The Trifecta (Scramble)
If you have been going for 12h already, then why not run the last 7km?
The Trifecta (Scramble)
Notable Visited Landmarks
Lakes
Mountains
Introduction
The Trifecta is a 30.7km, 2150m elevation gain loop trip where you summit the 3 highest mountains in the Skoki Area, Mount Richardson, Pika Peak, and Ptarmigan Peak. The Skoki area is one of my favorite areas in the Canadian Rockies, I started off my scrambling career in the area with Fossil Mountain, I fell in love with scrambling as well as the area so a lot of my first scrambles were in the Skoki Area, I did the Trifecta on August 6, 2018, 2 years after I did Fossil Mountain, having done trips to Ptarmigan and Richardson and Pika in the year in-between.
Physically speaking this is a pretty long trip, 16km is on trail to and from Hidden Lake, the other 14.7 are off trail and mainly on rock. There is a lot of elevation gain, 1400m from the parking lot to Richardson, another 200m going up Pika and then another 400m going up Ptarmigan, (I added another 50m for extra video). Since 2018 I have done some trips much longer than the Trifecta, but at the time it was my longest trip and you do have to be in pretty god shape to pull it off.
Technically speaking if you stay on the correct path and you don’t explore around this is a class 3 outing, since I had already scrambled each mountain the previous year though we took some side trips to do some extra exploring and into more difficult terrain. I love the Skoki Area and this trip in particular, I am definitely bias in saying this, but I do recommend this trip to everyone who can pull it off.
Mount Richardson
Michael, Urbi and I arrived at Fish Creek parking lot across the highway from Lake Louise around 8am. The story before we started is actually pretty funny. So, I got back from a trip from Peru 1 week earlier where my Dad and I went on a guided tour up Pisco Mountain and then on a trek around the Cordillera Huayhuash. Before the Pisco Mountain climb I got a bad stomach flu I took some medication to help. Still, I hardly ate anything the day before the climb, but the day after the climb I was feeling back to normal. Then we went on the trek and the quantity food that was provided was… not enough for me. Also, that medicine I took cleared all the bacteria out of my stomach, the good and the bad, then the bad bacteria came back and after the trek I was sick again coming back to Canada. It turns out that during the trip I lost 12lbs! So, by the time I was about to start the Trifecta I was just starting to feel better again.
The Trifecta was actually the first trip I ever did with Michael. I knew Michael from high school, mainly because he was one of my sister’s climbing friends, but I knew that he did cross country, so he was in good shape. What I didn’t know was that even though Michael is in good shape his preparation is sometimes not great, he got about 3 hours of sleep before we started the Trifecta. Urbi prepares good, he actually overprepares way too much most of the time but he had a chest cold at the time. So, with me coming off a horrible stomach flu, Michael getting 3 hours of sleep and Urbi having a chest cold we were ready to tackle our largest trip to date. We referred to ourselves ironically as “the dream team”.
Anyways, we started up the service road towards the Skoki trailhead, Michael kept suggesting we should run, and I kept telling him that we need to conserve energy. At the trailhead we took the trail into the Skoki area, by the time we got to the halfway hut we had a good view of the mountains we would be climbing later that day. From the halfway hut we went West past the Hidden Lake campground, and took a break at Hidden Lake, below the base of Richardson.
The Trifecta as seen from the half way hut, Richardson at left, Pika to its right, and Ptarmigan at right
Hidden Lake with views of the mountains we will climb
From here we had a debate about the best way to get up Richardson, having done it the year before I knew we should take the ridge to the South face. Urbi and Michael were trying to advocate to go straight up the East face where we would have run into a cliff.
From Hidden Lake we went West on a thin trail at the start which started gaining elevation. Eventually the trail was gone, and we continued to gain elevation in class 2 terrain (rock and dirt) up to the Richardson ridge. Once on the ridge we started heading North towards the summit. There was a trail on the ridge that took us onto the South slope of Richardson. The trail continued up the South slope but none of us followed it. Having been up Richardson twice now I would say that the scree on the South slope is the most solid at climber’s left. Once above the South slope it is a short and easy walk to the summit.
We gained the ridge, Michael is looking down at Hidden Lake
Above the scree slope, with views towards the Sawback Range
The summit of Richardson is really large, and really flat. You have to walk around to get views that aren’t mainly the summit. After eating some food, we followed the summit North-East until we got to a drop which I navigated around by dropping to a ledge to my left, Michael went directly down the drop. We downclimbed one more drop and then decided to go back to the summit. This time I went up the drop and it turns out that a lot of the rock on the drop was balancing over a hole, so don’t go that way!
Urbi and Michael on the large summit of Richardson
The ramp I took to avoid the drop
Urbi and Michael above the drop
Looking towards Merlin Lake and the Drummond Icefield in the distance
View towards Mount Hector
Pika Peak
Back on the summit of Richardson we started descending South keeping our eyes open for possible ramps on the East face of Richardson that we could take to get to the Richardson-Pika col. Earlier in the season there would be too much snow and you would have to take the glacier to the col. We found a ramp that allowed us to stay off the glacier.
