The Powderface Trail (road) was closed today for a car rally. Luckily we were all at the Hwy 68 junction together and quickly elected to do Eagle Hill instead.

Our GPS devices showed a route heading north parallel to the regular Eagle Hill route but up on and over two ridges that are identified on the open source maps as Sibald Ridge and Grouse Ridge. There had clearly been traffic on the route and so we elected to follow it.

We "fell" off the ridge trail once or twice by following game trails, but in general it was pretty easy to proceed. There is some deadfall to be circumvented. We made it pretty quickly to the spot marked as Sibald Ridge (1702 m), not much to see from here!

At the "summit" of Sibald Ridge

It was also pretty easy to continue northward along the ridge (dropping only a few meters) and on to Grouse Ridge (1735 m). Some long distance views are afforded from here.


At the "summit" of Grouse Ridge

The group were pretty much all in agreement that we should proceed to Eagle Hill. We followed footprints further north for a bit and then bushwhacked directly down to the regular Eagle Hill trail. The bushwhack was fairly easy going, dropping maybe 150 m over approx 900 m. It was very handy to have the GPS in order to ensure that we found the nearest section of the Eagle Hill trail. From there it was a straight forward climb, sometimes in a significant breeze to the summit. All arrived within a few minutes of 12 noon.


Lunch at the summit of Eagle Hill

Lunch at the summit of Eagle Hill

The summit is marked as a few meters lower than Grouse Ridge, but the views are far better. Our return was uneventful. We were about 5 hours, covering 14 km, and maybe about 400 m of ascent.

All in all, I think that most agreed that the route we took out over those ridges, a light bushwhack down to the regular trail, up to Eagle Hill and back on the conventional route was a very nice alternative to the simple out and back.

Many thanks to participants: Ron, Kim, Damian, Janice, Nardi, Clifton, Sonja, Teresa, Barbara and John for joining me, Carl (C/S).