The Orphan

Kananaskis, AB, Canada

9 June 2020

Solo

 

Short hike, small summit, no crowds

 

The Orphan is sort of the “neglected” sibling of adjacent Big Sister and Middle Sister to the west, and even the Rimwall to the east is much more popular. One reason certainly is that there is no established trail and it initially takes a bit of rubble bashing in the creek bed on the approach to The Orphan. Another perhaps is that this is a relatively minor summit – an outlier really – dwarfed by all other peaks surrounding it. Still, I think it makes for a great hike far off the crowds and offers fine views of the Three Sisters, the Bow Valley, and Wind Ridge below.

Finding the trailhead is probably the crux of this hike. There is no pull-out for parking on the road; in fact, there is no trail in the first few hundred metres where you just walk up a broad, rubble-strewn creek bed that has clearly been affected by previous flooding events. A faint smattering of a trail then forms as you enter a gap in the cliffs between outliers of the Rimwall to the right and an extension of Big Sister to the left.

The faint trail comes and goes as pebbles and boulders fill much of the creek valley, but I didn’t find it too bad (Jura and Exshaw Creeks are worse in my opinion). Higher up there is an obvious “messy” spot where the creek is covered with tree trunks and avalanche debris – the creek splits here and the faint trail continues on a muddy rise to climber’s left (cairns).

The trail soon loses itself on the wide grassy slope that leads up to the saddle between the Rimwall and The Orphan, from where it’s an easy plod to the summit. I really enjoyed the close-up views of the Three Sisters, which I think is pretty unique from this angle.

I thought about traversing to the Rimwall on my way down (which is entirely feasible if there isn’t a lot of snow along the ridge crest), but strong winds and a darkening sky had me hustle downhill instead. When I was back at the car the sun came out again and the beautiful blue skies persuaded me to add an afternoon hike up the Windtower nearby.

 

Elevation:

2591 m

Elevation gain:

1010 m

Time:

3.5 h

Distance:

7.3 km

Difficulty level:

Easy (Kane), T2 (SAC)

Reference:

Spirko

Personal rating:

3 (out of 5)

 

DOWNLOAD ROUTE (GPX FILE)

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The washed out creek bed at the “trailhead”.
Boulder bashing in the lower part of the creek.
There’s an intermittent faint trail, but a strong rain storm or flash flood may obliterate it all again.
The “messy spot” where the correct route goes left (north).
Flat, steep slopes in the upper part of the valley.
Looking back down the valley. Spray Lake behind.
The Rimwall shows up on the right.
On the left is an equally impressive suite of cliff bands.
A close look at the approach in the creek bed below.
The Rimwall from near the saddle. True summit is just right of centre.
Wind Ridge as seen from the saddle.
Easy and enjoyable scrambling to the top from here.
The route goes up this bench, which was may be snow-covered and avalanche-prone in early season (thankfully not today!).
This part may be tricky if a lot of snow or ice persists: the slope steepens for s short stretch and has a vertical drop–off below on the right. Today it was no problem.
View of the Bow Valley from the summit.
Big Sister (L) and Middle Sister (R).
Little sister, a technical climb.
The Rimwall.
In the distance to the east are Skogan Peak (R) and an unnamed peak to the north (which Trevor informally called “Gilligan Peak“).
A big boulder in the creek bed on my way back.
The trip ends with this fabulous view of the first summit of Mount Lougheed as seen from the gravel road below.

In this section

Kananaskis Allsmoke Mountain Ben’s Hill Blue Ridge Bluerock Mountain Bull Creek Hills Cat Creek Hills & Stony Ridge Channel Ridge Commonwealth Peak Compression Ridge Cox Hill Coyote Hills Cummings Ridge East End of Rundle Etherington-Baril Ridge (Three Cairns) Forgetmenot Ridge & Mountain Gilligan Peak Glasgow North & Garriochmill Peak Green Mountain Gunnery Mountain Ha Ling Peak & Miner’s Peak Hailstone Butte, Sentinel Peak & Iron Creek Mountain Heart Mountain Hell’s Ridge Highwood Peak Hill of the Flowers Holy Cross Mountain Hood, Mount Horton Hill & Horton Ridge Iyarhe Ipan, Swany’s Ridge & Quirk Ridge Jumpingpound Mountain Kidd South, Mount Link Hill & Vents Ridge Little Lougheed Lookout Range to Mount Burke Lusk Ridge Mesa Butte Missinglink Mountain Mist Mountain Mist Ridge Moose Mountain Mount Barwell Mount Bogart Mount Bryant Mount Burns East Peak (attempt) Mount Denny & Mount Potts Mount Dyson Mount Evan-Thomas Mount French & Mount Jellicoe Mount Head Mount Howard Mount James Walker Mount Lorette & Skogan Peak Mount Lougheed I Mount Mann Mount McPhail Mount Muir Mount Quirk Mount Remus Mustang Hills Odlum Ridge Old Baldy Mountain Opal Ridge South Opal Ridge Traverse Packenham Junior Pasque Mountain Pigeon Mountain Pocaterra Ridge Powderface Ridge Powderface Ridge (south route) Prairie Mountain Raspberry Ridge Red Peak Red Ridge Running Rain Peak & Mount Odlum Serendipity Peak & Patterson’s Peak Seventy Buck & Eagle Hill Ship’s Prow Mountain Shunga-la-she & Jägermeister Peak Snow Peak Storelk Mountain Strawberry Hills The Orphan Tower, The Volcano Ridge Windtower Windy Point Ridge & Gleason Ridge Yates Mountain Zephyr Creek Hills

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