Canada Day on Grotto Mountain 2706 m

For the first serious challenge of the season we picked up Grotto Mountain, 2706 m, near Canmore.

The advantage of this trail lies in the fact that it starts near the Alpine Club of Canada's Bell Cabin, where we arrived with Mikele on Friday evening.

We started at 7:00 am on Saturday, 1 of July, accompanied by, how else ... Three Sisters!

The first 1000 m of elevation gain is through very steep terrain. We were sweating a lot and burning calories like crazy (almost 4000 that day). 

Luckily, beyond hard work, there were also some attractions.

Soon after emerging out of the woods, we saw what appeared to be our summit ...

which reached, triumphantly, in a short while. (Canmore looks so small from that point).

After realizing we had another 2 km to the main peak, Mikele got into some sort of "wisielczy humor" (black humor). 

It took us another 2 hours to reach the summit ... 

... where we put our names into the register. As members of Polish Men and Women Mountaineering Club of Edmonton we expressed our great love for Canada, celebrating its 150th anniversary. We feel blessed for having a chance to live in this beautiful country!

What goes up, must go down. Steep descent was very strenuous on our knees. Mikele took 3 falls, which, he claimed, would normally be his limit for the whole season. 

Back in the safety of Bell Cabin, just after two glasses of wine, mixed with Pelegrino mineral water, we went "unconscious." During the 11 hours of action we covered almost 15 km, 1400 m of altitude gain and then loss. We were so exhausted that we didn't care for Canada Day's fireworks!

The next day, on Sunday, just to "stretch our legs," we did 16 km along the majestic Minnewanka Lake. 

There were bear warnings everywhere and we only had Mikele's whistle. 

This, and the extremely hot day, made us to abandon our plan of reaching Aylmer Lookout ...

... in favor of taking a refreshing dip into the lake. Soon however we noticed a warning sign - not even small girls or boys were playing in the water. As it happened the water was rather cold. 

Next submission to the category: "Sexy man in front of the mountains?"

In the evening we realized that whole Canada seemed to be tired, and it was not because of our wine!

The next, and the last, day we visited impressive C Level Cirque near Banff. Only 8.5 km and 447 m of altitude gain/loss. This we accomplished speedily on account of ... mosquitoes!

Mike was more relaxed maintaining that, simply speaking, mosquitoes do not like him!

As his eucalyptus oil didn't seem to do much for me, I was more tense - just a short selfie and we were on our way back. 

Altogether, we are pleased with our accomplishments during the Canada Day Long Weekend. My smart watch informs me that I burnt 8368 cal during these three hikes and at times reached 200 bpm (beats of heart per minute). Looks like a good training in preparation for the Alps. On the other hand, I suspect, my watch is not of much opinion about me - it would typically announce that I reached my daily goals within first 20 minutes of hiking! :-) 

(PR)