December 16, 2019, Commonwealth Ridge
Distance: 7.3 km
Elevation gain: 577 m
After bailing on the mountains two weekends in a row, something I hate doing, Fred and I decided to grab Monday, December 6 for a snowshoe up Commonwealth Ridge. I was hoping somebody laid down a track so we wouldn’t have to put our route-finding skills to the test, given our failure on Crystal Ridge 🤨. The forecast promised mostly sunny skies with a few clouds and the avalanche risk was low.
With a slightly late leave time, we were lucky to see a beautiful sunrise in Kananaskis. While we witnessed orange and brilliant yellow skies, for the most part we saw pink cotton candy like clouds against a beautiful blue sky.
Once parked, we saw a very established trail heading across the Engadine meadows. Yeah! And particularly a big yeah for us because we would most likely be the only ones trekking up the ridge on this weekday. We quickly donned our snowshoes and packs and headed down to cross the meadows.
Stunning snow flowers on open water were plentiful and captured my attention right away. After a quick few pictures with my IPhone, we proceeded into the woods on the other side. It was truly a winter wonderland. I could feel myself settle into the beauty and rhythm of the day.
Quite soon, we saw where the track veered a hard climber’s left and started to climb Commonwealth Ridge. There’s not much to say about this section of the day other than it was a beautiful climb through the forest. Unlike some of our snowshoes, the grade was decent and whoever had gone before us had done a great job selecting their route up.
Interestingly, it felt much, much colder than it was. There was also a tiny wind increasing in intensity as we climbed. Unlike 99% of my climbs, I ended up donning all my clothes – wool t-shirt, wool fleece, down vest, down coat and windbreaker jacket. I admit I was a tad concerned about how I would feel once we broke treeline 🥶.
Once up on the shoulder of the ridge, the views opened-up dramatically. I have never seen the Fist or Mount Smuts or Commonwealth, etc., from this angle. Clouds were swirling in and around the peaks making for a dramatic feel to the day. Fred and I opted to not walk the entire ridge, primarily due to the cold. Winds had picked up and our faces, hands, toes, etc., were frozen. Cameras were used quickly.
We made quick work of getting down, largely due to how nice the trail was. Once we merged with other tracks in the forest below, the weather had changed substantially. Winds were high. There was no sun or blue skies. In fact, everything looked socked in. How lucky were we with our timing on this day 😊.
