Glasgow-Cornwall-Outlaw-Banded Traverse Scramble on 10-Sep-2022

There is something about this four peak traverse that keeps drawing me back; this was my fifth time doing it, in a variety of different ways, and twice before with the Ramblers, the first time in the mid-1980s, and most recently in 2009. On this occasion we had excellent weather for this long day trip: not a cloud all day, no wind, not too hot, and not too cold, but there was some haze from smoke. We started from the Little Elbow parking lot at 7:15 am, and rode our bikes along the Big Elbow to South Glasgow Creek, about 4 km. We then walked up South Glasgow Creek, sometimes following a faint trail on the north side of the creek, and sometimes walking in the creek bed. We arrived at the summit of Mount Glasgow at 12:00 noon, 4.75 hours after leaving the parking lot. After a 30 minute break, and just as we were about to head for Mount Cornwall, two young scramblers arrived on the summit, having taken the north ridge route up from the Little Elbow. They were also doing the four peak traverse, but without bikes. They had run up the Little Elbow road from the Little Elbow car campground, and were planning to run back to the campground along the Big Elbow. Amazing!

From Mount Glasgow, it took us 1.5 hours to walk up Mount Cornwall, where we arrived at 2:00 pm. After a 15 minute break, we headed to Outlaw Peak, arriving at the summit at 3:00 pm, 45 minutes later. We took a 30 minute break on Outlaw, and at 3:30 pm we headed for Banded Peak, where we arrived at 4:45 pm, 1.25 hours later. We left the summit of Banded at 5:00 pm, and headed for Cornwall Creek. At the Outlaw - Banded col we met up with the young scramblers again, who were just about to head up Banded Peak. However, given the time of day, and with sunset at 8:00 pm, they decided to head out Cornwall Creek with us, rather than having to do a lot of it in the dark. We arrived at the Big Elbow at 8:30 pm, and walked the 4 km back to South Glasgow Creek, arriving there at 9:15 pm. Given that it was now dark, we fortunately had set a waypoint where we had stashed our bikes, making them easy to find. The ride out the last 4 km to the parking lot was a bit tricky by headlamp, but we all made it safe and sound back to the parking lot by 9:45 pm, 14.5 hours after we had started.

Thanks very much to Simon and his guest Luis for joining me Jack on a beautiful day in the mountains. And a special thanks to Simon for contributing his always excellent photos.

Total Distance: 37 km: 29 km walking, 8 km on bikes
Total Elevation Gain: 2300 m
Total Time: 14.5 hours