Heart Mountain, Grant McEwen and Twin Towers Summits - September 17th 2023

 
We visited Calgary to drop off Sams car and visit her family and I decided to take a day to do some scrambling in the rockies while we were out that way. I didn't have anything particular in mind but I didn't want to go up anything too hard, since I wouldn't have a partner I trusted well, or too far away, since I didn't want to spend too long away on such a short trip. After looking around and talking to some people I decided on the Heart Mountain horsheshoe loop, which is very popular, and as an added bonus I could make the jaunt over to the Twin Towers to make it longer and more of an adventure.

Heart Mountain from the parking lot

I posted on the Rockies Scrambling Facebook group and found a partner named Thurum pretty easily. I read about the route and it seemed pretty easy and straightforward with a short crux that a lot of people just downclimb / solo but since I wasn't familiar with my partner I opted to bring a 30m rope to make it easier. We wanted to start hiking at 7am so we agreed to meet at 6:15 and drive out however Thurum ended up being over 45 minutes late and so we didn't start hiking until 8, not a great start.

Our view to the west as we ascended

The trail started traveling pretty horizontally before crossing Heart Creek and starting to ascend quickly. The Rockies are much different than the coast, especially in the fact that the approach is much shorter and nearly non-existent. Within fifteen minutes of heading uphill we were already in sub-alpine and scrambling terrain. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the top of Heart Mountain, the scrambling on the way up was pretty pleasant and consistent but not too difficult. There was one big step and a fun chimney move but other than that it was pretty much just hiking on steep rock and I'd say it never exceeded Class 3.

Near Grant MacEwen peak and the ridge towards Twin Towers

Thurum was pretty quick off the gun but quickly slowed down and I could tell he would probably be lagging for the day but that was fine because I had been very conservative with my time estimates. From Heart Mountain we walked along the mostly wooded ridge towards Grant MacEwen which took another half an hour. At this point the trail to the Twin Towers diverged from the horseshoe loop so we headed towards them and knew we would return later. Shortly after Grant MacEwen we knew would be the crux and sure enough we found it. There was a solid dead tree about 10m up and I set up a rappel. I set a single line fixed rappel so that we could leave the rope and use it to climb back up on our way back. Thurum hadn't brought a harness or any gear so he borrowed mine and rapelled down. While he did that I downclimbed as far as I could down and contemplated downclimbing the crux but decided since the rappel was already set up that I would just use it and so I did.

Beautiful picture from Grant MacEwen summit looking at our path towards Twin Towers

After leaving the crux and rope behind the rest of the route revealed it to us. All the trip reports had trivialized this section but looking at it from afar it seemed like it had some spicy sections however as usual once we got close everything was very easy to navigate and I agreed with the other reports. There was one narrow section that I didn't consider difficult or exposed but Thurum started to panic and I had to talk him through it, crisis averted. Later he admitted that he had nearly bailed at that section.

Our rappel

The last section to the west tower summit involved a short scree slope that was annoying but thankfully short and soon we were on the top after 3h45m from the car. It was very windy and we had barely eaten since starting so we stopped for some food. I wasn't very hungry though so I tried calling Sam, who didn't pick up, and then we left our bags and made our way over to the east tower summit. On the way over we watched some crows hanging out around our bags, on our return we would learn they had been eating Thurums pistachio nuts. Once back on the west tower summit we picked up our bags and ate a bit more, I talked to Sam on the phone and we headed down. It was about 12:30 now and we estimated we'd be back at the car by 4.

Easy class 2/3 scrambling

The way down was uneventful, we made quick time until the crux section. I soloed up it and Thurum was very nervous so I belayed him. He had some trouble making the move but eventually did and we packed up and rejoined the horseshoe loop at Grant MacEwen peak. From here we followed the trail down completing the horshoe loop. It would have been shorter to return the way we came but we wanted to see the rest of the route and it was supposedly easier which was appreciated. Some of the way down we ran but Thurum was hurting quite a bit so we had to stop and take breaks fairly often. Once we were done the descending we had a 2km flat walk back to the car that was passed mostly silently since we were both fairly tired. We got back to the car pretty much exactly at 4pm and headed home.

Getting close to the summit

Overall it was a very pleasant and successful scramble. Absolutely gorgeous day and I love scrambling in the rockies, I would really like to go out that way more and do some more scrambles next year.

Summit selfie