July 5th 2023
Red Basin to Red Peak and back down Buller Pass North. The idea came from Gillean Dafferns route into the basin with some modifications. See Dafferns Kananaskis Country Guide Vol1.
Start at the Spray lakes day use area walk across the road and head up to the High Rockies trail. On the north side of the creek see trail. This trail is very good for quite some way, but like all good things it ends and bushwacking begins. Stay above the creek as long as you can but keep the creek insight. When alders and other ugly bushes bar the way drop into the creek. From the creek we could see a big pile of rocks which turned out to be the foot of the Rock Glacier. For all you rock hounds this is a very important geological area. Moving rocks by shear weight and force. Although I understand there could have been ice deep underneith and some time. Keep to the creek and skirt around all this jumble of rocks. My picture shows the route we took,which was OK but on reflection I would have contiued further along the creek to maybe avoid some of the rock we walked over and then headed up. As per Dafferns/Alf Skrastins route. Getting to the col was a steep unrelenting slog. Once at the col it is just a matter of pushing onto the Red Peak summit,where lunch awaits.
Return down to the col and cut across the shoulder of an outlier of Mt Buller to Buller Pass summit. Not very pleasant as it is loose and steep, but saves going down and round. Then it is the standard route down Buller Pass trail
We had placed a car at the Buller trail head parking to perform the car shuttle.
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