Healy to Harvey: A spectacular alpine traverse

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Between some rainy spells, the Canadian Rockies were in a short September heat wave. Last Friday, we went for a hike in the high alpine that was stunning, albeit a fair distance (8 hours). We dropped a car at the Bourgeau Lake trailhead on the TransCanada highway (west of the Banff townsite), then drove up to the Sunshine Ski Area parking lot. Healy Pass, from there,  is a 655m elevation gain - but since you're starting up high, it's really not long before you're in the alpine.

Once at Healy, where there are views of Egypt Lake, you can wander towards Harvey Pass. We picked our own route - the massive peak of Bourgeau is a pretty good landmark as you go up ridges, and cross various sub-basins. A map is a pretty good idea - even on a brilliant day.

On this day, the bluebird skies highlighted the recent snows on various peaks including Monarch, Assiniboine (3620m), Goat's Eye, Lookout, , and the infamous Delirium Dive ski route off Lookout. Once at Harvey Pass, which is on your way to the peak of Bourgeau, you descend for 1035m (3400') back to where you hopefully left the car and some comfortable sandals.

The start of this hike is only 30 minutes west of Grandview Chalet B&B in Canmore.

Two Jack Lake, Banff National Park

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After a long weekend of cold rainy weather, this week has been excellent. A few local Canmore mountain bike rides will certainly clear the weather blues. That, and a nice paddle.

Two Jack Lake, just 25 minutes or so from Grandview Chalet B&B in Canmore, is located near the town of Banff. It's really a nice reservoir (for hydro) between Minnewanka Lake and Johnson Lake. But it has great vista's of Rundle and Cascade Mountains, along with a few others. If you paddle along the shoreline, it's about 5 km around, and being narrow, it's very calm. Perfect for kayaking, canoeing, and paddle boarding.

The Two Jack Lake Campground is along the lake, and if you don't know, there are huts you can rent in the campground (see pic below). It would be a great place to stay. being only a few kilometers from the Banff townsite, and in a beautiful national park. That's if you don't prefer a great B&B like Grandview Chalet!


Mt Cory Scramble

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We started up this peak in Banff Friday Aug 28 - in the smoky skies that persisted all week (fires in Washington state). Not the best air to be inhaling at a frequent rate up a 1400m (4500 feet) steep scramble.  The start of it is only more brutal on the way down. You gain the ridge immediately from the valley floor, about 10 km west of the Banff townsite, in Banff National Park. I guess I promised my younger daughter Jill we would climb it sometime, and it was time. Along with Carol, and Aunt Liz, we completed the route in 8 hours. My quads would hurt for 3 days.

The peak shows in the background, behind several false peaks, along a fantastic ridge that is along vertically thrust formations of shale and limestone. A cool stromatolite bed is shown on the right side of the subpeak in the foreground (Wikipedia). These intertidal formations have been around for over a billion years - still persisting in warm tropical seas today. This being about half way up the ridge, where route finding becomes a little more important. Some of the false peaks you trundle over, some you attempt to skirt around.

This scramble is rated "easy-moderate", and I rarely sample the moderate types. That said, like Mt Chester, the outcropping limestone is pretty easy to pick your way through and up, and is rather fun. Sometimes my wife didn't think so, but she blundered on - not looking down at times - and joined us at the top.

Beyond, smoky air, showers threatened, but really didn't amount to much. But it didn't make any pictures look too brilliant (the last picture in the collection below shows the author standing at the top on a bluebird day in 2009). Did I mention the downclimb was unrelenting?

By the way, on your way eastbound for Banff on the TransCanada highway, this is the mountain with the big cave that you see high up in the beautiful limestone face on your left as you approach the Sunshine ski area turnoff. That face also has a famous climbing crack first climbed by Hans Gmoser (inventor of helicopter skiing holidays).