Janelea Mountain (Little Tombstone)

It’s been many years since I biked any real distance up the Little Elbow Trail in front county Kananaskis to the west of Calgary. Way back in the day my cousins from Manitoba used to visit in September and we’d bike the loop as one of our planned adventures. Of course, I’ve done bits of it here and there while accessing peaks such as Romulus, Remus, Fullerton and doing the big 4-peak traverse with Sonny WAY back in 2004 – 21 years ago now. Man I feel old some days… This was all about to change with a long planned ascent of yet another peak nobody has ever heard of.

I’m not exactly sure when I first heard of “Janelea”, but there is a substantive entry for it on summitpost.org. Kev Barton has an obsession with the Opal Range and Janelea (“Little Tombstone”) was part of his desire to complete every summit in the chain. Back in September 2016 when he and Scott Berry made the ascent via west slopes and the south ridge, there were only 4 other entries in the register. I wondered how many there’d been since his report?

Because Kevin and Scott’s ascent was only rated class 3 (moderate) and the other recorded ascents also had that most obscure of all alpine climbing ratings (“F 3rd), I ended up severely underestimating the difficulty of my ascent. Originally I planned on an off-season approach, even planning it with snow last October at one point. Thank goodness that didn’t work out because the north ridge with any snow or ice or precipitation of any kind would likely make you hate your hobby even more than most other days. To be clear up front – I did not find Janelea’s north ridge to be very “moderate”. My rating would be easy difficult or hard moderate with very careful routefinding in very complex terrain.

I turned old this year. Like, really old. Unbearably ancient. I find myself with one foot in the grave – somehow I am a half century on this planet! In an effort to roll back time I’ve fallen hard for a new hobby – cycling. I bought a kick ass gravel bike (Salsa Cutthroat) on Kijiji from Patrick and that led me to another bike purchase – a new old stock 2013 Cervelo Soloist from The Bike Shop in Calgary. I even have the Soloist mounted on my office wall – that’s how hard I’ve fallen for the sport. I used to be a runner and although I still like running, my body doesn’t. Biking is a great way to get the same cardio workout without my body hating it so much. In order to make the Cutthroat more rideable on the extremely rough terrain that I often end up on, I outfitted it with a shock system from Redshift Sports including a shock on the handlebar stem and another on the seat. I figured the relatively smooth Little Elbow Trail would be the perfect inaugural backcountry ride for the Salsa.

My gorgeous Salsa Cutthroat gravel bike is my new ultra lightweight backcountry bike. None of this e-bike crap for me yet! 🙂

With a Thursday off and good weather forecast I made the short drive to the trailhead and pedalled off up the road on July 3rd at 07:00 under a gorgeously clear sky. The ride was very quick on the smooth road and continued to be fast all the way to a large bridge over the raging Little Elbow River about 5.5 kilometers from the trailhead. At this point the road / trail roughened considerably and also decided to go straight up! This was where I first realized how much I’m going to love the Cutthroat. With 1×12 gearing (SRAM) and Hunt Proven carbon wheels the bike only weighs around 22 lbs. and it’s VERY noticeable when pedalling uphill. I might be ancient, but I didn’t feel it as I enjoyed the workout from the river crossing to the Romulus campground about 6.5kms further up trail.

At the Romulus campground along the Little Elbow Trail.

The trail steepens considerably after the Romulus backcountry horse camp.

Once again the trail steepened after the campground. In only 3 kms the trail went from 1800m to 1950m and most of that 150 meter gain was immediately after crossing a side stream near the campground. At the 15km mark I found myself at a huge washout leading down to the Little Elbow River and near my planned east facing gully to the north ridge of Janelea. Interestingly, after locking my bike to a tree I found an obvious animal trail leading down to the river and followed it through the forest rather than bother with the rubble in the drainage. So far everything was working out exactly how I planned it. The weather was perfect and after a short creek and willow-whack I found myself on sparsely vegetated slopes leading up beside the ascent drainage. Even better? I was on a sheep track.

Looking down a washout to the Little Elbow River with the north end of Janelea's ridge high above.

Staying climber's right of the drainage to avoid willows at the bottom. Janelea's north ridge rising above.

The willows disappear and it's time to traverse into the gully proper.

As the drainage slowly curved left, I descended into it and proceeded easily up on a mix of slabs and stone steps. I was relieved to find running water as the sun was getting rather hot and for some reason (probably my f_cking age), I forgot to fill my water bottle in the river when I’d crossed it far below. How could things go any better? A great bike approach, hardly any bushwhacking, a fun, easy ascent drainage with running water. And it continued! The drainage not only got much steeper the higher it went, it also became more fun. Tackling steep slabby terrain on my new Arc’tyrx Sylan Pro running shoes was a great test of their grip – and they had plenty!

Water in the gully comes from this melting snow patch – it won't last much longer.

A few hundred meters from the north end of the north ridge my luck started to turn a bit. Slab and stepped terrain turned into more typical rubble and scree. As I continued upward I noticed that the bits of the north ridge that I could see was looking quite a bit more complex than it did from space, on the satellite images I’d used for planning. Funny how that happens eh? The Opal Range is infamous for tricky ridges and as I topped out just south of the north end high point I could tell immediately that this one was no different.

Fun, grippy slabs and staircase terrain – my favorite type of approach gully.

Steep but easy terrain to the ridge above.

My first glimpse of the summit at distant right with Tombstone South and Mount Rae visible in the far distance.

