snowshoeing OR it's nice to be back

in addition to being very busy visiting family, family and friends, i have been lucky enough to make it out to waterton park, an hour and 20 minutes drive from lethbridge, 2 times in the week we have been home. waterton is a small but beautiful national park where the rockies leap directly out of the alberta plains.

both days featured a concatenation of beautiful snow, blue skies and snowshoes.
on saturday my dad and i hiked up to crandell lake and explored the white expanse and the forest beyond. it was wonderfully crandelicious and i had a great time hanging out with my dad.

today my good friend colin and i hiked up the eastern saddle above cameron lake, ascended the ridge and reached the minor peak of mount carthew.

eventually the ridge became too steep for snowshoes and we had to kick steps to the top. the avalanche danger seemed fairly minimal and the top crust supported us some of the time. other times we were struggling up with our hands and feet and using an ice axe or hiking poles to keep from going backwards.


on the final pitch the views improved dramatically and the grade lessened considerably as well.
from the top we had a great view of cameron lake, the akamina pass and glacier national park in the states.
snow makes for fun downclimbs, especially when it is not too warm. we did some glissading, snowshoe skiing and running on the way down.

kylie spent the morning visiting colin's wife christine and their precocious kids, and the afternoon meeting other friends and family. i think she will tell you about all of our reunions shortly... in two days we head up to edmonton for the final leg of our journey before finally arriving home in chilliwack (with a stop in revelstoke to pick up niko of course)!