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Rocky Mountain Ramblers Association

Trip Report
Trip Date:
13-Nov-2021
Activity:
Scramble
Trip name:
Monola Peak
Coordinator:
Carl
Report:

Very windy at the top, with quite a bit of snow, which made for a longish but successful trip.
Only two inveterate peakbaggers decided to join me on this longish day. Long partly because of the drive, and also because of challenging conditions.
We set out from the trailhead at 10.




At the trailhead (about 12.7 km south of the 40/532 junction)

The first two km or so were on an old road that had been driven by a pretty serious back roads vehicle. That made it pretty icy in many spots.



Icey forestry road (for the first 2+ km)

At around 2 km there is a little viewpoint a few m left of the road from which one gets the first view of the destination.



First view of Monola Peak (left) and it's east ridge (view point a few m left of the road)

Shortly after that we veered off the road and bushwhacked up to the northeast. It is pretty easy going with lots of space between trees. We stopped for a break before exiting the trees, From there one can see the col between Monola and it's east ridge. But there is a lot of OT4 and 5 to get there.



Climbing out off the trees towards the col (Monola at left)




Extended OT5 to get to the col

Once we got to the col and started up the final slope there was quite a bit of snow. We each took turns breaking trail.



En route to the summit (Livingstone and Coffin in the bkg) - photo from Marta

Once we managed to climb to the left of the cliff bands it seemed like we must be quite close to the summit, but in the end it took us close to 1/2 an hour to actually get to the summit.



Searching for the least snow route across the desolate summit of Monola Peak

It was very windy all across the top and we only spent a few minutes at the summit. We were already 3 1/2 hours out and the days are short.



At the summit of Monola Peak - photo from Marta




At the summit of Monola Peak - photo from Marta

However it would be great to do this in great weather as it would provide a spectacular panorama of the hills to the east across hwy 40, to the south all the way to Mounts Cleveland in the US, Crowsnest, Tornado and Sugarloaf and then further north to the Elevators, Beehive and Gass on the Continental Divide. To avoid the long sidehill up to the col, we elected to follow the east ridge for several km.



Climbing up to the high point of the east ridge of Monola Peak

This is a lovely route and I would probably recommend it as an out and back route when there isn't a fierce wind. At times we were really being tossed around by the ever increasing gusts (80-100 kph?). Eventually we dropped off the ridge and made it back to the road close to the viewpoint.
We were back at the car shortly after 4. 14 km with 900 m ascent.
Many thanks to participants: Sim, Marta for joining me, Carl (C/S).