It all started out quite straightforward. I deviated the first obvious complexity on climber’s left on a sheep trail and then proceeded along the ridge crest until more complexities forced me to deviate on climber’s right, onto the incredible steep and complex west face of the mountain.

Topping out on the ridge with the summit far at center and the ridge looking a little more complex than planned. Mount Cornwall at left.

I stuck to the crest as much as possible for the next few hundred meters. Cat's Ears, Jerram, Burney, Barham and The Blade visible at right.

From here to the summit is impossible for me to accurately remember every little deviation or complexity that I encountered or avoided. There is a tiny chance that I made things harder than they needed to be by avoiding the ridge crest, but the few times I did try it, things quickly ramped above my comfort levels.

I can see there are going to be some difficulties in sticking right to the ridge crest ahead.

Despite the complexities of traversing below the ridge on the west face, I found myself having a lot of fun here. Every time I tried a little ledge, or targeted a distant col it worked out perfectly for some reason. Normally these types of traverses along steep, slabby terrain quickly deteriorate into a s_it show that makes grownups cry for their mommies.

Traversing under the ridge on the west face.

Traversing under the ridge on the west face, this is looking back along a ledge I used.

Routes kept opening up along the west face just under the ridge.

My luck continued to hold. I honestly thought I was screwed out of a viable route at least a half dozen times but within an hour of topping out on the north ridge (it felt MUCH longer than that), I could see a steep, moderate route to the summit block. Phew! I really don’t like investing so much energy in a peak without standing on its tippy top. Indeed, despite looking rather intense, the summit block was moderate scrambling to the top where a crumbling cairn with a small glass jar with yellowing pages inside greeted me.

Home free? Almost. Upper left slabs to the summit are easier than they first appeared.

As I strongly suspected, I was only the 6th party to record my ascent in the deteriorating 50-year old register. We shared a moment where I told it not to feel bad – I am a deteriorating 50-year old too.

The register won't last much longer thanks to a rusting lid.

Views from the ridge had been stunning already for the past hour with Glasgow, Cornwall and Outlaw dominating to the east and Tombstone, Cougar, Burns, Rae and Elpoca to the north. Jerram, Burney, Blane, Brock, Hood, Packenham and Evan-Thomas marched north to the west in a stern line of Rockies intimidation. Barton certainly didn’t pick the easiest range in the Rockies as his chosen obsession! #respect

Views over Paradise Creek include most of the lofty peaks in the Opal Range including (L to R) Tombstone, Elpoca, Cat's Ears, Jerram, Burney, Barham, The Blade, Brock, Hood, Packenham.

Views over the Little Elbow Trail include (L to R), Fisher, Shoulder, Romulus, Remus, Fullerton, Garriomochal, Glasgow, Cornwall, Outlaw, Cougar, Burns, Rae and Tombstone.

Views off the south end of summit towards Tombstone Mountain. Piper Pass is somewhere at lower right with the Little Elbow Trail running off at left.

After delicately signing the register and taking way too many photos I turned to the complex return via the north ridge / west face. For some reason I decided to try a slightly lower line across the west face rather than my higher approach route. This worked really good for a few hundred meters and then it didn’t anymore. Oops.

Descending the summit block onto the west face.

Interesting terrain on the west face traverse.

I ascended straight back up to the north ridge from here.

I should know better by now that in the mountains it’s almost ALWAYS better to fight the devil you know than an unknown route in complex terrain. Oh well. In the end I saw some cool new features and climbed some difficult terrain to get back onto my ascent track. These are the joys and realities of sussing out a route that’s only been done once or twice before by better climbers than myself. 😉

Using a slightly wet crack to ascend steep terrain back to the north ridge.

Fun, difficult, grippy, complex terrain to the ridge.

Eventually I returned to my top out point on the north ridge and decided to check out the high point nearby. I suspected it likely wasn’t much lower than the true summit and indeed, it’s not. But it IS definitely lower, so don’t get your hopes up. From the north summit I returned into the scree and rubble bowl and proceeded down the ascent drainage from there. Before long I was ‘whacking across the Little Elbow River and back at my bike.

Back on the ridge with the summit out of sight at right and the north end high point at left.

Views off the north end of the north ridge include (L to R), Hood, Packenham, Evan Thomas, "Sarcee", "Little Evan", Shoulder, Fisher, Romulus, Remus, Glasgow, Cornwall, Outlow, Burns, Rae, Tombstone and Janelea.

Looking back along the north ridge to the summit from the north end.

My descent bowl funnels into the access gully.

The gully opens up under me as I admire the alpine landscapes up the Little Elbow River and Trail.

The ride back down the Little Elbow Trail was much quicker than I expected. I didn’t realize just how much height I’d gained on approach but holy cr_p it was more than a little! I passed two or three large groups of hikers on my exit and was glad not to be walking on the hardpan road myself. My round trip time of just over 7.5 hours surprised me as it felt much longer than that. Put it this way – I wasn’t lollygagging Aunt Edna style on this one.

Exiting the drainage under the imposing gaze of Mount Cornwall.

Crossing the Little Elbow River on exit.

A fun, fast ride back to the parking lot along the Little Elbow Trail.

Despite the upper route complexities and subsequent challenges, I find myself rather fond of Janelea Mountain. I like that it has a proper name with no explanation whatsoever of it’s meaning. I like that it’s certainly not a pushover (come to think on it, neither was the mountain called Pushover). I loved the bike approach and the ascent drainage. The scenery is spectacular in that little corner of the Rockies too. All in all a delightful day in the hills and exactly what I was asking July 3rd 2025 to be. Highly recommended for almost nobody except the few folks who already had it on their respective lists.