Mount James Walker

Kananaskis, AB, Canada

15 September 2019

With Wen & Sean

Hiking into a pristine valley and scrambling into the clouds

This was our first outing with Sean and his first scramble in the Canadian Rockies, a far cry from the bushwalking he’s used to from Australia! Although we were a bit unlucky with the weather today, Mount James Walker turned out to be a great choice for a cloudy day with a bit of a drizzle here and there. We even had snow on the upper slope, which made the trip feel like a winter outing for a short while.

The regular ascent route described in Nugara’s More Scrambles book is easy to follow and a pleasure to hike. We chatted away as we tramped up the flagged/cairned trail to a pretty lake and time just flew by. Good conversations with good friends always make it so much easier and more enjoyable!

From the lake, we followed an intermittent faint trail and then just headed across open grassy slopes into the northeastern branch of the valley. This is the easiest route up, but one could also ascend the south ridge of James Walker which involves some hands-on scrambling. Higher up the valley we found another good trail beaten into the scree by the many parties that have come before us. This is definitely one good example of a mountain that has seen significantly more traffic since its inclusion in a popular scrambling book.

It was really convenient to have a trail for the final stretch. We frequently turned around to admire the jagged ridge that leads up neighboring Mount Inflexible. Soon we were able to peek into the Kananaskis Valley to the east but the ever shifting clouds often obscured our views. The summit mass was completely enveloped in clouds and it almost felt like a full-on winter outing to be tramping up a fairly steep slope on snow and ice. The snow covering the trail was actually a blessing as it allowed us to kick-step up and plunge-step on the way down. Every once in a while a rock would come loose and we definitely appreciated having our helmets in this section. Despite not being used to such terrain from Australia, Sean had no issues whatsoever and confidently scrambled up the slopes right behind us.

Before we knew it the summit cairn appeared in front of us through a veil of mist and we were standing on the 3035 m summit of Mount James Walker. The clouds were so dense up here we had nothing to look at, except the fairly sizable register that contains not one but two booklets – yes, this is a popular mountain in the summer.

After a short summit celebration for Sean’s first Canadian mountain, we packed up and made our way down again, retracing our ascent route. Snow and soft scree made the descent fast and enjoyable, as was the rest of our hike back to the Sawmill parking lot. We all really enjoyed this trip despite the lack of views from the top. Later in the evening the weather cleared, just when we stumbled upon a pretty good camp site for the night in the Kananaskis Valley as we didn’t feel like driving back to Calgary that night. There’s nothing like sitting around a campfire with good friends, a warm meal, and a couple of beers to end a fun day of hiking!

DOWNLOAD ROUTE (GPX FILE)

NOTE: This GPX track is for personal use only. Commercial use/re-use or publication of this track on printed or digital media including but not limited to platforms, apps and websites such as AllTrails, Gaia, and OSM, requires written permission.

DISCLAIMER: Use at your own risk for general guidance only! Do not follow this GPX track blindly but use your own judgement in assessing terrain and choosing the safest route. Please read the full disclaimer here.