Prairie Bluff

Elevation: 2258 m
Elevation Gain: 740 m
Prairie Bluff was officially named in 1941 for its bluff-like profile which overlooks the expansive Alberta prairies to its north and east. The peak is also known as “Corner Mountain” since its southwest-to-northwest-trending range turns abruptly to the west at its summit. Prairie Bluff’s extensive summit plateau features 2 active gas wells that can be reached via a gated access road. The Bluff also features a number of other hiking and scrambling routes.
My Ascents:
April 16 2023
Trailhead: Roadside Pullout
GPS Track: Prairie Bluff (South Slopes)

In 2020, I attempted to hike up Prairie Bluff with my lovely wife Brianne and my faithful mountain dog Crux. That day, everything that could go wrong did and a relatively mellow scramble/off-trail hike became an epic when Brianne and I had to carry an injured (120 lb!) Crux out on makeshift slings. Fortunately, 2020’s canine rescue op succeeded and Crux went on to lead a full and happy life, filled with hikes, mountains and family.

After the events of 2020, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever go back to complete Prairie Bluff and Crux’s recent passing didn’t make me any more inclined to. 💔 With unprecedented avi danger in the Rockies, however, I was hard-pressed to think of anything adventurous that I wanted to do when a free Sunday finally allowed for an overdue hike with Matt Clay and his wife Sandra. In a rare occurrence, Matt C. and I were both apathetic when it came to dreaming up a mountain suffer-fest and decided to give Prairie Bluff a go since:

• Its south-facing ascent slopes were nearly snow-free.
• We’d both attempted or hiked up it previously and, therefore, wouldn’t need to invest much effort in planning.

Sometimes you want to explore and experience mountain adventures worthy of re-telling and sometimes you just want a few hours of fresh air with friends. Having already had one epic on Prairie Bluff, I decided to embrace the idea of returning for a simple, pleasant spring hike.

After an uneventful 2.5-hour drive to the Castle Provincial Wildland, I met Matt C. and Sandra at the open field that serves as Prairie Bluff’s trailhead and we started off towards its 4-km distant summit (right) under pleasant blue skies.

Meandering through meadows, we went out of our way to avoid most of the low-lying snow patches. When they couldn’t be avoided, I embraced the requisite post-holing. Sinking down to your hips can be fun when it’s only necessary for a minute or two. 😊 Having post-holed extensively the day prior, Matt C., however, deprived himself of this joy and was happy to follow in my, sometimes very deep, footsteps.

LEFT: As we hiked towards Prairie Bluff’s steep but easy south slopes, we encountered the day’s first obstacle: a barbed wire fence. You can simply hike along the fence on its left side in this photo but we elected to shortcut through this, presumably, private land to avoid additional post-holing. Simply put, the far side of the fence was snow-free and the near side was not!
RIGHT: Ever the “gentleman,” Sandra graciously helped Matt C. to keep his back from getting shredded as he ducked the barbed wire fence. After cutting diagonally across the fenced land to get to our ascent slopes, we discovered that we’d need to repeat this fence-crossing trick again to get back out. Our exit proved a little more adventurous, however, since that fence was of the electric ⚡ variety and not barbed wire as anticipated!

Sandra enjoys beautiful spring hiking conditions while Matt C. carries on with a curmudgeonly air. Maybe he didn't like his run-in with the electric fence?

Or, maybe this is why Matt C. wasn’t smiling in the previous photo: he could see this slope coming! While the slope was TFS in terms of angle, it was manageable and sticking to grassy areas alleviated some of the treadmilling that would, otherwise, have been required.

Sandra measures her cardiovascular fitness against Prairie Bluff’s south slopes. Fortunately, her, Matt C. and I all came out on the winning end of this test!

As the slope angle abated, there were minor rock bands to weave through but the entire ascent can be completed hands-in-pocket if one so desires.

As the south slope tapered into a ridge, we were treated to corniced views over the prairies.

Sandra and Matt C. complete the final, mellow ridge walk towards Prairie Bluff’s red-rock summit.

Apparently, all it took to wash the curmudgeonly expression from Matt C.’s face was a good sit on a hard piece of wood! 🤔🤣 Luckily, this summit came so equipped!

In addition, the summit also came complete with a pleasantly colorful panorama. Click to see larger (and pretend you’re sitting on a nice stump 🙃).

An unbroken chain of front range mountains extends to the southeast as peaks meet prairies. Of these, Montana’s Chief Mountain is the most recognizable on the left.

A host of scramble-able Castle Peaks to the south, including (from left to right): Drywood Mountain, Pincher Ridge and Victoria Ridge.

Victoria Peak (left) and the ramparts of Windsor Mountain/Castle Peak are among the area’s most eye-catching features.

A closer look at the near-perfect pyramid that is Victoria Peak’s east face. Although Crux never made it to the summit of Prairie Bluff, he had a wonderful view of it from up on Victoria in 2019.

The peaks for which the whole Castle Provincial Wildland is named: Windsor (left) and Castle (right).

Sandra doing her best to follow Matt C.’s very detailed summit photo instructions. What’s that, Matt? You don’t want your feet in the photo, right?

LEFT: Matt H. (me!) and his feet 🦶 on the summit of Prairie Bluff.
RIGHT: Thanks to a surprisingly tolerable temperature, I had time to get artsy with the summit photography.

Beyond the peak’s most scenic duo (is that Victoria and Castle or Matt C. and Sandra?), the northward panorama stretch out towards Crowsnest Pass. Click to see larger.

Looking due west towards Mount Gladstone.

Prairie Bluff is located unusually far to the east relative to many nearby peaks so its northward view captures an odd gap where foothills dwell instead of more mountains.

To the north, the foothills eventually give way to mountains again, including Hillcrest Mountain (left) and its more infamous neighbor, Turtle Mountain (right).

Further to the north still, the Livingstone Range was also apparent.

With a name like “Prairie Bluff”, one hikes up with anticipation of pastoral views across the great plains. "Fortunately", PB lives up to its name and then some. There’s basically nothing to see to the east! 🙃 Click to see nothing larger.

Nothing to see unless, of course, you count a big-a$$ pile of elemental sulfur at Shell’s nearby gas plant.

And wind turbines. Lots of those!

Speaking of wind, a cold gale picked up while we lunched and took pictures atop the Bluff so we snapped a quick summit photo (looking on aghast as “my” camera nearly blew away 😲) and then elected to retreat to lower, warmer ground before fingers started to freeze!

Matt C. and Sandra beat a hurried but scenic retreat to escape the sudden cold.

LEFT and RIGHT: Rather than retrace our steps along the windswept south ridge, we elected to drop directly into the steep scree gully to the southwest of the summit. In places, it looked like down-sloping slab might give us a hard time but this all proved to be remarkably grippy and the scree was generally scree-able. With only minor delays, caused by admiration of unremarkable icicles, this slope proved to be an expedient option for descent.

Lower down, snow in the gully offered a brief glissade and, generally, supportive travel with an occasional, unpredictable knee-to-waist-deep drop thrown in for variety. If nothing else this allowed for speedy travel while also revealing which of us needs to go on a diet the most.

At its base, the gully curved east and returned us to our ascent slopes. Rather than toying with the electric fence again, we simply stepped over it where it was buried under snow (and hoped like heck that the snow was supportive 🙏)! Beyond the fence, a pleasant spring walk in the, once again, warm air soon returned us to our vehicles (4.5 hours after we’d first set out).

2.5-hours later, we were all back home in time for dinner. No grand mountain adventure. No exploratory suffer-fest. No epic. Just a nice spring afternoon in the Rockies with friends. 🌞😊