Mount Bourgeau/Harvey Pass

Distance: 21km

Elevation: 1130m

Time: 5hrs

Bourgeau Lake below the summit of Mt. Bourgeau

The hike to Harvey Pass starts in Banff National Park from the Bourgeau Trailhead (just west of the Sunshine Road). It is a grind up through the forest for the first 7.5km with minimal views, but once you reach the treeline at Bourgeau Lake you are rewarded with stunning panoramas and alpine lakes. The hike to Bourgeau on its own isn't be worth the effort, but once you start gaining elevation towards Harvey Pass, the views are spectacular.

Grassi Knob Hike - Canmore

Grassi Knob Loop

 Distance 9km

Elevation 795m

Time 3hrs

Grassi Knob summit shot

Helen Lake Hike - Icefields Parkway

Helen Lake Hike

Distance: 15km

Elevation: 550m (to the Headwall)

Time: 4hrs return

Kona takes in the view of Helen Lake from the headwall

One Day in Zion National Park - Angel's Landing and the Narrows

A November trip to Southwest Utah was an excellent getaway from shoulder season in Canada. Although our trip was focused on mountain biking, Zion National Park made a perfect day trip from our basecamp in Hurricane and gave us a change of pace from big days in the saddle. We only had one day to explore the park so we decided to ignore the conventional advice of one hike per day and tackled the two most popular hikes in the park, Angel's Landing and the Narrows, in one tiring push. If we had more time, we would have loved to check out the West Rim Trail and some of the canyoning routes but those will have to wait for next visit.

Happy hikers

Northover Ridge

Taking it all in from Northover Ridge

Distance: 33km

Elevation: ~1400m

Time: 14hrs (over 3 days)

Peter, Kristina, Kyle and I hiked Northover Ridge as a 3 day backpacking trip this past weekend. We completed the 33km loop in the counter-clockwise direction, camping at Three Isle Lake and Aster Lake. It was a beautiful fall weekend in the Rockies, complete with yellow larches, blue skies and a skiff of snow on the peaks. We were pretty lucky to be able to do this trail so late in the season and were rewarded with endless mountain views, surprising warm weather and very few people on the trail. As a result, we took LOTS of pictures.

Return to Waterton Part 2: Carthew-Alderson Hike

Distance: 20km

Elevation: 997m

One way hike 

(requires shuttle or car drop at Cameron Lake)

Morning coffee on the Cameron Lake dock

The Carthew-Alderson trail is a one-way hike from Cameron Lake back to the Waterton Townsite. This is probably my favourite day hike because of the constantly changing vistas, multiple alpine lakes and opportunities for small detours to summit Mt. Carthew or its small subpeak. I also love that you get all of your elevation out of the way at the beginning of the day, and spend the majority of the hike in the alpine with a long descent to Waterton. You do need to arrange transportation to the trailhead at Cameron Lake. Since we only had one vehicle, we booked a shuttle with Tamarack the night before. Sunday morning we hopped on the bus then hiked back to our car.

Return to Waterton Part 1: Crypt Lake Hike

Distance: 20.5km 

(with ferry to and from Trailhead)

Elevation: 935m

The classic cave section of Crypt Lake Hike

The main tourist season in Waterton ends after Labour Day. If the weather holds, you can access the stunning park without the crowds for a narrow time window before the seasonal employees return home for the winter. The camping reservation system also ends the week after Labour Day so we showed up Thursday night and found a perfect campsite next to the river and a cook-shelter. Waterton is notoriously windy and a sheltered site is a must. Even early in September it gets cold at night so having access to the cook shelter's wood stove (bring your own wood) was a bonus and a great place to meet other campers who joined us around the stove to cook and swap stories.

McGillivray Canyon Hike

McGillivray slot canyon (Ryan Yee Photo)

This is a really unique hike that follows the creek up through the McGillivray slot canyon between Pigeon Mountain and Mt. McGillivray. It can be done as an out and back to a big chockstone, or once you reach the chockstone, you can retreat back down the canyon about 15 mins and gain the climbers approach trail on the bench above the canyon to descend. The area above the chockstone has had some recent development as a climbing crag and we met the route developers up there who have been bolting some hard sport routes!

Goldilocks Hike - Island Lake Fernie

12.3 km

835 m elevation

3.5 hrs

On a trip down to Fernie this summer, Kyle and I tagged along with the Milinos to hike at Island Lake.

Hiking up Spineback to the start of the Goldilocks Loop

 The Goldilocks trail is a new route that has been developed high in the Lizard Range above Fernie. To access the loop, you park at Island Lake Lodge and follow signs for Spineback Ridge Trail. The well maintained trail starts by meandering past the lake and across streams before starting to climb steeply up the ridge. After 3.5 km, we had climbed 600 m above the lake and lodge. We watched pikas scurrying around in the scree and spotted birds soaring overhead as we hiked.

