Porcupine Ridge

What do you do when you discover a new place you haven’t been before? You call a few friends and explore the area even more! After briefly exploring the Porcupine Creek area earlier in the week, I really wanted to hike up Porcupine Ridge and find a place to camp along the creek. For this weekend adventure, I was joined by Marty and Jonathan and we met at the trailhead on an overcast and foggy morning.

Anticipating much better weather later in the morning, we made our way through the canyons to the bottom of the ridge and began our ascent.

Just as we reached the treeline, the fog had almost completely disappeared and we were treated with a little bit of sun and warmer temperature for the rest of the climb. Early on the hike the views were spectacular on Porcupine Ridge. To the west, Mount Lorette and its multiple ridges was a treat to the eyes.

There were a few ups and downs along the way. But we now had our objective well in sight.

And to the south, Wasootch Ridge looked like a fun ridge to walk, as much as the higher Wasootch Peak behind it.

After a few scrambling sections, we were on the top of the first section of Porcupine Ridge. We paused for a moment, chatted with two ladies who had made it before us and I starred at Midnight Peak to the north, which Jonathan and I had attempted to climb the day before but had to turn around because of the snow.

The weather started to deteriorate as we kept hiking past the high point to check out our options for our next move. Sure we could’ve hiked back down the way we came up, but we were all keen on finding a way down on the almost snow-free south face of the ridge.

There was a pretty sweet looking gully starting from a lower ridge section. Being unsure what the conditions were all the way down to the creek, we took a small snack break on the saddle above the gully, discussing the plan. With the decision made to give this climb down a try, we hoped for the best and began the fun part of every adventure, at least for me: route-finding!

The descent was a mix of waist-deep snow patches, slippery rock traverses and steep loose scree sections. The three of us alternated at the front, trying to find our best (and safest) option every time. The complicity between us was key here. None of us are rock climbers and some of the moves we had to make were a little sketchy and exposed but at all time we made sure that we were all comfortable with the route ahead of us.

Looking back up the way we came.

We lost a lot of elevation in a short amount of time and looking back to see what we had just down climbed was always impressive. Some of the sections were steeper than 45° but it’s always hard to judge the grade when you’re deep into the middle of a tight gully with walls on each side.

At some point, we could clearly see the south branch of Porcupine Creek in front of us. Even after having to deal with deep snow, the mood was good within our group. We had successfully negotiated every obstacle that this route had put in front of us. It was a relief because the more we went down, the more we knew that having to go back up was practically impossible. We were all in at this point. But then our worst fear became a reality. We were on the edge of a massive 100 feet vertical wall. Needless to say, the mood changed in a second! Marty did the right thing and called for a snack break in order for us to assess the situation. Our option was pretty much self-explanatory. We had to climb back up on the side of the cliff and find another way back down around it. But lucky for us, climbing an almost vertical muddy 200 feet slope brought us to an opening where we could see a possible route all the way down to the creek. A steep but somewhat easy descent had finally led us from the top of Porcupine Ridge to the south branch of the creek with the same name.

We were all smiles at the bottom and quite proud of our accomplishment. Now the only thing left for us was to find a decent and big enough spot to pitch three tents.

And we found a very nice area that could accommodate all our shelters. We spent the rest of the evening talking, eating, and drinking whisky. It was really fun to finally have daylight until almost 10PM. Summer is coming!!! That’s what we all said until…

…until we woke up under a few inches of sticky snow. Nothing surprising if you ask me but it’s always funny to think that a few hours earlier we had 20°C temperature on top of a ridge and we were now dealing with full winter conditions. Such is life in the Canadian Rockies! But much to our relief, the temperature never dropped below freezing and stayed right at 0°C. Putting on wet shoes first thing in the morning is a little better than putting frozen ones! Been there, done that…

Jonathan kept wishing us Merry Christmas all morning long! He couldn’t believe we were back in winter time again. It was gorgeous all around us. With only a few kilometers to hike along the creek before getting back to our vehicles, the only reason we didn’t stayed too long at camp in the morning was because of our cold feet. It’s hard to stay warm while packing our gear and walking is the only solution to warm up those frozen toes.

This trip was the perfect opportunity for me to test a new backpack I had made a few days ago. It held up perfectly. I will be using it again this summer!

The creek follows the Porcupine Ridge and bends every now and then. That forced us to cross in the water a few times on our way back. It was as cold as it could have been but like I said, as long as we kept walking, it was bearable for the feet.

Back on the main trail, just a kilometer left to the trailhead.

Looking back at Porcupine Ridge, completely engulfed in clouds.

For an early-season overnight trip, it was perfect! I really feel like the stars were aligned for us the entire time. Good weather on the ridge, calm evening and the worst of the storm while we were sleeping. It was the workout I needed and being with Marty and Jonathan made this trip even more fun.