BOU AVENUE
Mount Cory
In celebration of Canada Day 2004, Vern Dewit, Dan Millar, Kelly Wood and I headed out to Banff National Park to scramble up Mount Cory.  Thrashing through some bushes and groveling up a slippery slope made for a rather inauspicious start, but we soon settled into a long and relentlessly steep grind up the ridge.  A little more than two hours up, we reached a pleasant grassy saddle where we were able to catch our breath albeit only briefly.  A quick look up at the main summit block dashed any hopes of a quick end to our suffering, but thankfully, the upper half of the mountain is where the scrambling gets more interesting.  After picking our way through numerous rock bands and overcoming several minor humps, we trudged up a wide gully before angling up to the summit ridge.  We all reached the 2801-metre south summit less than four hours after starting out.  While Dan and Kelly were content to stay on the south summit, Vern and I headed over to the slightly higher north summit (ten minutes further) to sign the register.  On our descent, we retraced most of our ascent route, but lower down, we somehow ended up in a steep, narrow gully just west of the ridge we came up.  This gully is pretty good for scree skiing, but because rockfall is a serious hazard here, we descended one at a time in short stretches to avoid knocking rocks down on each other.  Despite our slow progress, we all made it down safely and eventually returned to my car after a round-trip time of 8 hours.

Check out Vern's photos of this trip here.
Ugh. The first half of the scramble up Mount Cory is typically like this.
Ouch! This is probably why Dan doesn't scramble so much anymore.
Weird rocks. Kelly stands atop a minor hump with some unusual rock formations.
Still some work left... The two summits of Mount Cory are visible at this point.
Almost there... Dan and Vern begin angling up to the summit ridge.
Be careful here! The footing on the slope just below the summit ridge is not so great.
Mmmmm...cous cous! Kelly and Dan enjoy lunch on the south summit.
An ice axe, an ice axe, my kingdom for an ice axe! Vern descends a steep snow slope guarding the connecting ridge to the north summit.
Piece of cake! Vern ascends the final easy slope up to the north summit.
4 hours 15 minutes Vern and Sonny stand on the north summit.
I've looked at clouds from both sides now... This is looking back at the south summit from the north summit.
Doesn't look as bad in the sunshine! Back at the south summit, Sonny smiles as the weather becomes sunny and grants a clear view of the north summit.
It's all downhill from here! Vern and Kelly descend the ridge.