*I hope people use their own wise judgement when hiking always plan ahead and be prepared. One should never go beyond their abilities.*

Over the years I've had a few goals my first was to Summit all the Peaks of Waterton. Here is My Waterton Summit List I completed that goal on September 26, 2016.

My next goal I'm still working on and that is to summit the 6 10,000 foot Summmits of Glacier National Park. I have one left Kintla.

My 2018 Goal that I accomplished was to summit 40 peaks in my 40th year and that I finished on September 26, 2018.

Not sure what will be my next goal, once Glacier's Summits are done?

I commonly use 3 Hashtags on my social media. The first one is #itookthepathlesstraveledby which is to reference this blog. The next two relate to my father and grandfather who were also hikers. #milesformarkellingson is to remember my
Dad, Mark Ellingson and #dustfromthetrailandhowitsettledonme is to remember my Grandfather Earl Ellingson

July 29, 2017

Mt. Oberlin July 29, 2017

Today was family summit day, this was a fairly easy summit and that is why it was bring the kids day.  It was a really good fun hike.  The family loved it and this hike is definitely a good bang for your buck.  Kind of like bears hump in Waterton, it isn't very hard or long to get up top of but the views from the top are spectacular.  We had to arrive early though because Logan's Pass parking lot is crazy especially on a Saturday.  We got there at 8 am and it was almost full...crazy.  We then needed to cool off after the hike and headed to a river and swam for a bit, these past few weeks have been terribly warm and it was good to cool down!

Our goal for the day on the right

Beautiful waterfalls on the way up

Clements mountain in the background and quite a difference in how much less snow there is in just around a month, but we got to play on a few patches on the way up

Another view of Clements

Crazy chimney on the way up, my son wanted to jump onto this and I said no-way!

View from the summit looking down on Logan's Pass parking lot on the left
Family summit picture

Another view of Clements

Sliding down the snow
Summit Panorama (Lots of people on the hike today so a few in the panorama)






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July 26, 2017

Iceberg Notch July 26, 2017

This was a great "summit-less" day.  It was also one of the hottest days I've had hiking in a long time.  We headed out early as usual and got an incredible shot of Swiftcurrent lake with Grinnell Point behind it. We then headed up the Iceberg lake trail and were able to get to the lake in rather quick time.  This was the first time I'd been to this lake and the icebergs on the lake looked incredible and these iceberg views was what we saw for the rest of the day.  The "notch" was on our right and it looked pretty crazy to climb up but we found our way up and with the help of a few nicely placed cairns we made it to the top.  It was pretty steep and there were times we were on some pretty exposed cliffs but we were careful.  We got up to the notch and had beautiful views down below to the lake and also great views across the way to Mt. Merrit, Ipasha Peak, and even down to Elizabeth Lake.  We had wanted to summit Iceberg peak today as well but we had time constraints and so we went around to where we would summit but figured we wouldn't make it back.  From just below the Iceberg summit we could see from Heavens Peak to Kintla Peak.  It was quite the vista to see.  So we then headed down to the trail, following the nicely marked trails and headed home.

Grinnell Point reflection (picture talked about above)

Beautiful Flower meadow near the Lake

Icebergs on the lake, the Notch is on the right where the snow goes all the way up to the ridge.  

Little Inukshuk at the Lake

Heading up through some bear grass

Starting to see better views of the Lake from above

Got high enough that I could fit the entire lake in my camera view, it was fun to notice how the icebergs moved position throughout the day

Looking towards the triple peak hike we had done about a month ago.  (Altyn, Henkel, and Apikuni)

While going up this is a rock people referred to as an upside down F.  We went up just to the left of this

Some crazy looking cliffs above us on the ridge

It amazes me that these chimneys of rock don't crumble to the ground

View from the Notch down onto the lake

View looking west from the Notch

On the west side of the notch the view towards Elizabeth Lake (center) and Helen lake (left)

Group shot on the Notch

The most significant trail cairn we saw.  We missed it on the way up but made sure we used it on the way down

Down at the lake looking up at what we had just come down from

Beautiful view on the way back looking down into the Many Glacier area
Panorama at Iceberg Notch







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July 20, 2017

Pollock Mountain/Bishops Cap July 19,2017

Today's hike was a good one.  I've taken Wednesday's off this summer to hike so this was this weeks installment of Wednesday hiking.  We had wanted to go to Many Glacier, but because of a closed trail we headed to Logan's Pass and started up Lunch Creek and did Pollock/Bishops Cap.  The hiking was great, the only downside was that because of forest fires west of here, the air was a little smoky thus not as clear as it could have been.  My favorite of the two summits today was Bishops Cap, it is quite the peak, reminds me a lot of Mt. Galeway.  There was some pretty good climbing involved today but nothing too challenging.

The view at the beginning of our hike, Pollock Mountain in the distance

Came across this herd of Rams, there was about 15 of them

Crossing some snow pack on the way up

Cool towers on Pollock

This marmot was pretty high up, only about 50 feet from the top

Near the top there was this narrow crack we had to climb up

Summit number one for the day Pollock

Our next objective in sight, Bishops Cap

Another view of Bishops Cap

I posted this picture on Social Media and had an backlash from parents, but this was a trick shot, the ground is actually only about 4 feet below

Another crack we had to climb up, I had to leave my back pack as I couldn't fit with it on

Summit number two for today Bishops Cap

New flower I haven't seen before hiking

More Bear Grass a plenty in Glacier Park as well

View of Bishops Cap from Logan's Pass
Summit Panorama on Pollock




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July 15, 2017

Chief Mountain July 15, 2017

This summit is the most recognizable peaks in Southern Alberta even though it is in the US.  This was forecasted to be a very hot day, but it turned out perfect.  I headed up with my brother in law and his son and we hiked Chief Mountain.  I was going to go with a larger group, but a bunch backed out and it was only down to three.  We did however start and follow another group who was a little more experience on this hike.  One man had hiked this peak 20+ times, so I didn't mind tagging along for  bit since this was only my 3rd time.  It was a great day except my phone messed up the track again, I think it is time for a new phone soon.  Otherwise spectacular day, it did start to rain for just a brief moment and the wind picked up as we summitted and on the way down.

View of the summit from Babb

View of Summit from start

View of Summit part way up trail

Starting around the back side and getting a different view

View of Cleveland off in the distance

The Needle or Ninaki

The shale gets really steep

View back of Ninaki

Cliffs near the summit block

View between the cracks

Little ledge we took up last time but not this time

View down where we came up

Another view of the summit block cliffs

View from the false summit over to the true summit

View of the false summit from the true summit

Another view looking down the way we came

Look how dirty my boots got from the shale on the way down

Another view of Ninaki

Summit view on the way down

Beautiful view over to Mt. Sofa

All Finished!

Last Summit view as we drove away


Panorama on False Summit, true summit was blurry

Blurry panorama on true summit

Summit Video

Garmin Track of Hike

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