Mount Storelk Scramble

Lat/Lon: 50.53889 N / 114 .98194 W- CLICK FOR TOPO MAP
This was a complicated naming process with this one. Mount Storelk lies between Storm
Creek and the Elk River, thus it was officially named in 1915. Mount Storelk is part of the
Elk Range and is located on the continental divide (re: Unnamed Peak, Mount Isabelle,
Storm Mountain and Mount Bosworth), therefore, on the border of Alberta and British
Columbia as well as Kananaskis Provincial Park (encompassing over 4,000 square
kilometers of foothills and mountains bordering Banff National Park) and British Columbia
public lands in the Canadian Rockies. Mount Storelk sits directly east of Mount Joffre, one
of the most popular Canadian Rockies 11,000’+ objectives. Mount Storelk was first
ascended in 1915 by the Interprovincial Boundary Commission.

The Elk range begins with Mount Pocaterra to the north, runs through Mount Tyrwhitt and
ends through Mount Storelk’s south ridge. I have climbed all three of these mountains.
The only published route up Mount Storelk is Alan Kane’s difficult rated scramble in his
“Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies” guide book. The scramble route offers some
exposed climbing up the east face of its north-south ridge. Lending itself to the difficult
rating is the bushwhacking, route finding and grizzly habitat you must cross on approach. I
found the guide books route photo and description to be somewhat inadequate. Despite
lacking direct route information, this still proved to be a short day objective that I completed
in less than 5 hours. The guidebook suggests 6-8 hours. Despite its close proximity from
the Kananaskis Highway, this is a relatively remote objective. I was the first summit
register sign in for 2006 (July 12) and observed that the last sign in for 2006 referenced a
grizzly sow with two cubs on the approach. The intermittent lush meadows in dense forest
make for prime grizzly environment. I did come across some sort of kill that was fly
infested in one of these areas. There are no ski routes to the summit, nor would it be
conducive for such.

The Misty Range to the east is in clear view including Mount Rae, Storm Mountain and
Mount Arethusa. I have climbed all of these objectives. In my opinion, this Highwood Pass
area serves up the most scenic and accessible high alpine foliage in all of the Canadian
Rockies.

Getting There
Take the Kananaskis Trail (Highway 40) exit off of the Trans-Canada Highway between
Calgary and Canmore. Drive to the Highwood Pass day parking area at 7239’ (Highwood
Pass Interpretive Trail) and continue another 6.4kms+/- from the pass. I basically drove
just a tad beyond an active creek with high stone walls on the right, just beyond the Mount
Lipsett day use area on the left. Just park along the side of the road. There was no trail or
cairn in 2006. This section of Kananaskis Highway is closed from December 1 through
June 15, and I do mean with a gate. The closure is at Kings Creek (Canyon), meaning
no access to any of the Highwood area mountains prior to June 15th.

Red Tape
There are no permit requirements to enter, climb and/or park in Kananaskis Provincial
Park. This is active grizzly country however. Take bear spray. In 2005 they had trail
closures in this area of Kananaskis due to a mountain lion (protecting its kill) and grizzly
with cubs (bluff charge). Therefore it is prudent to check recent notices posted on the
bulletin board outside of park headquarters which you drive by on Highway 40
(Kananaskis Trail). If they are open, check in with the ranger staff, they have tons of beta
and are always friendly.

Camping
The closest camping is a backcountry site at Elbow Lake, 1.3 km in on Big Elbow Trail
back north a few kilometers off of Hwy 40. There are tons of camping options further north
at Kananaskis Lakes. You cannot camp outside of the marked specific camping areas in
Kananaskis. Refer to the Kananaskis Provincial Park website for more information
regarding camping and/or lodging.

When to Climb
As with most scrambles in the Canadian Rockies, the driest time is from June through
September. I climbed Mount Storelk in July and the route was free of snow. There are no
published backcountry ski routes on Mount Storelk, nor would I suspect this to be a
mountain worth skiing.

Mountain Conditions
The Kananaskis Provincial Park website is a very thorough park website, including trail
conditions or closures, wildlife notices, weather conditions, avalanche conditions,
camping permits, whitewater conditions, etc. It is an excellent source if you are going to
spend any time here and comparable to any National Park website I have used. Outside of
the parks web site, Canadian Avalanche Association is also useful, particularly for winter
travel. Canadian Alpine Accident Reports are also extremely useful.

