Canmore (C)
The Rimwall

The Rimwall

On the picture above there is The Rimwall mountain, as it’s seen from the Wind Ridge, which we hiked a few weeks ago. Looks pretty intimidating from Dead Man’s Flats side, but from the South-West slopes it’s a surprisingly very pleasant hike, moderately challenging and highly rewarding. Allocate half day for it, but to really enjoy it you do need good weather. Don’t get scared away with foggy Spray Lakes in the morning, it happens more often that you might think. The fog forms at a certain combination of temperature and humidity in a matter of minutes and then dissolves without a trace in another half hour or hour:

Morning fog over the Spray Lakes from ascent to The Rimwall
Morning fog over the Spray Lakes from ascent to The Rimwall

If you follow the Alltrails trail, on the way up there are a couple of places where you need to scramble a couple of meters, "Crux" on The Rimwall ascent

but the weakness of a “crux” is always obvious, there is no exposure, and the only challenge can be loose rocks on the approach.

Scrambling fun with a crux on The Rimwall
Scrambling fun with a crux on The Rimwall
Three Sisters, The Orphan and Wind Ridge panorama from The Rimwall
Three Sisters, The Orphan and Wind Ridge panorama from The Rimwall

Once you are on the summit and look back in Lougheed direction, you can actually see two trails: one on the left is going close to the edge, and that is where you probably came from, and another one on the right which seem to be a descent via gully.

Windtower and Lougheed as seen from The Rimwall.
Windtower and Lougheed as seen from The Rimwall.

If you take the second one on your way back, you’ll descend much faster. The scree is mostly thin and soft, – just don’t forget to put on the gaiters and don’t miss the cairns showing where to leave the gully descent and to merge back with the original trail going up.

Scree descent from The Rimwall
Scree descent from The Rimwall

More photos from our Rimwall hike are here.

Our track is here, and we do recommend this (sort of loop) route.

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