Peak Climbed: Mount Indefatigable (8,759')

Route: Joy

Difficulty: 5.6

Location: Kananaskis Provincial Park, Canada

Trailhead: North Interlakes

Mileage & Gain: 5.5 mi & 3,600 ft

Date Climbed: August 16, 2017

Indefatigable: incapable of being tired out; not yielding to fatigue; untiring. This popular peak in the Spray Mountain Range of the Canadian Rockies was named after a World War I battleship.

On the southern flanks of Mount Indefatigable lies a striking 2,000 foot dihredral system running along the edge of a massive limestone slab. "Joy" is a ten pitch technical route that follows this feature to its end, unfortunately leaving you quite far from the summit. Most climbers descend from here. To actually top out after climbing Joy one must slog about 1,000 vertical feet of tundra to reach the southern summit of Mount Indefatigable and then execute a short but exposed 4th class traverse to the northern summit which is reportedly 60 feet higher. This scramble ended up being my favorite part of the day.

This is grizzly bear country! The Mount Indefatigable Trail (which we used for the descent), was decommissioned in 2005 due to grizzly bear activity in the area. There is a sign to this effect blocking the entrance to the trail. It is not illegal to use the trail, and many people still do. We saw several groups near the summit. Bring bear spray. A few minutes after we returned to the car a ranger stopped by to say he had just run into a grizzly a few minutes from the trailhead.