[Note: The summit of Mount Blakiston is the highest point in Waterton National Park.]
Elevation gain: 1350 m (4,445 ft)Max. Elev.: 2910 m (9,546 ft) Distance: ~10kms
The Route:
Follow the trail to Lineham Falls in Waterton Lakes National Park. At the first sight of the waterfalls (after ~ 1hr+ of hiking at a moderate pace) turn right up the drainage, following the faint path that appears to the right of the streambed. Initially the route ascends a fairly easy scee slope, but after 45 minutes or so the route upwards becomes a mix of class III ledges and scree. Keep following the gully up (I stayed to the right of the gully for the ascent; the rock seemed a bit more solid). Some daunting cliff walls appear near the top (class III and IV pitches here). There is a couloir described by Kane in his book 'Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies' that sounds like the safest bet, however the most obvious couloir I could find in the cliff wall had some large icicles, so to get to the summit I traversed to the left of Kane's suggested route and had to ascend a short length of class IV for 15 ft or so. On the way down, I followed the tracks of some other hikers who had taken a slightly different route than me; I tried to avoid any difficult climbing on the way up, although their route was about the same difficulty as my ascent).
It took me about 3.5 hours to get to the summit at a moderate pace, with the snow and ice near the top serving as both a help and a hindrance (it was easier to climb up the snow near the top on the very loose scree; the ice and snow in the couloirs complicated matters somewhat as I prefer to avoid snow whenever possible!)
For some it may be preferable to ascend Blakiston by completing the 'Hawkins Horseshoe' route - coming from the Rowe Lakes trail via Lineham ridge. That route would still have to descend Blakiston, however. (To both ascend and descend Blakiston by the Rowe Lakes trail would make for an incredibly long day!) I would recommend for those parties who are interested in completing the Horseshoe (but unsure about the difficulty of Blakiston), to start the Horseshoe by going UP Blakiston.
All in all, Mount Blakiston is a great scramble. Hikers that do not enjoy scrambling might be turned off by the cliff walls up high (the cliff walls are appear just 500 feet or so from the summit). Even if stopping at that point, the views are quite nice.
Note 1: Met Sonny B. and Linda B. on the way up... had looked at each other's web postings of various scrambling routes. Mountaineering web geeks of the world unite! See Sonny's website and Linda's webpage Sonny and Linda completed the horseshoe and have many interesting photos to share.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: A COUPLE OF SOURCES INDICATED THAT THE CLIFFS AT THE TOP CAN BE AVOIDED BY TRAVERSING TO WEST OF THE SUMMIT, TO A SCREE SLOPE THAT CAN BE USED TO ATTAIN OR LOSE THE RIDGETOP]
Current conditions:
Note: This is a scramble. Be aware that scrambling can injure or kill you. Be prepared, know your limits and make sure somebody knows where you're going.
