Grotto Mountain

People always seem surprised when I tell them that I've never been on the summit of Grotto Mountain. It's not for lack of trying, as I did make an attempt in the spring (but was turned back due to sheets of ice).

With the weather being what it is lately, my window of opportunity for getting this done this year was closing, so Nicolas and I made a plan to go up the NW trail (built by the ACC) and down the S trail (of which there is a mention in passing in the Alan Kane book, but no other information to my knowledge ... this would become relevant later on).

Breaks in the clouds creeping towards Canmore from Banff

The weather was not great, and we spent the first hour or so trudging through rain, then snow, and at times, hail. Fortunately, below tree line, we were protected from the wind.

Mount Rundle and Canmore

As we got above tree line, the clouds started parting and we got some glimpses of the sun. However, the wind was very strong along the ridge, so we stayed a safe distance away.

The summit of Grotto Mountain coming in and out of view

There was some ice along the ridge, but it was mostly just snow and slush. There were a couple of tricky spots owing to the snow (and it's amazing how slippery the lichen on the rocks are!), but the exposure is minimal so we proceeded past my turn-back point from my previous attempt.

Rock bridge high up on the ridge, near the summit

There's also a mention of a cave in some of the guidebooks, but we were not able to find it.

Nicolas on the summit

Me on the summit

After arriving on the summit, we spent 2 or 3 hours continuing to head east, looking for the south trail. I have seen the trail head before, starting on a hillside next to a quarry parking lot. However, from the top, we were not able to discern where it connected to the summit. We found many faint trails, but most of them dissolved into nothing or led to cliffs.

Bowl on the east side of Grotto Mountain

We did find a number of very interesting areas on Grotto Mountain. A large, flat meadow that looked very nice for camping; a sheer slab with signs of rockfall below, and many many gullies that eventually led to cliffs.

At the 6 hour mark, we decided that we needed to turn back, otherwise we would not have enough daylight to get back to our cars. We stayed well below the summit ridge but still managed to negotiate all of the gullies, and eventually we got back to our cars after 9.5 hours.

Next time, I will have to try starting at the south trail to see where it connects to the summit. Driving back home, I could not see any easy paths leading from the east side of Grotto.