Mount Sparrowhawk

Hike Name: Mount Sparrowhawk
Activity: Hiking/Scrambling

Distance: 10km (RT)

Altitude: 3,121 m

Elevation Gain: 1350m

Area: Kananaskis (Spray Reservoir)

Crew: Julia, Travis

Time to Summit: 3:30

Lisa's Mom Rating: No

Trailhead: Sparrowhawk parking area

Getting There:

From the town of Canmore, head towards the Nordic center and take the gravel road, the Smith Dorrien (742), about half-way down the Spray Reservoir. Park at the Sparrowhawk parking area.

You can also come from Kananaskis Trail (Hwy 40), taking the turn towards the Kananaskis Lakes then turning onto the Smith Dorrien (742). If you are coming from Calgary, it is faster through Canmore.

Additional Info:
We did this as a sunset hike after-work. It was definitely an ambitious goal but we ended up doing it no problem. We left the car at 5 PM, summited at 8:30 PM, took a half-hour long break to admire the view, and then returned to the car by 11:15 PM.

The views were unreal from the summit, true 360 degrees. You could easily see Assiniboine, and even Joffre off in the distance to the south. On a clearer day I'm sure you could see Calgary.

We followed a GPS track that I had on my phone, which was someone's bushwhack trail. Apparently there is a better trail - I am assuming you should go up Read's Tower trail instead, and branch off towards Sparrowhawk at the bottom of the bowl. The bushwhack wasn't a problem on the way up but we weren't sure how to tackle the bushwhack in the dark on the way down, so we decided to follow the creek down to the road. It eventually turned into a canyon, so we followed the creek/canyon on the skiier's right, and made it back to the road in no time.

Julia coming up the final scramble behind the summit block

 Unreal summit view

 Travis on the summit ridge

 The three mountains just left of center that are taller than the rest - Eon, Aye and Assiniboine (left to right)

Mountain shadows as the sun sets behind.. 

 Beautiful sunset shot

Me on Sparrowhawk