Door Jamb Mountain

Let me tell you about the adventure that was my first solo hike. Door Jamb Mountain is a great hike for a number of reasons: it’s less than an hour drive from my house, it’s not well-known so there aren’t crowds of people to navigate, there’s a bunch of fun hands-on no-consequence scrambling since half of the hike involves an easy climb along a ridge, there are lots of chances to exercise your route finding skills since much of the hike doesn’t have a defined trail, there are technically two summits to bag if you go further up to Loder Peak, and the orientation and location of the peak make it a great snow-free option for early or late in the season.

This wonderful hike ended turning a bit of a nightmare with me fearing for my survival a few times. Admittedly, my mountain senses need calibration…I also feared I was going to die during my first ever hike (Tent Ridge) when my parents and I went off trail and bushwhacked up the mountain via a scree slope. In retrospect, it was a pretty tame situation so I can’t say I trust my judgment when it comes to life-or-death situations in the mountains, but this was far from my first hike and one section in particular felt way beyond my abilities.

Somewhere around three quarters of the way up, I found myself clinging onto a nearly vertical sheet of rock sloping into the abyss…twice (since I went the same way going up and down). The angle of the wall must have been 35 or 40 degrees, and it went a long way down with the bottom ending in a sheer drop to the valley below. Convinced that a fall would have resulted in my death, I half crawled, half dragged myself up and down that cursed slope, which was not cool considering I’m pretty sure everyone else either walked down it or around it. By the time I made it up to the summit of Door Jamb Mountain, I was too freaked out to continue towards Loder Peak or even enjoy the summit much, although the trail up Loder Peak looked like a nice walk and everyone else was doing it, including a large group of middle-aged Japanese ladies.

That same group of middle-aged Japanese ladies ahead of me didn’t seem to have any trouble with the hike, which makes me think I was either an idiot who couldn’t find the correct trail from either direction, or a wimp who needed to buckle down and just walk down the damn thing!

Door Jamb Mountain was certainly a memorable hike. One of the few experiences I’ve had that I’d rate type 3 fun, or maybe 2.5 since I only 99% regret doing it.

Date: 2021-06-20

Location: Kananaskis

Friends: None

Not-so-lovely view of the Graymount Exshaw limestone plant heading up. Fortunately, the industrial sights and noises disappeared pretty quickly after I started ascending.

There was some sort of helicopter rescue training going on in the parking lot near the trailhead.

I cried. It was scary. The way down wasn’t much better.

“IF YOU FALL, YOU DIE!!!” - my brain the whole time.

Looking at Loder Peak from the summit of Door Jamb.

A moody yam.

My nemesis looking foreboding from the parking lot.

Some other silver linings - the views were good and Door Jamb is a cool little summit I will see every time I head west on Highway 1.