Mt Glasgow - Bragg Creek Elbow Falls Area
South Glasgow Creek drainage goes up the narrow valley between the two ridges
5 minutes from our bivy spot we headed right, up a slope for Glasgow
As we exited out of the creek bed area the long foreshortened slope of Glasgow awaits
After gaining the south ridge of Glasgow finding our way through the slabby rock bands was a bit tricky. We climbed through a few bands on the left, then traversed over to the other side just below a approx 25 ft sloping slabby area a nd climbed it on the far right, from there the "c" represents a cairn which provides access to the easier upper slopes with just steep hiking to the summit.
The upper slopes, looks steeper than it is, just steep hiking
Ah, finally made it!
A wider view of the area taken from Mt Cornwall, we came up the long creek drainage in the lower right
Mt Cornwall and Outlaw Peak from the summit of Mt Glasgow
Mt Glasgow - Bragg Creek Elbow Falls Area
- Scramble: Class 2
- Altitude: 2,935 m (9,629 ft)
- Ascent Time: 3 to 3 1/2 hours from bivy spot about 9 km in
- Elevation Gain: approx. 1,310 m (4,300 ft) 12km one way 24km return, hiked up South Glasgow Creek 9km the night before, then 3km up, 15km return
- Best Season to Scramble: July to September - would recommend early August to avoid mosquito s and creek would still be running to pump water from
Highlights
Along with Glasgow there are 3 other peaks all in the same area Cornwall, Banded Peak and Outlaw but the approaches are really long and make for a very draining day to summit any of these. Most people bike a portion of the Big Elbow or Little Elbow trails to reach these, not appealing to me either since I can't bike due to injury. Therefore I looked at Plan B, hike up South Glasgow Creek the night before, then bag both Glasgow and Cornwall from our high bivy the next day then hike out. So we hiked up the creek the night before for 3+ hours and bivied next to the creek, climbed both peaks and hiked out the next day. The plan actually worked very well and two summits were obtained. I recommend climbing Glasgow first then come back to the col between Glasgow and Cornwall and its only 1 hour up to bag Cornwall on a scree trail.
Getting There
Head out to Bragg Creek and onto highway 66 to Elbow Falls. Drive right into the Little Elbow campground and find a small parking lot only 30 feet away from the suspension bridge which you need to cross to get on the Big Elbow trail.
Route Description
Cross the suspension bridge and head left for a bit, then right and up to an intersection which has a green trail direction sign. Follow on south and you should hit another sign saying you are entering the Big Elbow trail "Are you prepared" lol! This section of the Big Elbow trail is about a 3 km walk with 2 small hills and takes about 40 minutes. From here you will see about 30 yards to your right a wide creek bed. This is South Glasgow Creek. Take a sharp right onto this creek bed and head back kind of Northwest for a bit. The creek bed eventually curves around back heading Southwest, then enters a narrow valley or drainage heading west up to the Cornwall headwall.
There are 2 places in the drainage that you need to move left then right above the creek bed to bypass small canyon areas. The first one you head up the left bank to bypass the first canyon spot then as you come down to the creek above the first small canyon area you immediately cross the creek and you head up into the forest on the right side (cairn here) to bypass a longer canyon stretch. This longer stretch through the trees is more difficult as the trail is faint but the thing is to keep next to edge of the trees closest to the high creek bank and when you get above the second canyon area find a spot to descend back to the creek bed. It would be nice if the trail above the longer canyon area had some work done on it to improve the route finding.
Once above the two canyon areas its straightforward working your way as far up the creek as you would like to go before doing a bivouac. Our spot took around 3 hours to get to. It was only about 5 minutes away from the spot we picked to go up the long gray slopes to climb Glasgow and about 10 minutes away from the slabby waterfall area which gives more direct access to the col between Cornwall and Glasgow. I recommend our route as we did Glasgow first, came back to the col, then 1 hour up to climb Cornwall, then descended the sandy brown slope below the col to the slabby waterfall area then back down the creek. The peak climbing day including summit time was around 11 hours back to the car. Started at 6:30 am back to the car 6pm. Voila two summits!
The Purpose of this web site
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- Scramble: Class 1 – Steep Hiking
- Altitude: 2,590m (8,495 ft)
- Ascent Time: 2 -3 Hours
- Elevation Gain: approx. 1,000m (3,280 ft)
- Best Season to Scramble: May to September