Windtower Winter Attempt
Quite a good and beaten path to West Wind Pass. Serious avalanche slopes and not enough time forced us to turn around before reaching the summit. Likely needs snow and avalanche gear if you’re looking to summit in winter. In summer it is an easy scramble over a few small cliff bands and then a scree slog to the summit, there is little exposure in summer and any fit person that puts their mind to it would have no problem completing this trip.
If you’ve ever driven to Canmore, you’ve probably gazed in awe at the grandiose and beautiful Mount Lougheed, however, slightly north of the four massive peaks, exists a fifth outlier, Windtower. This peak may be smaller than the Lougheeds, but it still sports magnificent overhanging cliffs that have been climbed by very difficult routes. For those that are not into climbing, an easy scramble exists on the scree slopes of the opposite side. Windtower is an official summit that was given the name for reasons unknown. Just kidding, many parties report it being quite windy at the summit, and since it looks like a tower from Highway 1, the name is quite fitting.
The parking area is a small gravel pull out at the West Wind Pass Trailhead, which is situated about 20 minutes (17 km) up the Spray Lake Road (Highway 742) from the start of the gravel and the total driving time from the Calgary city limits is about 1:20 hours. The Spray Lakes Road is gravel, but does not require a high clearance vehicle at any point in the year, although the bumps can get quite big, so personally I wouldn’t take anything smaller than an SUV up there. The Spray Lakes Road also passes through the EEOR Intermittent Avalanche Closure Zone, so make sure to check for closures in winter.
From the West Wind Pass Trailhead, begin up the trail, heading straight at the early intersections with the High Rockies Trail. From there, continue up the good trail, gaining 350 m elevation in 2.2 km to reach West Wind Pass. If this is your final destination, enjoy the views ahead to the Bow Valley and behind to the Spray Valley. Note that the trail up to West Wind Pass may not be the best or most obvious with snow. To reach the summit of Windtower, head south on a scree trail, making use of a GPS route. Stay close to the trees to avoid being cliffed out as you traverse and slowly gain elevation. In summer, there will be two small cliff bands that must be scrambled and are best overcome lower down (on route). In the winter, serious wind slab avalanche slopes may stop you right here. As you wrap around the corner, continue up on relatively low angled scree trails, where you will gain the remaining 350 m elevation to the summit. Descend the same way. Note that the Gaia GPS route shows our trip in color, but the rest of the ascent to the summit is visible as a trail on the map.
Since Ezra was back for the holidays from university, he wanted to bag a peak while he was here. We were debating on which one to choose all the way up until the Rimwall trail turn off. I ended up getting the pick of that day to do Windtower (not the best choice I admit). From the highway, this peak had looked absolutely pristine and snow free, so I thought it would be very straightforward. Apparently not. A few days before, I had heard a guy mention completing Windtower in winter conditions but on avalanche terrain. We saw no such terrain from the highway, so we naively considered attempting it under the assumption that either he was wrong about the avalanche terrain or there was not enough snow. Spoilers, there was plenty of snow and avalanche terrain! Hooray!
We set off with the deadline of me having to be back in the city before 5:00 pm for hot pot dinner (which I was really looking forward to), which really only left us a couple hours to complete the trip. The first part of the trail was fast and easy, but we eventually got a little bit lost following someone’s tracks.
We got a bit lost and had to traverse here. We eventually regained the trail but wasted a bit of precious time.
Looking up at Windtower, there is still a long way to go.
We made it to West Wind Pass. The beginning of Rimwall behind.
Looking up at Windtower. From here we just picked a trail and started going up and across to the right.
We could see part of the frozen Spray Reservoir. Old Goat Mountain is in the clouds, a Kane climber’s scramble.
The trail soon turned into steep snow slopes, and after crossing a few of them in our snowshoes very slowly and cautiously, we were running out of time. We then scrambled up a bit because a huge drift blocked our route and ended up calling it a day. Ezra and Ferris continued up to get a bit of a better view, while I rested and started slowly making my way down.
Pano from the highest point that I made it to. The Rimwall at right of center, maybe we should’ve picked that one for this day…
Eventually, the boys caught up to me and we had quite the quick descent, simply retracing our tracks rather than route finding and breaking trail.
Pano looking into the Bow Valley from West Wind Pass. We stopped here for lunch on the way down.
The rest of the trip was quick and uneventful as we found the correct trail back down to the parking area.
Back at the highway looking at Little Lougheed. I’ll be back for that one sometime soon.
If I don’t include the scary avalanche slopes and not bagging a summit, this wasn’t a terrible day. We still got decent views, especially from a little stop at West Wind Pass (worth a trip on its own, if you don’t/can’t get up to Windtower). This trip wasn’t planned very well and was a huge gamble, so I guess it makes sense that it didn’t go according to the weak plan that we had. The best part about the entire thing was that I made it home for my hot pot dinner which was absolutely amazing, so that was a win. We would still have to get out for another peak to make sure Ezra got one in before going back to Montreal. Anyways, it was still a nice day, and now we know not to try this one in winter. I’ll definitely be back to grab it eventually though, but who knows when.