Hiking with David.

Don't be too impressed that Exshaw Mountain appears in the title - at a whopping height of 1,783 metres, it hardly classifies as a hill, let alone a mountain! Nevertheless, the trip was enjoyable, the weather - good, and the scenery - not half bad, considering its location and minimal elevation gain.

The normal Exshaw Ridge Loop starts from Exshaw, going north for a couple of hours up Exshaw Creek (same route as the Mount Fable scramble), then east up to the ridge, and finally south along the ridge, reaching five distinct summits, with Exshaw Mountain at the end, right above Exshaw. We decided to do the loop in reverse, so that we could "chicken-out" at any time.

Summitting Exshaw Mountain was easy, but the entire peak is covered in trees and so there was very little in terms of the view. We continued on towards the second summit (a fair bit higher than Exshaw Mountain) on the east side of the mountain, where we hoped to clear the treeline. In retrospect, this was a mistake, as the east had a fair amount of deep snow remaining and travel was, at times, slow. The second summit was not as far away as it looked and was also easily ascended. Unfortunately, the second summit was also heavily treed and we were unable to get a decent view of the remainder of the ridge. Nevertheless, there were good views towards Mounts McGillivray, Pigeon, Rimwall, The Three Sisters, and others in that direction. Thick, low-lying clouds coming over those peaks on the relatively clear day were especially interesting. 

After a short break, we decided to call it a day and head back. For descent, we traversed down and along the west side of the mountain. It was a very easy route, with little snow and took only a fraction of the ascent time. Overall, a very leisurely and enjoyable day out. For a much clearer view, we'll do the normal route next time.