Reads Tower from the Col
Tuesday July 14th 2015
Set off up the Smith Dorrien ( Spray Lakes Rd ) road from Canmore to the Mt Sparrowhawk day use area at about 20 km. The weather was not looking that great so the plan was to get up to the Col under Reads Tower and decided whether it was worth going for the summit of Mt Sparrowhawk. At the Col we could not see the summit so went so went on to Reads Tower. As we had passed the normal route from Reads Ridge we went down on the south side ( left looking down ) and found a rocky gully up onto the summit ridge. Some elevation was lost to gain this access.
Turn cairn from tarns trail to Sparrowhawk ,Reads Tower
The trail past this point becomes very steep unlike the trail up to the tarns.
Steep going past the sign
Reads Ridge opens up after the steep grunt up.
Reads Tower and top left Sparrowhawk. Foreground Reads Ridge
The normal route up the Tower would be to the right at the top of the green ridge. We went left up the scree to the Col. Sparrowhawk is just hiding in the clouds.
Left of Reads Tower
Top of the gully
Summit of Reads Tower
View of Sparrowhawk from Reads Tower
The way we descended to the Tarns trail
On the descent we went lower down the summit ridge and into the green area. The Tarn trail runs along the bottom of the valley and we joined it at this point where I took this picture.
Distance return 9.25 km Time return 6 hrs ( inc 30 min lunch ) Elevation Accumulated gain 1090 m Elevation to Summit 930 m Summit height 2666 m
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