The ramp we took, under the summit of Richardson
Urbi heading towards the col, a somewhat intimidating view of Pika
From the col we took a trail in scree up towards the hands-on scrambling of Pika Peak. The scrambling starts with the most vertical section that you will face on Pika Peak. From there we stuck close to the drop on our right, so that there was more exposure and more fun. Eventually we came to a flat section followed by a second more vertical section, this one was an easier scramble than the initial vertical section. From there, there is less solid rock, and it is just class 2 up to the summit ridge.
Michael and Urbi coming up the initial steep section of the hands on scrambling of Pika
Further up the scramble, arrow marks where we came out of the steep section
Typical scrambling terrain on Pika
The flat section that led to the second steep section
Urbi coming up the second steep section
The views along the summit ridge are great! The ridge itself is wide enough, and there is nothing technical about it. The actual summit is only about 1 square meter so only 1 person at a time for pictures! Michael and I did some exploring around the summit ridge to get some more pictures. Then we dropped down a small scree slope on the North towards a different ridge that was much more difficult. We didn’t stay there long before we went back to the summit and then to the start of the summit ridge to get pictures.
Summit view from Pika Peak, Michael and I were exploring on that ridge left of the main ridge
Looking back along the summit ridge of Pika from the summit
POV footage from the ridge Michael and I were exploring on
View from the ridge Michael and I went to
Urbi on the summit ridge of Pika
Me on the summit of Pika, viewed from earlier on the summit ridge, photo credit to Urbi
Ptarmigan Peak
When we were done on Pika, we descended following our approximate ascent route back to the col. We then started on the ramp going around the South side of Pika and the unnamed peak between Pika and Ptarmigan. We were initially high on the ramp, but we got lower down the further we went along. We stayed on this ramp for a long time, crossing loose scree and some small snow patches until we were basically past Hidden Lake. We came to a gully where it looked like the rock wasn’t so solid so we could start ascending again, and that is what we did.
Following somewhat of a trail on the ramp
A snow patch further down on the ramp
Time to gain elevation again, our route took us climber’s right
We tried to stay on solid rock when possible for fun and efficiency. Eventually we met up with the normal Ptarmigan Peak route. There is a trail that takes you up scree to a ridge which is the common route to take. The last time Urbi and I did Ptarmigan there was snow blocking the trail, so we took a ramp to our right that stayed more in the rock and had some hands-on scrambling. Urbi found this ramp again, Michael and I started out on a lower ramp which I instantly realized wasn’t the one Urbi and I took last time, but I was interested to see if it would work out.
Michael staying on the solid rock, Hidden lake far below
Michael and I starting out on the ramp below Ptarmigan
This ramp brought us to a narrow ledge that led to a cliff, so not great. We started going back across the ramp until we got to a gully that looked like it would lead us up to the ridge, so we decided to take it. It was class 4, possible low class 5 and very fun. Unfortunately, my GoPro wasn’t filming so on descent I went back to do it again and film that time.
Anyways, we followed the ridge East to a notch which was easily descended, and there was just scree to the top of Ptarmigan. The views from Ptarmigan are nice, but we couldn’t stay long because it looked like bad weather was about to roll in.
Going back along the narrow ledge
After the notch Michael decided to stay on the ridge for more exposure
Below the notch you get a nice window looking at Myosotis and Zigadenus Lakes
Looking North-East from the summit of Ptarmigan
View into the sawback range
Looking back towards Pika and Richardson
Descent
On descent we followed the trail in scree which is the usual route taken on Ptarmigan. After a long scree run (and my side trip back to the gully) we were back into the vegetation above Hidden Lake, after more than 9 hours on rock it was nice to have a change of scenery.
Footage of me reclimbing the gully
Heading down the scree trail to Hidden Lake
From Hidden Lake it is on trail travel back to the car. At the half way hut Urbi and Michael decided that they wanted to finish in less than 13 hours which meant that they wanted to do the last 7 kilometers in 49 minutes. I’m not sure what the motivation was here, Urbi and I were carrying around 20lbs and we had gone about 23.7km and gained 2150m of elevation but we did it anyways.
Urbi and Michael went for a continuous slow pace. I, however, am not a cross country type of guy. At that time, I was 6’3” and 185lbs, I did track in high school and my best event was triple jump, so I was built for speed and strength, not long distance. So, I went in bursts of strides and walks and since it was downhill, I actually made it back slightly ahead of Urbi and Michael, at the cost of very tired legs. Also, we made it 1 minute too late so this whole running thing was for nothing!
If you do The Trifecta, do it for pleasure, not for time.
We didn’t make the 13 hours, I stopped this a bit late but it was about 13:01h