Conquering Flood Mountain: A Return to Grande Cache’s Iconic Peak

By Boris Bokov

June 28, 2025 – Flood Mountain, Grande Cache, Canada.

After a long absence, I finally returned to Flood Mountain—one of Grande Cache’s iconic Bronze Peaks—nineteen years after my last visit during the Canadian Death Race. This time, however, I wasn’t racing against the clock but hiking with friends, taking in the stunning alpine scenery, and reliving memories of past adventures. 

Full Monty (almost) in Arnica Lake

 1 August 2021

Having extended, and in some cases over-extended, ourselves the previous day on Emerald Peak and Mount Carnarvon, we opted for something "leisury" - a hike to Arnica Lake, the distance of around 9.6 km (return), with the altitude gain/loss of +760/-200. 

Onion Peak (Banff National Park)

3 July 2021 

Onion Peak, 2620 m, 20.5 km, +900 m, 11 hours. 

Moose Mountain or Swan Lake "balety"

 10 October 2020

Moose Mountain, 2437 m, is a popular mountain in Kananaskis region, southwest from Calgary. It featured in the award winning movie "Brokeback Mountain," which, as you all know, is about a love of one man for another. The trail is 13.8 km long (return, guidebook), or 16 km according to my GPS. The altitude gain is roughly 600 m, which makes this moderately strenuous trail very popular. 

The trail was closed until 30 September for some upgrades to the observation post. That is why, perhaps, when we arrived around 10:00, we barely found a parking spot. Again we were blessed by the participation of some young people - Paulina, Tomek and Minhi, talented doctoral students, took the opportunity to explore our wonderful Canadian mountains. 

Kayaking trip on Coal Lake, AB, or how not to listen to the weather forecast.

We are enjoying a very nice October this year and, so far, it seems to be a fine month. To celebrate our wonderful Canadian fall, we decided to go kayaking to one of the lakes nearby on October 5, considering that it might be one of our last trips this year.
This time we decided to explore Coal Lake. Initially, the plan was to go in a larger group, maybe as many as 10 kayaks and to form a nice flotilla. Alas, some people could not make it and some others declined on account of an "iffy" weather forecast that was calling for showers that day. Oh, boy! were there ever wrong, as it turned out to be a really nice day, after all.

Only three of us Young Poles decided to go in the end, including (forever young) Roman, Piotr and Mike.

    

Roman knew this lake quite well, as he was there several times in the past. For Peter and myself, it was the first time.

Coal Lake is located in a valley between two hills, just south of Leduc and north of Wetaskiwin, which is only about 25 minutes drive from the Airport.  The lake itself is about 11 km long and 500-1000 m wide.

 The lake itself snakes through a beautiful forested valley that looked absolutely spectacular at this time of the year with the golden colours of the season.