Larch Valley Trail and Sentinel Pass

Valley of the Ten Peaks with the Larches in their prime

 Winter is coming...but its not here yet! Mom and Dad came out to Calgary to visit for the weekend and I wanted to show them the best Alberta has to offer. We drove out to Lake Louise for a hike at Moraine Lake (which was my first ever hike in the Rockies, back on my first real visit to Calgary two years ago). The timing was perfect because all the larch trees were changing colour and the valley was beautiful. We also arrived at the parking lot just in time to grab one of the last spots, everyone else seemed to have the same idea as us.

Autumn Equinox Climb - Aftonroe (5.7)

I have heard good things about Aftonroe and wanted to climb it last weekend. Liam agreed. At this point neither of us actually knew where the route was or anything about it, thank god for the internet! We left Calgary at 7:30 with a vague idea of where we were going and way more gear than we needed and pulled into the parking lot on highway 1A at 8:30. There were already some other cars there and climbers just starting up the trail. We didn't have a back up plan so just decided to follow them up. We were expecting things to be relatively busy as it was the last weekend of summer and it was supposed to be a warm day.

Guides rock from the parking lot (Aftonroe follows the corner on the right bulge)

Berg Lake Trail and Snowbird Pass - Mt. Robson Provincial Park

Long weekends are awesome! That extra day is just enough to allow you to get away to destinations that are too ambitious for a regular weekend. This labour day, I was able to weasel my way onto Kyle's "boys" trip, since lots of the boys ended up backing out at the last minute (I seem to be getting good at that). The trip was a backpacking trip to Berg Lake in the shadow of Mt. Robson, near Jasper, AB. Kyle, Nick and I drove up to Jasper Friday afternoon and we met Geoff who was coming in from Edmonton. We spent a rainy night at the Provincial Campground near the visitors centre, and awoke to grey skies and chilly temperatures. As per tradition (Geoff has done this hike a few times previously), we went for breakfast at Cafe Mt. Robson before disembarking. Unfortunately, we arrived a few minutes before a big tour group so we were denied anything off the hot breakfast menu. Undeterred, we grabbed muffins and fruit before we registered at the visitors centre where we were subjected to an informational video about the hike that was made in the 90's. No boom boxes allowed apparently.

Grabbing breakfast before the 21 km hike to Berg Lake Campground