Storm Mountain (Banff)

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Another solo scrambling and another late start. Left home at 9:00 for a long day. I knew Vern has done Storm Mountain in 6 hours but with snow, my estimate was 8 hours. Turned out to be it took me 9 hours but late start and early sunset made this trip into evening.

By the way I argue why people refer this summit as Storm Banff? I think it should be Storm Kootenay. Only time you will be on Banff side is at the parking and at the summit. Rest of the day is in Kootenay…

Approach:
What a chaotic approach this was… First of all, I had no hope of finding trail under 20 cm of snow, so I didn’t bother look around. Second of all, dead falls dead falls dead falls, of course… I didn’t use the drainage but stayed higher up. By doing so I might have reduced dealing with dead falls for 3%. However it was true by staying off the drainage I didn’t have to walk on snow covered rocks. Walking on snow covered soil is so much easier for sure.

Ascent:
Slog up. That’s it. Slog up the west slope!! I took slightly different route than Kane’s route however. He’s route seems to take the second gully from left to get an open rubble flatter slope below summit in his picture. I took the most left which also was marked with cairns. My way didn’t require any scrambling. Coming up, my way looked more of straight line toward the ridge top (page 6). Then I traversed to the summit after getting top of the ridge.