Asulkan Valley (Hut) Trail

 31 August 2024

On that day the five of us: Mike, Bożenna, Barbara, Piotr and Anna, we hiked to Asulkan Hut in the upper part of Asulkan Valley, Glacier National Park, British Columbia. According to AllTrails the hike 13.7 km long with 968 meters of altitude gain. My GPS showed almost 20 km (forth and back) with about 860 m of altitude gain. Go figure!

A beautiful day on Powderface Ridge.

 16 October 2021

Powderface Ridge, 2210 m, (Little Elbow, Kananaskis), +594 m, 10 km. 

What a beautiful day it was! A sheer joy of being in the mountains in spite of late time in the season. 

The Goddesses of Prairie Mountain.

 Saturday, 2 October 2021

Prairie Mountain, 2210 m, 6.8 km return, +680 m altitude gain, 4.5 hours. Elbow, Kananaskis. (To see pictures in higher resolution, click on them). 

Mass mobilization on Mount Solomon (1585 m)

Pospolite Ruszenie or Mass Mobilization on Mount Solomon

18 September 2021 

12.5 km, +570 m, 5.5 hours

(to see a picture in bigger size, click on it)

For the group photo, our court photographer most likely needed to use a wide angle lens

to make sure that all participants would fit in the frame.

Vision Quest Ridge, Nordegg.

Sunday, 5 September 2021

6.4 km, +860 m, 4.5 hours. 

Coliseum Mountain, 2045 m, (Nordegg)

 Saturday, 4 September 2021

+705 m, 10.5 km (loop), 16 km (out and back)

Birthday on Mt. Loki

 18 August 2021

Mt. Loki, 2771 m, is a "cultish" mountain in the Central Kootenay Valley in British Columbia. I had a pleasure of scrambling this mountain in 2020 (see the photostory). This time I had a privilege of guiding to this mountain the two fantastic ladies - Barbara and Teresa - on Barbara's birthday!

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. 

Mt. Carnarvon (3040 m) and Emerald Peak (2566 m)

 31 July 2021

Bow Glacier Falls, Banff National Park, lipiec 24/2021

Zmęczeni, po sportowym wyczynie na Observation Peak, wybraliśmy łatwy i przyjemny cel niedzielnej wyprawy - Bow Glacier Falls. 

Observation Peak (3174 m), Banff National Park, 24 lipiec 2021

Do podnóża góry dotarliśmy dość wcześnie. Zapowiadało się na wspinaczkę w bardzo zadymionym powietrzu, co nie zachęcało do radosnego startu. Pomimo tego wspaniała, doświadczona grupa nie poddała się ponurym nastrojom i entuzjastycznie wyruszyła na trasę.

Getting wet at Helen Lake

 Near Helen Lake, Banff National Park, 4 July 2021

To see a short (3:35 min) film from this adventure, click on the picture. 

To see a photostory from this adventure, click this: https://pmdkwe.blogspot.com/2021/07/helen-lake-dolomite-ridge.html

(PR)

Mist Mountain and Troll Falls - July 2021

Mid July adventure in Kananaskis 
Part 1 - Saturday, July 17 - Mist Summit 
Part 2 - Sunday, July 18 - Troll Falls

Hiking Onion Peak Movie.

 

Przeżyjmy to jeszcze raz ... Let's live through this one more time ... to see a movie from the Onion Peak Hike click on the picture. Aby zobaczyć film, kliknij na zdjęcie. 

(PR)

Helen Lake (Dolomite Ridge)

4 July 2021 

11,6 km, +540 m, 6 hours. Helen Lake, 2350 m; Dolomite Ridge, 2562 m. 

Onion Peak (Banff National Park)

3 July 2021 

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

Hazy Nihahi Ridge

 19 September 2020

Nihahi Ridge, South Summit, 2380 m, 10 km + 2 km, height gain +770 m. Mostly hike, some scrambling. 

Yanek (Trip Leader), Basia, Michal, Mikele, Ewa and Barbara. The summit of Nihahi Ridge is above Mikele's head.

After having to cancel this trip on account of poor weather for two consecutive years, we were finally back at the bottom of Nihahi Ridge in Little Elbow Provincial Park. California fires (and one near Canmore, I've heard) created somewhat hazy conditions, but ... what the heck!

Old Fort Point with the Sirens

Being quite spent after Roche Bonhomme the previous day, I opted for an easier day. 5 km long, with 120 m altitude gain Old Fort Point trail appeared perfect. For this trip I was joined by Three Sirens - Ania, Dusia and Bosnia - or to be precise, by two Sirens and one Sex Bombshell!

Roche Bonhomme, or a Good Old Hubby

Roche Bonhomme, 2498 m, is a popular mountain near Jasper, in Jasper National Park. The name is often translated from French as meaning "Rock of an Old Good Fellow." In a book describing the trail to the mountain (unfortunately, I didn't record the author), it is referred to as "off-trail hike," with round-trip distance of 10 km, and altitude gain of 1300 m. As my story will try to illustrate, only the last information is correct.

We parked at Maligne Canyon parking lot and looked into the trail description to identify the beginning of the trail.

My companions were lovely Ela and Basia, along with the Club Harpagons: Mike, Piotr and Roman. Though somewhat confused after a hot night, we quickly established that the description was incorrect. It asked us to "walk back on Maligne Lake Road for 350 m." In fact, the beginning of the trail is about 300 m UP the road, not down.

Off to the mountains or Kelly's Bathtub.

Deprived of the mountains by COVID-19 for so long, we left toward Jasper on Friday, 14 August, as early in the morning as possible. Nine persons took advantage of this opportunity, under the overall leadership of Mike Alexander.

Blessed by excellent weather, we stopped at Kelly's Bathtub in Switzer Provincial Park near Hinton. I knew this place from the time of living in that community about 20 years ago. Being small, and (almost) separated from other bodies of water, Kelly's Bathtub typically is much warmer than other mountain or foothills lakes. 

Piotr impressed everybody by having a beer right away, Polish-style - from a towel!