Did an interesting scramble a couple of days ago to a summit directly north of Mount Glasgow at the head of Upper Glasgow Creek (see map below). As you can see from the picture the weather was mixed with showers, low cloud, and finally, as we were descending, clear skies. The scramble is 8.4 km one way and 1100 m (3,600′) of height gain.
The second top. The true summit is hidden behind it.
The hike in starts along Little Elbow Equestrian Trail, then up Glasgow Creek. See previous blog Glasgow Creek – Big Elbow Loop for details. After 1.5 km hiking up Glasgow Creek, leave the trail and follow the creek southwest up dryas flats. Watch for a game trail crossing the creek after about 500 m. Turn right on the game trail and follow it onto the bank top. A few metres farther on you will see a good game trail heading left through light bush. We found it (on the way down of course) about where the solid red line on the map ends. A GPS will be handy for finding it on the way down (download track log below). The trail is much easier than hiking the creekbed (the way we went up).
When the trail ends head uphill onto the rocky end of the ridge. Unfortunately the ridge to the gap before the first top is rocky and broken. Keep as high as possible and use sections of game trail when you have to drop below the ridge top. There are a few sections of exposed knife-edge ridge between the first and second tops. The small summit, which has a well-built windbreak, is an excellent viewpoint.
It may be possible to scramble to the peak immediately north of the first top, then descend its northeast ridge to Little Elbow Equestrian Trail. Let us know if you try this descent.
| Download GPS track log |  |
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Pardon my ignorance. When I click on the .gpx link above, it opens the actual .gpx file in a new window. When I right click and select Save Target As…, the file format is .xml.
How do I actually get the .gpx file?
Hi Derek. gpx is a lightweight xml formatted file. When you save it, your software may add another extension. Mine adds .txt. Delete the extra extension before uploading the file to your GPS.
The peak’s location is GR 461258,
We were actually making for the col at the head of Glasgow Creek (easy scree), but at the last minute decided to climb direct to the first summit. I blame it on the sun coming out briefly! Out route is not shown on the map, but goes up through the 8,000 on the contour line. Endless rubble…
For hikers, the first summit (cairn) is a good place to stop.
Re the ridge connecting the first summit to the peak to the north, I am intrigued by this otherwise easy ridge as it appears to have a huge bite taken out of it in the middle. Does it go? Waiting to hear from you…
August 4, 2009
Re the ridge connecting to minor north summit, we have done this a couple times and had no problems. We followed the ridge from this minor summit, north-east down to the river. There were game trails lower down to the valley.
We tried something similar at the weekend and I stumbled on your account afterwards. Instead of approaching up Glasgow Creek, we climbed striaght up the ridge immediately north of it. Conditions were a little wintery, and we turned back where the knife-edge section started as the wind and ice combination didn’t make for easy scrambling. Definitely one to go back to next summer though.