Opal Ridge Half Traverse | Scrambling in Kananaskis Country (Highway 40)

01 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

Opal Ridge Half Traverse

Location: Kananaskis Country (Highway 40)
Activity: Scrambling
Height: 2,575 m (8,449 ft)
Elevation Gain: 1,290 m (4,232 ft)
Distance: 12.4 km / One Way (7.7 mi)
Avg Steepness: 5.9°
Estimated Time: 6-9 hrs
Technicality: Expert.2c
Fitness Level: Hard

Download GPX: [Trail] Opal Ridge Half Traverse.gpx
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Related Trips:
- Opal Ridge South
Conditions:
- Weather
- Avalanche Bulletin

Opal traverse was way more challenging than I anticipated and for that reason this one ranks one of my favorites. In my opinion Opal traverse is potentially EXPLOSIVE in terms of off-route scrambling and I have to come back to complete the whole traverse with my regular nuts to really find out how bad this can be!!

I who don’t join club events normally, decided to join another CSMC event two days in a row. As expected the people who singed up this one was technically strong and that really did helped for this trip as Opal traverse was not easy-difficult.

We parked one car at Fortress Junction Service Station where you will be forced to stand outside to buy ice cream even when it’s raining (it’s true!!) and another car on the side of highway 40 near Eau Claire Recreation area. Our direction was north to south. We didn’t really find a trailhead so we decided to simply go up somewhere looked ok to go up. I think the route is on the ridge top, so it would have been wise to get up as quickly as we could have, however we decided to traverse sidehill towards what seemed guaranteed hand-on scramble route. I knew we were off-route by then but I kept quite so that I can do off-route scrambling (page 3) p( ｀o´ )q. After this we found a trail and followed it until the ridge top where it widened and flattened (page 6). As soon as on the ridge we could see Opal north peak about 2 or 300 m ahead (page 6). We went left side (east) of hump to summit the north peak. However I am little confused. Where I put waypoint for the north peak might not be the peak because there is higher peak right behind it and Kane’s book says it’s 2575 m. The waypoint’s height is only 2496 m.

For traverse, I found going left (east) was a general rule for most of the cases. Having said that two most important thing were route-finding and difficult scrambling. At GR312298 (page 14) we believed we arrived the place where Kane says have to lose elevation. There was a long rockband that wasn’t easy to scramble up. That rockband was probably 200 m long. After that rain started falling so we called it a day.

We used one of drainage for descent.

02 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

Walking towards scramble way!! We were supposed to be on top of the ridge by now.

03 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

We took slab way up. Nice warm up!!

04 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

Surely we gained elevation quick this way though.

05 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

How come this one is not called tit like the one near Canmore?

06 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

The smaller and closer bump is what I marked as the north peak, but I think the peak behind is the north peak… I am not sure.

07 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

This was the crux of the day which turned out to be wrong way. Scrambling up here only lead to down climbing on the Ridge of Death (next page).

08 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

I am sure Shaun would love this type of down climbing.

09 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

Going farther. The ridge was full of challenge with scrambling and route finding. It was really fun.

10 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

Some narrow ledge walk.

11 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

Here we followed a trail which went up to the second rockband then the trail went left of this peak.

12 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

Looking back north.

13 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

We lost trail. We were supposed to be on top of the ridge we found out after scouting.

14 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

This is the rockband you have to go down which Kane talks about I believe. I found one difficult scramble to get up this one in middle or you can take climber's scramble at the ridge top (see next page). This way you don't have to lose any elevation.

15 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

Top end of the rockband. Examining this path. This was about 70-80 degrees and lots of handholds. I think this is totally doable. However we decided to go around by losing elevation.

16 Opal Ridge Half Traverse | 2010-10-10

Once we were at the bottom of the rockband, rain started, so we decided to end the day.