Big Sister | Scrambling in Kananaskis Country (Highway 742)

01 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Big Sister

Location: Kananaskis Country (Highway 742)
Activity: Scrambling
Height: 2,936 m (9,633 ft)
Elevation Gain: 1,270 m (4,167 ft)
Distance: 6.4 km / Round Trip (4.0 mi)
Avg Steepness: 21.7°
Estimated Time: 5-8 hrs
Technicality: Advanced
Fitness Level: Moderate

Download GPX: [Trail] Big Sister.gpx
OpenStreetMap: See track recorded by GPS
Print: Display in printer-friendly format
Conditions:
- Weather

I wanted to do something medium and Big Sister was the perfect peak for that. Not only it’s short but also by completing this peak, I finished Kane’s Canmore / Bow Valley section. Finally no more view of Canmore at least from Kane’s book!

Trailheads:
Apparently there are two trails for this peak. One is main route (pink line) and the other is drainage route (red line). The trails merge but I think drainage route was created by people who missed main trail on the way back just like I did. In my opinion the main trail is better even though both work just fine. The route I describe is the main route here.

From the parking lot, follow a trail towards the peak. Within a few minutes from the parking, the trail hits a drainage. The main trail crosses the drainage to the other side. If you stay right side (east side) or follow the drainage, you will go to the drainage route I mentioned.

SW Ridge:
From treeline, this ridge gets nasty. It’s scree, slab , even worse, scree on slab… Technically yes it is moderate, but you should treat this one more like doing difficult scramble because of this harsh footing.

There are two sections that required downclimbing. Right after above treeline, I scramble up an overhang rock to get on slabby backbone, then soon cairn indicated to downclimb to bottom of the backbone (page 3 & 4). The other one was about 130 m below the summit (page 8 & 12). Both are again moderate but the height is quite high for moderate scramble. Maybe 5 to 7 m.

After the second downclimb, simply go up left side of backbone to the summit.

02 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Big Sister from the parking lot (Left).

03 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

At treeline, already slabby. I kept going up and eventually downclimbed climber's right to below this slabby backbone to slabby bottom.

04 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

This is where I downclimbed from the backbone. There are other spots to downclimb as well.

05 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Slog slog slog...

06 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Rubbles, scree, slabs, then this scree on slab…

07 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Downclimbing from backbone again, then this time go left side on coming up backbone.

08 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Since I was soloing, I was peeping other peeps.

09 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Summit view. South. KC was little smoky or hazy… Wonder why?

10 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Looking towards Banff town.

11 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Sisters down below. Now I have done Middle and Big Sisters. So far I didn't like either of them, and I already know Little Sister is the crankiest one...

12 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Peeping report. The other peeps are going up the second crux. I met old couple from Japan on the way up. They made it up to the second crux. Considering their age, it pretty impressive. Big Sister is pretty big and isn't friendly peak to walk at all.

13 Big Sister | 2011-09-10

Somehow I wandered into a different trail than my ascent trail. I was supposed to be on top of this cliff. Still worked.