Route
This is a 3000’+/- day. As with all Highwood pass scrambles, Mount Storelk is an easy
ascent from the approach perspective, although rated a technically difficult scramble,
because you start at a high elevation to begin with. In Mount Storelk’s case, you do have to
start somewhat lower than most of the Highwood scrambles as it is several kilometers
south of the pass itself, but it is still a relatively short day compared to most climbs in the
Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies guidebook.

Drive 6.4kms+/- south of Highwood pass. I basically drove just a tad beyond an active
creek with high stone walls on the right and beyond the Mount Lipsett day use area on the
left. Park along the side of the road. There was no trail or cairn marking where to enter the
forest in 2006. You could start earlier from the pass than this, say around 6 kilometers, but
not much later due to a treed hill that stands between the road and the pass you need to
attain in order to work your way around the south side of Mount Storelk’s east ridge. You
do not want to have to ascend this hill. One option is to follow the creek from the road all
the way to the col. But I believe the most direct route is to contour around the hill on the
north through thick forest until you reach a significant drainage and then ascend the left
hand bank of this drainage intermittently through thick forest via different game trails until
you finally break out of tree line below the Col, which could be seen from the road as you
were descending from Highwood Pass. You will pass through several lush meadows. In
the fall of 2005 a grizzly and two cubs were spotted in this area. If you manage to park
exactly where I and Alan Kane did, via his guidebook, you will need to circumvent a marshy
pond to the left and then descend to cross a well flowing creek. You want to be on the
south side of this creek when you start your ascent. Any trails you find are animal trails,
despite how nice they might appear in places. You cannot stay to any particular trail
for long.

The col was approximately a 1200’ gain from the road and finally buys you relief from the
local mosquito population. The guidebook as well as other beta sources can be
confusing regarding what to do next. However, I think I can make it clear. Ascend Mount
Storelk’s east ridge from the col just half way to the start and then circumvent to the left
onto a lush wildflower meadow and continue for the east face of the south-north ridge of
Mount Storelk. You will not use the east ridge to obtain the summit ridge, except for
the final few meters. The reason for this is that if you hopped on the east ridge early,
you would be stopped eventually by some obvious blank slab sections that would force
you back to the left. (photo) Continue up the grassy slopes. I believe if you stay on the
north edge of the large scree slope, you will find the footing the most ideal. Eventually you
will start ascending some rock cropping slopes that lead to several gullies that ascend
the face just left of the east ridge. There is no doubt several options here. I chose a rib to
the left of these gullies that gave me some fun scrambling. I would be forced into a gully
to the right a time or two, but usually stuck to the rib for better rock. You will be paralleling
the east ridge to the north. There are several “dark” hole features that are visible on
approach, you should use these are targets and either bypass them on the left or
right. I found some evidence, small cairns, of others who chose a similar route as mine.
You come to a problem or two that can be better negotiated on either side versus
tackling them straight up. The rib I chose angled closer to the east ridge the more I
ascended.

Eventually, once I knew I had passed those blank slabs on the east ridge itself, there were
several easy ledges that offer a traverse back to the east ridge. There is a decent cairn
(2006) on the east ridge to mark this traverse. Move over right to the east ridge and finish
attaining the summit ridge which puts you over 9000’ and gives you direct views of Mount
Joffre to the west.

Turn right and follow the summit ridge direct (photo), losing some elevation at one point.
For the most part the ridge offers the best ground to finish off the route. There is some
evidence scramblers bypass some of the ridge via the scree on the west side. I stuck to
the ridge and was pleased with how it went.

The summit had a register in 2006. I was the first sign in for 2006 on July 12. This is a
fairly remote scramble. The view of the connecting ridge to Mount Tyrwhitt was awesome
(photo) and the views into Mount Joffre were good. You also had good perspectives to
objectives across the valley to the east, i.e. Mount Rae and Storm Mountain.

Descend the same. Once I got through the difficult sections on the east side of the summit
ridge, I moved over south in an attempt to find a fast scree descent that was not to be had.
The scree remained firm in most places. I advise descending back to the grassy footing
along the scree field to skiers left for a more pleasant descent back to the col. Finding
your way out might be a bit of a challenge. I would take a compass reading before you
descend the col and not worry about staying on the same ascent path as much as making
sure you do cross the creek again and then move immediately to the east. Once you get
back to the road, you will not be far from your vehicle in any regard.

Essential Gear
Helmet, hiking boots are adequate, poles are helpful to the start of the climb. Mosquito
deterrent. Bear Spray should be mandatory on this one.