Tent Ridge from Tryst Lake Off-Trail hike on 29-Sep-2021

Cool and blustery with only a few sunny breaks, but still an interesting variation on the standard Tent Ridge trip.
The Smith-Dorrien road turned out to be closed just south of Grassi lakes, so the Canmore contingent found that they had a much longer drive to the trailhead. I think that they may possibly have exceeded some speed limits as they were all there within about 20 minutes of our planned departure time. And so we headed out for Tryst Lake around 10:10, passing one group of Meanderthals (also from Canmore) and catching up to a second group at Tryst Lake.

Dean and Pat on the Tryst Lake trail

Pat, Dean, Bob, Toshiko, Bill, Chip and Kevin at scenic Tryst Lake

I think that only one of us had actually been to this lovely lake (other than on a ski trip). It's a pretty modest trip if done on it's own. A few weeks earlier I had seen a track marked on my map from the back of Tryst Lake to the col between the two summits of Tent Ridge. And then noticed that Tent Ridge from Tryst Lake was already in the Rambler database (although never used). And so we made our way up the slope. It was not the treadmill scree that I had feared, just quite steep. We climbed up in two groups of four, one in the more open area left of the trees, one choosing to stay in the trees where they are still widely spaced. We got up to just shy of the ridge around noon.

Bill (and Bob and Kevin) approaching the Tent Ridge col

The we had a decision to make. By following the ridge to the left we would gain the higher west summit and be on the ridge for quite a ways. Right would take us to the slightly lower east summit and back in the reverse direction to the way most of us had done Tent Ridge before. It was pretty cold and windy on the ridge and so we selected the second, somewhat shorter, and much more protected option.

Tryst Lake from the east summit of Tent Ridge (Commonwealth Pk in centre bkg)

Toshiko, Dean, Kevin, Pat, Bob, Chip and Bill on the east summit of Tent Ridge (Spray Lake in bkg)

Some donned traction devices for the uneventfull descent to the Tent Ridge trailhead and the short walk back to the Tryst/Commonwealth trailhead.

Toshiko descending the east ridge of Tent Ridge (Commonwealth at left, The Fist at right)

Afternoon break in the shelter of the Monica Brook valley

Distance about 10 km, 650 m ascent, 5 hours. I wouldn't recommend this trip over the Tent Ridge horseshoe. But for those who have done that many times using the connection up from (or down to) Tryst Lake is worth considering.
Many thanks to participants: Bill,Dean,Carl,Bob,Patrick,Chip,Kevin,Toshiko for joining me, Carl (C/S) .

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