Laurel Mountain Climber's Log : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering : SummitPost

Laurel Mountain Climber's Log

Dow Williams - Sep 1, 2024 12:49 pm Date Climbed: Aug 16, 2024

Laurel Mountain

This would rate as a scramble in the Canadian Rockies, but the local guide does call it 5.2. The attraction to this route is the unique coloration and texture of the rock enroute. You start out scrambling up a water drainage that is blood red in color. You end up crossing large red bands that criss cross the southeast race. My only issue on the beta is all the descent gibberish discussions and options. The descent is extremely simple and fast. Head north east off the summit. If no snow, you will see a faint trail to follow in the moraine. Once down to the obvious saddle to the east, head down the saddle itself, but if uncomfortable with the snow and loose rock, continue heading east to the broad ridgeline and follow it down and back west to a much lower col. There is a decent trail down from this lower cirque down to the approach trail by the lake. It was easy to avoid brush when it needed to be avoided.

Mike McL - Aug 8, 2024 9:10 am Date Climbed: Mar 3, 2017

Laurel ski

Skied the Pinner Couloir with Frank and Buell. Great corn.

Mike McL - Aug 7, 2024 9:18 am Date Climbed: Mar 30, 2019

Laurel ski

Skied the Pinner Couloir with Dave and Claire

Mike McL - Aug 7, 2024 9:14 am Date Climbed: Apr 19, 2019

Laurel ski

With Frank and Florian. Climbed and skied the Mendenhall Couloir

wannabepeakbagger - Jul 13, 2023 10:05 pm Date Climbed: Jun 20, 2023

From the OHV route

Hiked up the OHV route to Laurel Lakes, then backtracked to the saddle. Up the snow and eventually up the annoying talus and scree. Coming down a slightly different route was much better. Maybe I'll try Bloody Peak next time.

xiankiefer@gmail.com - Jul 5, 2022 12:07 am Date Climbed: Jun 25, 2022

Lovely ascent, terrible descent

Lovely gully climb through beautiful geology.

Donno - Sep 5, 2021 7:14 am Date Climbed: Aug 27, 2021

NE Gully Solo

C2C solo alone from Convict Lake; 8.5hr r/t. Intense experience.

Diesel - Jun 26, 2021 5:43 pm Date Climbed: Jun 26, 2021

NE Gully from Convict

Very nice 3.5 hours climbing on legit class 3. I went out of my way not to follow the most popular route suggestions. For practical reasons I had to by-pass the two class 4 sections I came across. I have to admit that closing the summit I was ready to be done; it was getting repetitive. Also the rocks were getting too hot by 9:30 AM: my hands didn't like it. Not to mention that the summit is not visible until close to it. That took me by surprise. I hiked down the back side via the saddle and it took 2.5 hours to the parking lot.

Why would anyone entertain going up the class 2 slope is beyond me: it is a miserable hike going down. Going up must be complete torture.

But for sure, this is the dream of anyone who likes class 3 and doesn't like to hike for miles to get to it. This is by far the longest class 3 ascent on any mountain I've done. One gets easy class 3, stiff class 3, interesting class 3 and risky class 3. There is no exposure, but if one slips on the slabs in certain areas, there is nothing to grab on for a long fall.

jkalember - Oct 31, 2020 9:51 am Date Climbed: Aug 12, 2020

Laurel Mtn from the bottom

The road to the trailhead for Laurel Pass, which is on the Laurel/Bloody saddle, has been rendered almost impassable except for rugged 4WD and ATVs. So for normal people, to get up Laurel and Bloody, you start way down in the desert. I bivvied halfway up to enjoy the Perseids, and then summited and returned the next day. Spectacular views of the Doroty Lakes group, Red Slate, Morrison, Baldwin and Bloody. What in the 60s was a great little scree scramble has tuned into a major undertaking.

Deb - Jul 16, 2018 9:35 pm Date Climbed: Jul 16, 2018

NE Gulley

Easy day scrambling up the NE gulley Kevin Graves and Bob Cable; descent wasn’t so bad either, literally ran down the NE ridge and left the boys behind.

Climbpeaks - Feb 22, 2018 5:01 am Date Climbed: Feb 20, 2018

Winter From Laurel Lakes Road

Laurel Lakes Road definitely was not in winter shape, but once up the bushwack slope and on to the steeper stuff, winter was everywhere. Temps hovered around zero. Incredible views from the top.