We had a very up and down day....... Up and down hill that is. Or you could say that we bagged summitted TEN peaks! Either way the trip was great, if somewhat tiring.
The day started off with Ivan and Carl each soliciting Ramblers as they arrived in the parking lot to join their own trip. We each ended up with three Ramblers.
Rita, Philip and Carl set off from the high point of the Powderface road in order to have the easiest approach to Jumpingpound Mountain. We were about an hour up to that first peak, then for the rest of the long day we were on the long ridge (and mainly in blazing sun). The coordinator had viewed this traverse from Moose Mountain many times, and from Jumpingpound a few times, each time thinking that it looked really nice. It did not disappoint. The much longer Jumpingpound portion is a very nice grassy ridge (OT3) while the Moose Mtn portion provides some interesting OT5 terrain. And all along the trip one has a fabulous panorama of mountains to the south, west, and northwest (and the less exciting foothills and plains to the east).
We had sit-down breaks at the first and last summits of Jumpingpound Ridge.


On the North summit of Moose Mountain

Jumpingpound Ridge, Tiara Peak-Belmore Brown, and Bogart-Lougheed from North summit of Moose Mtn

Military choppers over north ridge of Moose Mtn

It took us a little over four hours to get to the Moose Mountain fire lookout. There the lookout warned us that it looked like a storm cell was building to the east of the mountain. But he expected it to then head east and we therefore might not have any problems. It would be difficult to proceed safely if there were lightning activity anywhere on the whole trip. Although along Jumpingpound there would always be an easy exit to safer terrain. The lookout had his wife and two daughters up for about a month! Pretty close quarters for four!


Chatting with the fire lookout and his daughter

The return trip was straight forward, but we did all start to tire when we had to climb back up over so many minor summits. In the following picture, you can see the storm clouds developing on the other side of Moose Mtn.


On 3rd peak of Jumpingpound Ridge (rest of the ridge and North and Main peaks of Moose Mtn in background)

We were back at the car after about 8 1/2 hours, having covered roughly 18 km and at least 1300 meters of gross elevation gain!
Thanks to Rita and Philip for joining me, cordinator and scribe Carl.
PS Our TEN summits would be Jumpingpound 1, 2, 3, 4, Moose North, Moose Main, Moose North and Jumpingpound 3, 2, 1 (we skipped the top of 4 on the way back). CVM