To Celebrate my 100th post here is my 101st post. #Vimy100
Shortly after I summited Vimy Peak and Ridge on Remembrance day 2016. I found out that 2017 would mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and so I figured I better hike it again. I mentioned it to a few people but schedules didn't work and so it was left to Carter my son and I to summit this peak in commemoration of the many soldiers who fought over 100 years ago. The weather had been pretty good except for a snow fall about a week before, but it looked like it was going to be OK. We headed up early and got biking by about 8:00 am. It was a little muddier than in November but it was fine. We got to the trail head and started hiking up, we only got about 2 km in when we had to start wearing our snow shoes. The snow was deeper than I thought it would be and eventually we lost the trail but we knew the way to go. About half the way up we were blazing our own trail in the snow and the big swale that runs up the back side of Vimy was covered in snow and I'm pretty sure that it must be over 5-6 feet deep. The snow shoeing was hard because we were sinking about 4-6 inches per step so it made it a lot more tiring than usual. We then hit the steep part on the east side of the mountain and had to be a little more careful as it was icy and we could have slipped along way down. We eventually hid the summit ridge and took off our snow shoes and summited the peak around 1:00 pm. We had great sunshine till about noon and then it was cloudy from then on out. Also the wind picked up substantially once we reached the summit ridge...of course. We took some picture with the my flag and since it was so cold and windy we decided to not stay long. It was one of the pretties vistas I've ever had. Snow capped mountains are the best and the view all around was spectacular. On decent we discovered that snow shoes are great for going up but are a little trickier going down a hard steep surface. We almost had to walk backwards at times because the risk of slipping was pretty likely. Thankfully we eventually reached the less steep part and made our way back down without any incident. The wind lessened and we were able to make it back to the bikes. We then unfortunately had the 7 km bike ride to finish which was exhausting as we were pretty spent. To make things worse my pedal fell off my bike and I wasn't able to ride it, so the last 1 or 2 km we mostly walked. IT was a great day and I truly am thankful for the sacrifices of the many soldiers in years past who have fought for my freedom. The #vimy100 celebration had got me thinking and I started to look at some of the history of the battle. I also knew that my great-grandfather John Parry had fought in the war but didn't really know much about his story. So I noticed on Facebook one day that there is a war archive the Canadian Government is doing and so I researched out the info and found information about John Parry. I found out that he was a member of the No. 1 Tunneling company and that if he was with his company on April 9th 1917 that he was actually only a few km away from Vimy Ridge on April 9th. So on our hike I tried to take a picture of his picture on my phone up on the summit. It really didn't work but I thought about him on my hike. He died in 1940 and left my great-grandmother (Kate Parry) a window for many years. The Waterton connection to her is that she worked for years as the camp cook in Waterton near Crandell Campground at the Canyon Church Camp Lodge. There is a building there that bares her name "The Kate Parry Lodge." Anyways I sure am proud of my heritage and the great service men and women of our great nation of CANADA!
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| The morning view of our goal was spectacular |
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| Biking the path |
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| Crossing the river, little higher than last time |
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| Now on foot |
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| Beautiful sunny day |
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| Wind blowing the snow off of Sofa Mountain's ridge |
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| There was freshly fallen snow from the night before |
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| Fresh snow on pine bows is sure pretty |
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| This is where we lost the trail and blazed it the rest of the way |
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| Snow covered swale on the way up |
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| More of the swale |
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| Looking back on our tracks in the snow |
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| Pausing to rest a little |
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| Beautiful clear day, almost out of the swale |
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| I made Carter lead the way because he would pack the snow down a little so I didn't have to work as hard! |
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| Out of the swale and looking at our goal to the right |
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| Starting to get steeper |
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| Even more steep |
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| Getting high enough to see the peaks of the summits to our south |
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| Beautiful view towards Crypt Lake in the middle and Mt. Cleveland on the right |
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| This is when it was really steep and icy |
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| This picture shows how steep the incline was. According to my phone tracker we got as steep and 50% incline |
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| On the Summit ridge looking south towards Crypt Lake |
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| On the summit looking towards Chief Mountain |
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| Summit view towards Crypt Lake |
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| Summit View looking towards Upper Waterton Lake |
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| Summit View looking towards the Waterton Townsite |
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| Summit View looking West towards Alderson Mountain in the center (highest summit in picture) |
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| Flag picture with Carter |
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| My flag summit picture |
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| Now looking the other way with Vimy Ridge (Arras Peak) in background |
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| Trying to take a picture of my Great-Grandfather's picture on the summit....didn't work out so great. |
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| Look how much snow is on the Summit, that is Carer on the top |
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| Another summit picture looking towards Crypt Lake |
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| Another Townsite view |
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| Heading down the ridge we came up to get our snowshoes back on |
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| Heading down, not as sunny but less windy |
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| Still beautiful view overlooking the prairie |
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| Our flag didn't cooperate on the summit so we did a picture at the bottom. By the time this picture was taken it was April 9th in France so it was Vimy Ridge Day while we were still on the mountain. |
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| Still pretty without the blue sky and sunshine |
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| Biking again and crossing the river again but with Vimy behind us |
Panorama on Summit
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| John Parry my Great-Grandfather |
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| We decided to visit my Great-Grandfathers grave on Vimy Ridge Day after we visited my Grandmother who is 97. |
