1 to 5.3. The ridge route is a true climber's scramble, with sustained exposure and difficult moves. The ridge should not be rated a scramble by Rambler standards, even though the mountaineering rating was based on the need for rapelling down from the summit. It took us 6 hours to the summit from the road, and another 6 hours down the back side and out to the car. As we came out of the valley running along the backside of the mountain, we picked up a game(?) trail that led to the main valley leading out to the road. As we approached the main valley, we stayed high (about 400' above the creek) on the east shoulder of Ishbel, following another game trail we found. In retrospect we would have been better to follow the backside valley all the way to the confluence of the larger valley returning to the highway. There is a reasonable trail on the west side of the creek, complete with a log bridge and log ladder in places. Mud slides have wiped out the trail in numerous places this year. David felt that time would be saved by retracing steps from the summit, avoiding as much of the ridge as possible. This would also have the advantage of doing away with the necessity of harnesses and a rope during descent. I am sure he is correct, but the down route would be much harder. After 12 hours the soft forest undergrowth was welcome relief to feet abused by a weekend of rock! Flowers were plentiful on the hillsides and meadows...little blue ones (lbo's), medium yellow ones with brown centres (myowbc's). Even if I had a flower book, I probably would have forgotten my glasses. The trip descriptions on the web are adequate for finding the start of the ridge. Not to go on about Ishbel, but this is the finest scramble I have ever done. And the company! Suffice to say that my previous favorite scramble down in Waterton happened to be with the same group (and David in spirit) Thanks to Christine (coordinator), Bruce, Dennis, David and Ann for an absolutely superb day of scrambling. And thankfully, the only serious injury sustained on the trip was by yours truly when he ran into a table with his quad on the way back to the dinner table at Melissa's in Banff. Greg Deabler, scribe and photographer

One digitized slide added by David in May 2020.