Big Sunshine, Big Blue Sky and Big Sister awaited five Ramblers when we assembled at the trailhead ready to embark on another Rocky Mountain Rambler/Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition trip. The weatherman was promising more sunshine and warm weather and the mountain promised adventure and beckoned.


Big Sister Route

Big Sister doesn't lull a scrambler into thinking the climb will be easy with a long gradual approach. The ascent begins at the trailhead and doesn't ease off until the summit, it just keeps getting steeper.


This trail is steep as it winds up though the trees on the flank of Big Sister.

In about 3.2 km you gain around 1250 metres. Once you clear tree line, you still have over half the mountain left to go. And the scrambling gets a lot tougher, starting with a nice little downclimb to an expanse of scree and slab.


This is the first downclimb after arriving at treeline on Big sister.

And then a little of Big Sister's scree.

And then some of Big sister's slab.

After negotiating the scree and slab and regaining the ridge you still have the crux to look forward to, a nice 5 metre downclimb to more sloping slab.


Gary and Susan pick their way down Big Sister's crux.

But now you're through the hard part and only have a steep climb to the summit ridge, a left turn at the ridge and you're at the cairn.


The final ascent to the summit of Big Sister as seen from the top of the crux.

And the views on a perfectly sunny, bluebird day make the effort worthwhile.

At the summit we performed the necessary summit ceremonies - group picture, sign the new Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition register; install the new ACME summit canister and take a panorama picture from the summit.

Jim, Susan, Ghulam, Damian and Gary celebrate on the summit of Big Sister.

Once the ceremonies were completed, we invited new arrivals at the summit to sign the register and then began our descent. Because of Big Sister's unrelenting steepness, the descent is almost as difficult as the ascent and seems to take almost as long. However we finally made it back to the vehicles and after congratulating ourselves on a job well done and a mountain well scrambled we headed back to the city.

Trip participants: Gary; Susan; Damian; & Ghulam. Coordinator, photographer & scribe: Jim.

Trip statistics: Distance - 6.4 km; Elevation Gain - 1247 m; Maximum Elevation - 2992 m; Total Time - 9 hours