Home»All Photographs»2016 Hikes»Mosquito Mountain 06-18-16

Clayton, Eric and Myself headed to the main ranges of the Icefields Parkway for an ascent of Mosquito Mountain. Despite the name, it is neither a small nor an annoying peak to ascend.
We headed up Mosquito Creek to access to valley below the peak. A year ago on an ascent of Ramp Peak, I had come across two large grizzly bears here while on a solo effort. The same area today revealed a fresh set of tracks. We stayed close together and made lots of noise as we pushed on. A few minutes farther, sure enough, we saw a young grizzly down by the creek at relatively close range. It took off after discovering our approach. Two of three times on this trail, I have encountered bears now. Being in a group of three, we felt confident to continue on our trip although we did give the bear a wide berth and continued farther upstream than we normally would have.
We then gained a broad ridge which led to the summit slopes of Mosquito Mountain. After a lengthy grind, we topped out and had lunch.
We then descended back to Mosquito Creek. Up to this point, the weather had held up despite calling for rain after noon. The final hour, however, saw heavy downpour conditions as we trudged back to the trailhead, arriving like soaked rats in our raingear.