Cape Town Hikes

Cape Town South Africa is probably one of the most beautiful cities in world thanks to its stunning ocean, beaches and mountains. Kyle and I had the opportunity to explore the area close to town by ticking off some of the top hiking trails, most of which were different ways up the predominant feature in the city, Table Mountain. I have included a small write up and photos for each of the hikes that we did:

1. Kasteelsport (Table Mountain)

2. Skeleton Gorge (Table Mountain)

3. India Venesters (Table Mountain)

4. Lions Head (Signal Hill)

5. Disa Hike (Hout Bay)

The view of Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain (near the cable car station)

The "Tit" Scramble

Distance: 11 km

Elevation: 1200 m

Time: 6.5 hrs

The majestic "tit" as seen from the approach ridge

Mt. Baldy Scramble

"Close to Calgary, close to the road, close to the ground"

- Alan Kane

 Distance: ~5 km
Elevation: 800 m
Time: 2 hrs 40 mins

Down climbing the crux of the scramble

Mt. Baldy is the peak across highway 40 from Barrier Lake which made it an easy half day escape from the city at the end of October. Not to be confused with Baldy Pass hike, Mt. Baldy is an actual scramble, much to the dismay of people commenting on trailpeak about how difficult this hike is. As far as scrambling goes, there are a few fun ridge sections with a bit of exposure and I feel that the moderate rating is appropriate. The majority of the scrambling is easy with a few short moderate sections.

The Golden Circle Route - Whitehorse - Skagway - Haines - Haines Junction

Alaska is a place that conjures up visions of remoteness, wilderness and adventure. My first exposure to Alaska was watching Eric Hjorleifson in Matchstick and TGR ski movies in the early 2000's. I would spend hours pouring over Powder and Skier imagining myself skiing the huge spines and deep powder in the Chugatch and Alaska Ranges. The names of Alaska heli-ski operations and mountain ranges have been a part of my vocabulary for years. Later, I revisited Alaska through Jon Krakauer's literature, "The Call of the Wild," and "Eiger Dreams" and the desire to visit this mystical place grew stronger. It was only natural to take advantage of my proximity to the border this summer to go see Alaska for myself! With limited time, we were only able to scratch the surface of this massive state, and it left an even deeper desire to return and explore (hopefully with my skis!).

Made it to Alaska!

Grizzly Peak Shoulder Season Scramble

What do you do in the shoulder season? Go scrambling! Kyle and I invited ourselves along with Em, Trev and Owen for a great day out in the mountains. We met at the petro-can at the crack of 9:15 (significantly earlier than Emily's original plan of 10:30) and piled into the Subaru to hit the road. As we drove towards the mountains, they looked very snowy, and our original plan of trying the Middle Sister in Canmore seemed like a bad idea. Kyle frantically searched the scrambling book for something short and easy that we could do in the snow and still make it back to Calgary for Owen's plans at five. We settled on Grizzly Peak just before we hit the highway 40 turnoff (just in time). It is a 7km easy scramble just before the highway 40/Spray Lakes Road intersection. It has 900m of elevation gain and none of us had done it before. It ticked all the boxes.

View of Mt. Packenham and Mount Hood with lots of wind off the ridge

Fall Climbing and Hiking on the Coast

A few weeks ago, Kyle and I spent a week on the coast, hanging out with my family and our friends. We got to do a few days of climbing in Squamish, went for a hike up to Brew Lake with my family and went to a wedding. It was a great trip!

Kyle on Joe's Crack (5.9) at Pixie Corner

The Harrison Hut and Meager Creek Hot Springs

How much activity and how little sleep can one fit into a single weekend? I feel like I have tested this theory on a few occasions in the past and our trip to Meager Creek Hot Springs was no different.

The Harrison Hut

The Annapurna Circuit - An Anniversary-Moon of Adventure

Follow Kyle's and my 13 day journey on the Annapurna Circuit in the Himalayas of Nepal. There were so many good photos to choose from but I managed to narrow it down to a couple dozen. This is a long one. Buckle up.

Swayambhun stupa in Kathmandu

Larch Valley/Sentinel Pass and Mt. Temple Attempt

14 km

1228 m elevation

Beautiful view of Valley of the Ten Peaks and 3/4 couloir 

Lake Louise Teahouse Challenge

16 km

400 m elevation

It was a cold, wet morning when Kyle and I left the warm cozy trailer at the Lake Louise Campground. Our climbing plans shot, we made our way to one of the most photographed lakes in Canada with a plan to visit the two teahouses in the area, Lake Agnes Teahouse and Plain of the Six Glaciers Teahouse. It is possible to hike to both teahouses in a 14.6 km circuit with new views around every corner. 

We started with the Lake Agnes Teahouse. This is a popular destination for visitors to Lake Louise because it is only 3.6 km from the Chateau Lake Louise, although it is a bit of a grind up 400 m of switchbacks and stairs. We managed to snag a table and enjoyed a hot pot of tea with tea biscuits at our first stop on our teahouse challenge. 

Fairview Mountain towers above Lake Louise with a dusting of new snow

Waterton Hikes: Carthew-Alderson Trail

Distance: 20 km one way

Elevation Gain: 650 m

The Carthew-Alderson Trail is best done starting at Cameron Lake. Since this trailhead parking lot is currently under construction and the road is closed to public vehicles, there are free shuttles being offered to take hikers up to the trailhead. You need to reserve a spot on the shuttle, preferably a few days in advance if the weather looks good. Taking the shuttle was really nice because we didn't have to go retrieve our car at the end of the day as the hike finishes right in the town of Waterton.

We showed up early so we wouldn't miss our 8 am shuttle, and were actually early enough that we got on the 7:30! There were 9 other hikers on the bus, 6 of which were doing the same hike as us. When we got dropped off at the trailhead, Alan and I were first on the trail. Within a few hundred metres we came across a small lake with a large moose wading around. We must have spent 20 minutes watching him dunk his head and eat the weeds. It was fascinating to watch this huge animal, especially when he would shake the water from his antlers.

Mr. Moose eating his breakfast