08_06_17 Rimwall - Kananaskis Country

• Posted on June 17, 2008 at 4:54 PM
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Riwall 2680m partially coverd with snow

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“08_06_17 Rimwall 2680 m ”

So finally we decided to do our first hike this year. Ann, the organizer of our undertaking picked - Rimwall, right next to Wind Pass in beautiful Calgary's playground - Kananaskis. We (that is Odile, Ann, Sarah and I) arrived to the trail head around 10 a.m. The weather was great and we all felt fantastic. We were ready for our first hiking adventure this year, well my first hike this year. Ann with some friends "did" Yamnuska last weekend. Anyhow armed with Alan Kane's Bible "Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies" we took off. Initially we followed trail which leads to beautiful but very windy "Wind Pass" (well chosen name indeed). Accordingly to Kane's book finding proper trail to Rimwall requires some serious rout finding skills and even then the outcome might still be very enigmatic. This is what happened to us, we ended up right smack in the middle of Windy Pass, next to Rimwall but hundreds of meters below it. I was ready to enjoy the vistas, hang around for a while and hike back at a leisurely pace, Ann had different ideas though. She suggested that if we scramble/free climb (without any protection I might add) cliffs towering over us we might catch up with the proper trail. The first rock band was not too bad, we found nice chimney like fissure and were able to negotiate it without any problems. The second rock band was not a rock band at all but a cliff which one could rate at 5.3 or 5.4. Three of us stayed at the bottom while Ann went to "scout" the terrain. One can imagine our surprise when after about 20 minutes we heard her directly above us first and then saw her happy face. She crossed the point of no return, there was no way that she could come down without protection hence we had no other option but to follow her up (let me say it again - without any protection). I'll spare the reader the details, enough to say that somehow God's willing we all made it up there. From there Odile decided to stay there and rest - she had not been well, I am sure that free climb added to her level of exertion. Ann, Sarah and I started the ascent towards Rimwall summit while weather changed from sunny to overcast with rain approaching. When we got to the ridge at about 2572 m above sea level it was raining, blowing hard and it had gotten real cold (and late) we decided to turn back - the mountain will be there for us to try again while pressing on seemed a bit foolish (not like free climbing we did a bit earlier ... ;-)) ). Coming down was much easier of course, we reunited with Odile soon, sat for a while and had bite to eat. After a while we were on our way down. After reaching parking we met older gentlemen, Ann started little chit chat about where did he go where we went etc, Our newly met gentleman casually mentioned that he had done this hike years ago with (are you ready for that......) ALAN KANE. Ann asked with THE Alan Kane ??? He said yes and you know that picture on the cover of "The Bible" is my picture which Alan took a while back...wow, Ann immediately asked (forgot the name of the guy but you can look it up in the credits of the Bible) for autograph which he happily delivered. So, here you go - that is our Rimwall story.