Looking down at the crux
June 13th 2019
Mary Barclay and her sister Catherine opened the first Youth Hostel in Canada. Not sure why they only named the mountain after Mary. There are two routes to get to the base of Mary’s mountain .One is a ford across the Kananaskis from Wasootch Creek. Or bike the 6 km from Troll Falls parking at the Stoney Trail near Nakiska Ski Resort. We chose the bike ride. It is easy going down in the morning but took more effort coming back with tired legs, read get off and push. There are two creeks to cross so depending on the time of year there may be more water than we encountered. After 6 km hide the bike and push off into the trees. Make a mental note of which power pole you were near when you hide your bike. Head for the bottom of the ridge to find a trail going up. Trail is clear most of the way. The only doubtful part is an open area that looks like you could cut across the mountain to miss the large sub peak but turn right an go up. ( see pictures ) There is a little bit of every terrain on this mountain. Walking through trees, going up scree and hands on scrambling with exposure. The crux is a nice hands on scramble followed by a narrow ridge . We came back down through the red shale to the creek. Problem was we took the wrong drainage and got cliffed out by a waterfall and had to traverse across some nasty steep scree to bypass. As usual it is always faster to go back the way you came.
Not a bad track to cycle on
First creek crossing no wet feet today
Second crossing is dry. This is the creek you come out on. If you choose that route
Short bushwhack to the base
If you want the waist deep river crossing it is from Wasootch Creek
Peak M.B on left sub peak center right
Higher sub peak
Trail well worn
That’s the Peak looks worse than it is
This is the way up to the largest sub peak. Go to the right not straight across. As mentioned in the write up.
This part brings you to the top of the sub peak .You can miss this cliff by going right. See photo above to get here
Last sub peak before the summit
Last bit before the summit
Shale before the scramble
Crux to the summit ridge
After the crux it gets narrower than this
Grand view of Barrier Lake
Gary on the summit
L to R Ulli Greg & Clifton
You could come down the center gully. We came down from the left
The red shale. We went all the way across to the far ridge WRONG. I think we were surpose to go down the gully/ watershed right
Mary Barclay Bike Map
Mary Barclay Scramble Map. See the correct route dotted line left for coming down. Wrong route purple to far right. Ascent route on right.
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