I got the idea for trying Association while sitting on the summit of Yamnuska last weekend looking at the peak and chatting to Bill who had done Assocation ... and End mountain in a long day last year with Alda, Carl and Sim. The south side looked snow free ... but ... it maybe a truism but weather and conditions change and are unpredictable in the mountains and the following two pictures show the weather change over a single day:

We arrived at a deserted Yamnuska parking lot at 7:30 am ... a lonely next vehicle rolled in shortly with the other Rambler scrambling group. These Wendell whizzies (not woosies!), known for their speed, provided additional convivial company for us up to the east ridge of Yam before we went our separate ways. The day was bright and sunny with a few scattered clouds starting to bubble up. We found the cutline and descended to an icy (literally! any stepping rocks were ice covered) crossing where most of us decided to use creek crossing shoes / bare feet. One of the party unsuccessfully risked the stepping stones but slipped and got a little wet.

A good trail continued over the east shoulder of Wendell. We cut off this trail when it turned more north easterly and headed into the bush to bushwhack to our next creek crossing. This second crossing was possible on stepping rocks. We then headed towards the drainage from the bowl SW of Association which narrows to an interesting canyon (there are photos on Bob Spirko's site of this canyon in winter). Above the canyon the bowl with cliff bands looked a little intimidating as the cliff bands were festooned with ice. It turned out there was an easy way through the cliff bands though.

We stopped for a quick lunch under one of the cliff bands then headed up to the summit.Ice melts though and I should note that care was needed as we saw, and heard, one lot of ice crash down as we were zig zagging below the cliff bands. The amount of ice from this ice fall was significant enough to inflict serious injury, however, it was easy to select a route to avoid exposure to serious falling ice. We reached the summit around 2:00 pm with cloud and mist increasingly swirling around. We were just in time to get a view in to the South Ghost, a nice view of impressive End mountain and an intermittent view into the picturesque foothills montane terrain below Association and End. Though very close to Calgary I have a feeling this country is pretty wild - maybe visited by horseback parties from the Kananaskis guest ranch a bit? The summit register, placed by the Old Goats, though showed a party of two who did this peak in March this year but not many ascents.

The weather was worsening and the intermittent graupel turned into continuous wet snow as we descended.

While bushwhacking north of Wendell, to find the trail back over the east shoulder of Wendell, we pulled the map and GPS out. The peaks we had been able to use for landmarks on the way in were now obscured in mist. Wet snow bushwhacking is a wet business! It was great to have a group with spirit, patience and enthusiasm for this section .... a couple of the comments: "it's good to be out" and "I would rather be here than sitting at home".Thanks to Chau, Sim, Rita, Jeannine and Arnold from John. Without the ice we were able to cross both creeks on rocks and we got back to the Yamnuska trailhead around 7:30 pm for a 12 hour day. I think I would rate Assocation as an SC 5, especially in reasonable conditions and weather, there was one section in the canyon that was maybe borderline SC 6 but I think later in the year when the snow and ice was gone you could avoid it. Thanks also for excellent route descriptions and thoughts from Bill, Carl and Alda ... End too in a day .... as my son would say you guys rock!