Astley Traverse

September 11 2022

Located immediately NW of Lake Minnewanka is Mount Astley, another seldom visited peak within close proximity of Banff and Canmore. It has a couple high points that avid peak baggers go for and a surprisingly large massif, making for unique views of the area.

A hazy view towards Mount Inglismaldie and Mount Girouard with a raven flying in the foreground.

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A post shared by Haldan Borglum 🏔🎯 (@haldan.borglum)

links: STRAVA | GAIA
elapsed time: 9.5hrs
DIFFICULTY: climber's scramble

After hearing about a traverse over a long stretch of ridge on the Astley massif that followed it counterclockwise to the main summit, I thought this would be a cool way to get this peak done and decided to go for it. It ended up being far more technical than I expected with a number of climber's scramble-low 5th class downclimbs until reaching the ridge that climbed the west side of the main summit and this is where things got particularly serious.

What started off as a simple scramble soon turned to quite exposed near 5th class moves that would be hard to downclimb and then the main difficulty presented itself. The summit block involved exposure to a run out slope below while bypassing a couple spires and one particularly bare section that felt like 5.4-5.5 with a sizable exposure, which ended up being one of my bigger sends at the time. After that it was an easy scramble to the summit and I ended up descending and regaining some elevation for the last peak of the massif that would be a full on climb to traverse to. More technical than I had expected but definitely a memorable day out!