Mount Romulus

On Sunday October 15 three of us headed out to scramble Romulus via the route described in Kane's Bible of Scree. We picked up an excellent trail as soon as we had crossed the Elbow River at the Romulus campsite. Assuming it to be a "Kane Effect" trail, which would deliver us speedily to the summit avoiding any annoying scrambly sections or exposure, we tightened our pack straps and strode on. In our haste to hit the scree, and speeded by this most excellent trail, we completely missed the first drainage exiting the south slopes of the mountain and went on to the second.

Part way up the second drainage, even with our blind route finding, it became obvious that we were one drainage to the west. Not to be deterred, however, we continued up meadow and gained the southwest ridge of the peak, which we followed to its join with Kane's south ridge. The terrain along the ridge was actually very good, with some pleasant scrambling on firm (yes firm) rock. Scree devotees could, however, turn anything that could possibly be perceived as difficult or exposed on the left.

From the ridge, I was able to point out Rick's and my route over Evan Thomas Pass to Highway 40 in the winter of 1998 (I think) to the others in my group. I was also able to describe in detail the bottomless snow, complete lack of any trail through the bush, and the particular spot where my dog's heart almost gave out (his tongue was purple). Apparently, this also courtesy of Collier, dogs have very small hearts. But I digress.

Too soon our southwest ridge dumped us unceremoniously onto the talus of the south ridge, and from there it was a simple plod to the summit. From the minor bump along the ridge to the top we saw one other party of two on the southeast ridge (similar route finding skills?), but they apparently grew weary of the toil and turned back long before the summit.

The views from the summit are actually quite fine, and this really was a fairly pleasant route to the summit. The front ranges are very dry, but there did appear to be more snow to the west, although the cloud level to the west was really too low to be sure. We noted that the summit register had been placed by the old goat himself on the occasion of his 500th summit! As we were feeling a little scree deprived, we followed the south ridge down to a particularly grotty looking gully, which we descended to the creek below. This provided the obligatory knee bashing and rock dodging one comes to expect on scree grovels.