Since our fall has been unusually warm and amazing, I tried to get one more hike into the season.
I invited my friend Andrew for an outing on Mt Fable since we do a lot of the same kinds
of outdoor activities, and he's great company. And he takes great photos too!
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As usual, we had a pretty early start, and after I screwed up where we should be parking (for
future notes, park in front of the Legion near the highway), we were off down Exshaw Creek for our
day's outing. This is a look back from the top of the dam on Exshaw Creek looking at the sun rising
behind Heart Mountain.
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Here's a look at Andrew in Exshaw creek looking up to our target for the day, Mt Fable.
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A better look at the ridge line (left side horizon line) we'll be traveling up shortly.
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I thought this part of the rock amphitheatre was really sweet with a big rock wall all around us. Really
interesting layers in this limestone and fun to look at, here with Andrew in the foreground.
Video of the area around the pinch point in the upper bowl
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Some of the rocky terrain on the way up the creek bed.
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A good look at the jumbled big rocks in the path.
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Looking back along the scree slope we traveled, we caught some neat light with the sun poking through
periodically. To be fair, it wasn't the best weather, but anything in October without a blizzard is
still feeling like you stole something.
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One of the topos called out 'bush whacking', but this was the closest we saw to bush on the whole route.
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The trail was actually pretty well-traveled with lots of cairns so it made it tough to get too lost.
Here's Andrew just above the big pinch point of the upper bowl looking back along the valley we came up.
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After clearing the jumbled steep rock face, that opened up the last hiking portion up this steep scree
face. If it weren't so far, this upper bowl would ski REALLY well with relatively little in the way of
overhead hazard too. It's just a ~9 km approach to here though.
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We humped our way up some pretty steep scree to get to the col between the Gap Mountain traverse and
the top of Mt Fable. This is looking to the north up towards Mt Townsend (behind this front peak) along
with Mythic Tower and Epic Tower.
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Andrew, with a look back down the scree slope. Some pretty neat yellow rocks on this side of the col.
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Pulling out a storm shell as the winds picked up at the col.
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Nice colour and shading looking to the north from the col.
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After reaching the col, it was more scrambly to get to the summit. Here Andrew shows how it's done
by using more of the rock and less of the scree bits to be more stable on the rock.
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Andrew making his way along the ridge to the summit. We thought it was a weather station on the summit,
but it was actually what looks more like a memorial cross.
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Along the summit ridge with a view back on the left side to connect to Gap mountain.
