Mount Rundle, 2949 m.

Mount Rundle (2949 m) is a prominent mountain above Banff, easily seen from the Banff Hot Springs. It is considered an easy scramble, with 1570 m of altitude gain. In other words it is a "wyrypa" (a grueling experience).


(Clicking on the photos allows to see them in bigger size).

To get to know more about the mountain, with Mikele, we stopped at the new Calgary Public Library, itself looking like a mountain. 

Anticipating a long day, on Saturday morning, I woke up everybody at 4 am (!). In our eagerness, in the morning darkness, we missed with Mikele the trail to Mt. Rundle 

and ended up doing Spray River Loop (see a previous description of this hike here). 

However, a strong contingent, under the leadership of Roman Lipiecki, with the help of some young people carrying preloaded GPS track, found the trail and advanced quite high, above the tree level, only to be stopped by two consecutive thunder storms. 

From the left: Marek, Beata, Ela, Asia and Andrzej. Missing in the picture: Roman and Piotr. 

Slightly demoralized, especially that the weather forecast was not good, I opened a 4L carton of wine, which led to general fraternization with the other visitors to the Alpine Club of Canada's clubhouse in Canmore. 

Andrzej, Asia, Beata, Jacob and Mike.

I even started photographing myself with young women(!) ...

... and also with a group of very sexy women closer to my age.

Writer, Asia, Beata, Grazyna and Ela. 

Thanks to Marek, who brought a guitar and a set of song books, we had a wonderful evening at Boswell Cabin. Great appreciations, Marek!

Going to bed relatively early, at 9:30 pm, we checked the forecast again, and it was suggesting some improvement. With Mikele, we decided to give Mt. Rundle another shot. 

We started rather late, around 8:15 am, and for the good four hours we hiked in a fog, known in some circles as "zwangla." 

"Zwangla" was with us still at the lower, treeded, very steep section of the Dragon's Back. 

When we emerged above the tree line, some wonderful views opened up. 

We also had the first look at the upper section of the mountain. The top appeared still far away and the scree looked very unappealing. 

It was about 12:30 pm - I felt quite spent and ready to give up. However, as a few times in the past, Mike argued that we should still try to go ahead, at least until 3 pm. We were also informed by the young people, who caught up with us, that the weather forecast was upgraded - no storm was anticipated before 5 pm.

Carrying 2L of water up to this point, I decided to leave one bottle behind, accompanied by the bear spray and my pellerin. This made my back pack much lighter. Mike opted to carry all his gear with himself, and eventually started to lose distance to me on the scree. 

The middle section of the Dragon's Back is quite narrow and exposed ...

... as it can be seen in this photo of Mike (from the descent). 

However, it consists of solid slabs, which makes going up much easier. Sensing a stronger ground under my feet, I had my first "taste of blood" - a feeling that I can make it to the top that day. 

The last 200 m was again a very steep, grueling scree. I felt like "spitting my lungs" a few times. 

I masked this feeling in front of Alex - a young woman, who lagging behind her companions, scrambled the upper section with me. 

I reached the summit at 3:20, which was twenty minutes after our predetermined turn-around hour. By summit I mean the place where "normal people" end the scramble. Mt. Rundle is similar to Mt. Lady MacDonald in this way. To reach a true summit, which is about 100 m away and a few meters higher, you have to do some technical down climbing, which is not for most people's stomachs. 

Being behind time, I spent only 8 minutes on the summit, taking, among others, this picture with Alex and Holly (to make Mikele more jealous). 

When I reconnected with Mikele, he still had about 100 m to the top. As it was already around 4 pm, Mike, graciously, abandoned his summit attempt.  And for a good reason - we reached Banff in complete darkness (and not having any headlights with ourselves). 

Descent from the mountain was long and arduous - not so often we would find such a comfortable place to give our knees a break. 

We were lucky because the day became beautiful - sunny and not too hot. For the last hour of the hike, already in darkness, lightnings were showing us the way. I was able to hold off the storm for a while with my mantra. However, when Mikele initiated a song about "Red Barons," I lost my concentration. The "heavenly realms" opened up on us when we were about 200 m from the car. So, after 13 hours of action, we had to stand for another 15 minutes, under a tree, for the worst outpour to pass. We reached the car at 9:45 pm. 

The next day we did walk the Marsh Loop Trail in Banff ...

... which triggered some machismo in us ...

... and took two hours to recover in Banff Hot Springs. 

From the hot water of the pool we reminisced on the trail we had done the previous day.

Deservedly so, we also treated ourselves to a beer (Mike) ...

and ...

... a bison burger, with yam fries, and extra sauteed mushrooms (Piotr)! (After the hike like this) Life feels, in fact, beautiful!

P.S. Thanks for Mike and Roman for permission to use some of their photographs. 

(PR)