Kent Ridge North (2914m)

+ summit of Kent Ridge Outlier (2533m)

January 12, 2025

Today was an awesome group hiking day. Scott and I met up with Nick and Nate at the start of the Kent Ridge North route in Kananaskis. We got geared up in our snowshoes and followed a well-laid path up through the forest and onto the open ridge of the lower outlier peak that we would be visiting first. The light grew as we exited the trees. We had some wicked views looking back as we continued up the ridge.

It wasn’t long before we were on top of the outlier, and had to switch from snowshoes to crampons to descend and traverse around a couple of flaky cliff bands. There was a fun steep section of snow to downclimb, and then we descended to the col and began the steep hike up to the summit. The snow was deep in sections at first, but eventually it was more of a rocky trudge to the summit. My watch had my altitude miscalibrated low, so I suddenly arrived on top of the mountain much sooner than expected. Scott and Nate were waiting and Nick soon came up behind me.

We had some wild cloudy views on the summit and a nice summit break. The wind wasn’t too high, so I busted out my thermos of coffee to pass around while Nick pulled out his thermos of soup. Warm drinks are a welcome luxury on the mountain! After soaking in the summit vibes, we were getting a bit chilly and it was time to head down. We made quick work of the descent and I was even able to enjoy a few little glissades. On the way back up the outlier, I now chose a direct line up and over 2 steps. This was a fun and short crux of the day climbing some steep snow and pulling myself up over the sandwhiched rock layers of the cliffbands.

Descending the outlier was fun and easy. I was now crampons-off, almost skiing down on my boots along our ascent path to the treeline. We passed a party ascending the outlier with their dog. Soon after, we were crossing down through the forest to the parking lot. We did 1200m gain and about 8km. Scott and I enjoyed the mountain views all the way out of Kananaskis, identifying the peaks that we have climbed and the ones we still need to climb!

Photocreds in the gallery are various, but check out this awesome summit photo Scott shot with the Insta360: