Quick Stats and Summary:
Start - 6:45am
Finish - 5:15pm
Total Distance – 17.38km
Elevation Gain – 1,789m
Times and Elevation Gains by Peak (from previous):
Heart Mtn: 1:13hr, 778m
Grant MacEwan: 27min, 166m
Twin Towers (East): 59min, 297m

“We made it to the 1st hump past Twin Peak West but after extensive explorations down the left side were cliffed out. Tried the ridge proper again and it too became seriously fragmented and exposed.”


Details and notes for those who are planning (thinking about) to do it:
I found some reports describing two parts of attempted traverse: for Heart to Barclay and Lorette to McGillivray. Was interested to complete it as the whole.


View from MacEwan:


Though a crux was expected between Barclay and Lorette, we did get it much earlier. To the point that we had to turn back.

There are many reports on Twin Towers, omitting the route to them.

Once at the Towers, take a col between them and follow a tree line. It will bring you directly to the ridge:


Our mistake was to spot a “nice trail” on west side, we descended the West Tower and traversed back. Some route finding along the rocks, a bit of downclimbing but doable. The other one (dashed line) is much shorter and does save time:



After just a short walk on the ridge had to turn back as it got very sketchy with nice drops on both sides.


(Circle on this one is an approximate spot of photo from the other side below)



Already after returning, spoke with someone who did it in reverse way, from Barclay to Heart (which I didn't know before; my assumption was that it was the same). His photo of the ridge (circle is an approximate point of our return):



We did try to by-pass the section on the west side below of the ridge but got cliffed out only:




Résumé:
Will be back but with proper equipment and rope.



Credits:
Original report by Rob; comments by Tom.
Photos: Rob, Walid.


PS:
sorry for artefacts on photos. Put comments first, only to realizing that had to resize.

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That is a very ambitious traverse. Thanks for posting, and best of luck with your next attempt.

Good work on a not-so-often attempted traverse. A few years ago my friend Dan Kim tried the reverse direction (in October with snow), made from McGillivray all the way to Mary Barclay's, some hairy down-climb getting off Lorette according to their trip and eventually they bailed down into Heart Creek drainage. I also know Grant (or maybe someone else as my memories kinda faint now) did the part between Twin Towers and Mary Barclay's. And the section from Heart to Twin Towers is well documented on many sites.

I believe I saw their report, though I can't find it now. That was one of the reasons why I chose that direction, from Heart to Barclay and so on. Was trying to avoid that down climb but didn't realize it's about the same on the ridge to Barclay.

The only report on that section I saw was a Rambler's one (http://www.ramblers.ab.ca/public/tri...sp?TripID=3752), back in 2008.
While there is a photo with rope, but it only says "we puffed up Heart Mountain and spent some time going over various climbing techniques."
For the ridge got really brief description of "although just a mere km away it took several hours of travel over the very exposed and challenging rock."


Either way and direction, it looks like some intense down climbing is involved and a rope is required.

I see. You might have either Dan or Clayton on Facebook and there's where they posted (2012 if I remember correctly). I remember my first time seeing that trip it was quite inspiring to read the story to see what one can push through those "long day-trip multi-peak traverses".