Bear's Hump

Elevation: 1525 m
Elevation Gain: 215 m
Prior to being named for a Calgary businessman, Mount Crandell was known as “Great Bear” or “Grizzly Medicine” Mountain to the local Piikani. Although the peak’s First Nation's name is no longer used, a small overlook at the mountain’s southern end is still named for its supposed resemblance to the muscular shoulder hump of a grizzly bear.
My Ascents:
June 20 2022
Trailhead: Bear's Hump Trailhead
GPS Track: Bear's Hump

For years, Crux was my most reliable scrambling partner (with apologies to Brianne and Matt Clay 🙃). Indeed, his oversized paws have made quick work of scree slopes all over the Rockies. Peak after peak, he climbed up, napped On Top and scurried down. Over the course of the past decade, I have, however, come to a realization: Crux doesn’t give a “woof” about summits. 😂

For some strange reason, however, I care about his summit tally 🤔. It’s absurd but I had a lot of fun bagging “puppy” peaks when he was young. Moreover, celebrating his 50th summit was great fun for both of us! For a long time now, I’ve wanted Crux to get up his 100th different summit. Unfortunately, dogs age faster than people and mountain dogs age faster still thanks to some hard miles in the hills. In 2020, I found out the hard way that Crux was done with scrambling when Brianne and I had to rescue him on Prairie Bluff. Since then, we’ve been very cautious when picking “Crux-friendly” hikes. He’s tagged the odd “summit” with our kids but the rate at which he’s accrued them has dwindled from 20-25 peaks/year to 1-2 peaks/year.

So because I, for some reason 🤷, care about my dog’s summit stats, I’ve kept an eye out for cheeky peaks that could be used to inflate them without risk to him. With a camping trip to Waterton planned, I therefore decided that a Crux hike up the Bear’s Hump was in order. Crux, of course, didn’t care. 😂

LEFT: The peak-bagging "puppy" himself sizing up the objective (out of sight to the left) at the trailhead (which was once the Waterton Visitor Center).
RIGHT: We’ve already established that Crux doesn’t actually care about summits and, on this day, most of my family didn’t either. Whether it was the driving rain or the 2 straight days of hiking previously or the fact that most of us had already been up the Bear's Hump, only Grandma (the family’s other “hound”) and Grandpa were keen to slosh up the Bear’s Hump on this gray day.

LEFT: Grandma and Grandpa start up the well-maintained trail. Thanks to a steady downpour, our ascent featured views towards impressive waterfalls which spontaneously appeared on Mount Crandell’s folded east face.
RIGHT: Grandma bravely navigates another spontaneous cascade (this time on the Bear’s Hump trail itself 😮).

LEFT and RIGHT: The dog of the hour faithfully follows us up the many-stepped trail. Up, up we went, braving elements and elevation (a whopping 215 m worth 🙃)!

The reward for Crux (and our) efforts: a rainy but beautiful panorama over the Waterton townsite and Upper Waterton Lake. Counting the Bear’s Hump as a “summit” is debatable 🤔 but the exceptional nature of its “summit” view 🤩 is not! Click to see larger.

The poser is thinking of starting an Instagram account. 😂

Lower (far left) and Middle Waterton Lake below the Prince of Wales Hotel and downstream of the Bosporus (Gesundheit).

Vimy Peak makes for a fine backdrop on the eastern bank of Upper Waterton Lake. Speaking of spontaneous cascades, I count a dozen or so on Vimy – it was raining THAT much! 🤯

The Crypt Lake watertaxi leaves the launch at the base of Mount Boswell.

Of course, this is Waterton so it wasn’t enough that the rain was driving down in sheets. It was also brutally windy, forcing the moisture horizontally onto my camera lens!

LEFT: Pretty sure I can see my In-Laws and Brianne and the kids hiding inside from the rain in our campers. 😂
RIGHT: An unexpected “summit” visitor. Yes, it was wet enough out that frogs were now hiking! 🐸

Moody, misty views towards Mount Richards and the west bank of the lake.

Looking west up the Akamina Parkway towards Buchanan Peak. As you may have surmised from the matchstick trees everywhere, this is the valley down which the devastating Kenow wildfire raced on a much, much drier night in 2017.

If one wants to count the Bear’s Hump as a “summit”, it’s best not to look in the direction of adjoining Mount Crandell which is clearly much higher. 🤣 For Crux’s purposes, we just decided to ignore the topography to the northwest!

Gathering the troops for a quick 10-second timer photo On Top before retreating to drier ground.

A brief ray of sunshine lit the landscape as we began our descent. Note the threatening clouds beyond though… There was obviously no need to worry about drying out on the way down!

What sloshes up, must also slosh down…

LEFT and RIGHT: Grandpa and Grandma make their way down the veritable staircase that is the current incarnation of the Bear’s Hump trail. After a speedy descent, we found ourselves back in the car with the heat and defrost CRANKED. More importantly, Crux found himself one “summit” closer to "his" coveted 100th peak. 😁

As we drove back to the campground, I ignored the “wet dog” smell while I contemplated what Crux’s 96th - 100th peaks could be. For his part, Crux didn’t give a “woof.” ⛰️🐕‍🦺😂