Home»All Photographs»2014 Hikes»Stuart Knob - T.V. Peak 08-02-14

Stuart Knob and T.V. Peak are two summits tucked in behind Castle Mountain. They have a long approach (particularly T.V. Peak), the trail ends at Rockbound Lake, there is much elevation gain and loss along the connecting ridge and the final push to T.V. Peak is circuitous around a large depression surrounded by cliffs. All this makes for a very long day (30-something km and over 2000m of elev. gain = 12.5 hours of hiking for me with an early start, few breaks and a quick pace), but also very rewarding in the sense that this outing almost felt like a mini-backpack trip with the many varied landscapes encountered.
Fine weather greeted me at the trailhead and stayed with me through the summit of the first peak, Stuart Knob. I continued on in the early afternoon along the long ridgewalk toward T.V. Peak (named so for the repeater tower on the summit). I could see many recognizable peaks in the Lake Louise group as well as some in Skoki and farther north to Mt. Hector. The weather was beginning to dwindle into the all too familiar Rocky Mountain afternoon thunderstorm. With forty minutes of blocky ascent still before me, the first thunder clapped overhead. Hmmm, I thought. I picked up my pace and continued on, waiting to see how long before the next one. By the time thunder came again, I was withing sniffing distance of this oh-so-distant peak. I ditched my metal axe on the ridge for the return and raced for the top. Two pictures and one quick video was all the time I spent on top of T.V. Peak.
My retreat was hasty now that I had my goal in hand. I didn't get out of there without punishment, though. A rain erupted around me and quickly brought hail the size of marbles with it. I put my helmet on and trudged down to a little rock nook that I had spotted on my ascent. There, I took the time to dress in raingear, have a bite to eat and refill my water resevoir. With the worst of the storm blown over, I continued down the ridge on the walk back to Stuart Knob. The sun came out and dried my drenched self. Upon regaining the col by Stuart Knob, I again changed some gear, re-laced my boots and continued my journey down to Rockbound Lake.
The weather was cycling back around by this point, and more thunder and rain came once I was back on the Rockbound Lake trail. This time however, instead of having to think through pressing issues of how best to deal with a storm at high elevation, I simply enjoyed a nice walk through the forest in the rain. The scent was amazing - just fresh rain, moss and coniferous forest. It was a lovely end to the day and the rain was even nice enough to stop an hour or so before I returned to my vehicle.