• July 8, 2002
• Mountain height: 2,697 m (8,846 feet)
• Elevation gain: 1,006 m
• Round-trip time: 5:30
• Round-trip distance: 10 km

Hiking with Stuart and Jamie.

We left the city early in hopes of summitting Mount Fable or Squaw's Tit. Heavy cloud cover in Canmore, however, made those objectives seem unlikely and so we went to West Wind Pass, giving us the options of summitting either Rimwall or the Windtower. It took us 1 hour to reach West Wind Pass - a very pleasant meadow overlooking Wind Valley and Wind Ridge. Unfortunately, the low and fast moving clouds took away from the views. We then decided to attempt the Windtower. About 10 minutes in we were caught in a heavy rain and had to find shelter under some trees. The rain continued for about 30 minutes. When it stopped we were confronted with the decision of whether to continue up the mountain on wet and potentially dangerous rock or to turn around and head back. After much debate, Stuart suggested that I go to the top and he and Jamie, who did not have the right attire to be scrambling up wet rock in cold weather, would wait for me at West Wind Pass. I went to the top as fast as I could (55 minutes). The views from the top were quite good and would have been spectacular on a clear day. Mount Lougheed and The Three Sisters were especially prominent. The 700 m drop-off at the edge was also very exhilarating. Round trip time was approximately 5 and a half hours.

    
A classic view of The Windtower (on the right) and Mount Lougheed (left) as seen from the Trans Canada highway; this photo was not taken on the day of our trip

The summit of The Windtower from near West Wind Pass 

    
West Wind Pass; the slopes at the left are those of Rimwall Summit and the mountain poking over the top is Little Sister