Sheol Mountain

This was one odd mountain.  You'd think that with a week's notice, great weather, and a snow-free route (hello August weekends!) one could get a group of four scramblers together.  A couple of us were hell-bent on heading up Sheol, so we e-mailed people we've done stuff with to see if they're interested in joining us.  Reasons for declining our pleasant company (ha!) were all over the place.  By Thursday we had found one 'victim' to join us, but we were still one shy of the four person minimum for group access.  We figured that with three experienced people armed with bear spray we'd be better than a large group of sandal-hiking tourists and would be able to talk our way out of the situation should we be stopped by a park warden.  But we saw no-one all day, except for a group of six right ahead of us going up Paradise Valley, and another group of four watching the second porcupine with us.  For the first 2km we had fun making up stories of our lost fourth hiker: the potential fourth person was a real person (who bailed due to an injury).  We had left them at the hospital in Banff, but they insisted that we head to hell (sheol) and back.

The gully. As with most people, we missed the turn-off at first, then backtracked to the signs and immediately had the old trail.  Beyond that though it was bushwhacking extreme.  Close your eyes, head in, don't fall, and just forget about being drenched in sap.  They were big trees, but at least the needles were soft.  One in our group ended up pulling out his first aid kit for the first time ever.  I spotted pine siskins on thistles, so would be quizzed on birds later.  So up it was.  I disliked the lower slopes for they were plain messy.  There were rocks and a bunch of vegetation, but it really reminded me of one really unkept weed garden.  No points for stunning scenery there. 

It was the upper slopes that really had me sold on wanting to do this scramble, and scrambling was varied.  At first there was just a steep gully to cross.  K. skirted along the edge, while I picked out the biggest rocks to get across.  Further up we encounter big rubble, then sliding rubble, then slabs, and also some sliding slabs.  Towards the ridge crest rocks grew increasingly large and we boulder-hopped.  Indeed, the view was breathtaking again: get off to the side and with one step you can be down the mountain.  At last we managed to get full shots of Temple for it had been right in our face as we headed up the gully.  We saw three people on top of it.  We slogged and slogged some more, finally peeking over to Haddo Peak and Fairview, then looking over and seeing that we need to get about three bumps over to make it to the actual summit.  I was running out of steam and by 3pm we had lunch.  I was disappointed not to find the chocolate I had packed, only to have it reappear as I unpacked that night.

Our descent was quicker.  One in our group ended up in the gully's ditch due to going too fast and losing their footing.  I was the slow and steady one again, but also put us over the 9-hour mark.  We bushwhacked again, ran out of water, and then had a nice wash in the creek in front of Temple.  This was a dirty, dusty day.  The same porcupine startled us for the second time.  In the morning he was right on the edge of the trail and we didn't notice; same for the second time.  Other wildlife spotted was a little mouse that we watched for some time eating a mushroom, and half an hour after one wished to see a golden eagle this year, we did.  In the end, the Drake Effect pulled us in, and we finished the day with nice big burgers - eaten in record time!