Mt. Sparrowhawk

Unknown to me at the time, the Sparrowhawk picnic area where one would normally park their vehicle, was blocked off from public use. A security guard told me that a film crew was going to be using it in the near future. I never asked what film but my suspicion is that it was for the "The Edge" starring Anthony Hopkins. I was unable to convince him that I just wanted to park my vehicle there for the day -- I ended up parking beside the road.

Mt. Sparrowhawk is approached from the SW by two trails. The first can be found a few minutes after entering the forest. Turn right and follow the footpath which will take you around to the SW side of the rock spur where you emerge from forest cover. After making your way through a small gully and annoying brush, the way becomes easier with moderate grassy slopes taking you up to the ridge at the base of the rock spur.

As you slog your way up tedious but stable scree and across a few snowfields, the entire summit block comes into view.

As you reach the summit block base, circle to the right on the south side, passing a repeater and small building, and then angle left to reach the eastern scree slopes.

A beaten path to the top is visible but loose scree will make it tedious.

Just a few minutes before the top, the scree relents and you burst onto the summit.

A sizeable summit cairn, no doubt partly to block out the wind, holds a register. I noted that I was only the fourth party to reach the summit this year. I did not encounter anyone (or animal) along the trail this day. I did this scramble on the Friday (Aug 2) of a long weekend but a front was definitely starting to move in. A strong chilly wind was blowing and a bit of rain made it an unpleasant lunch break.

Unless you have rope for a rappel, return the way you came down to the rock spur. You can now retrace your ascent or descend at the rock spur down a steep talus slope. I took the steep slope. At the bottom, I made an error in my haste to get off and and headed down a large drainage channel (had it been raining I definitely would not have chosen to do this). This was okay for about half an hour but then a series of large dropoffs forced me to waste time backtracking to get to slopes beside the channel. After what seems forever, you finally reach forest cover. After about twenty minutes of bushwacking downslope, the Spray Lakes Road finally appears. I would not recommend going down the drainage channel although I was definitely not the first to go this route. A much better and faster descent would have been to go left of the channel over some slopes to reach the morning ascent trail.

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©1996 All images by Craig Knelsen. All rights reserved.

Created: Jan 26, 2000. Revised: Nov 12, 2002