Crystal Ridge Summer

Crystal Ridge from Cirque Peak Crowfoot Glacier and Bow lake behind

July 16th 2018

Crystal Ridge is often snowshoed and skied in the winter but I could not find a summer report. So it is now been done in the summer and it is a worth while trip. We were up to the col in one and a half hours so had plenty of time to climb the three separate peaks. Picture above is taken from Cirque peak and shows the ridge but not Peaks 1&2. To take this route walk up the Helen lake trail for approximately 600m then take a left into the woods .Do not expect to find a trail. Angle through the bush until a large pile of rocks is in view see photo then go left to bypass. You are aiming for the col to the left of the ridge. Some of the rocky ridges may work out but we stuck to the grass as long as we could. At the col peak 1 & 2 are on the left and the ridge to the right. At the end of the ridge we came around a large coloured rock wall and headed for the lower ridge with  red scree. This was a fantastic run down and once through the burnt trees the Helen lake trail is meters away. Great views of the glaciers above Bow lake. Thanks to Percy Strong for the geological information. We did not see any Crystal.

Early going and heading to the left of this rock

Doing the artist pic thing

Looking back at all the rock ridges you can take or misss to get to the Ridge

To the left are Peaks 1&2 The ridge is to the right

Crystal Ridge

Ruriko on Peak 2 the ridge behind

Helen lake

Crystal Ridge from Helen Lake

Crystal Ridge from Helen Lake

Crystal Ridge from Helen lake

Crystal Ridge from Helen Lake

Crystal Ridge from Helen lake

Lee on Peak 4 aside trip along the ridge

Bow Summit and Hector through this gully we went through

Down and around the rock wall to the ridge scree

Coming down the scree run

Fossil a rock composed of pisoliths which are spheres that form in soil horizon

A trace Fossil of a burrow made by a marine creature

Iron rich Mudstone

Cross bedded sandstone. They look like they belong to the Gog Formation which is Lower Cambrian, 530-540 million years old

Distance return 9.5 km Time return 5.45 hrs ( inc 30 min lunch ) Elevation Accumulated gain 910 m Elevation to Summit 842 m Summit height 2627 m

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Google Earth KML

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