Pincher Ridge June 13, 2018

Today we were back in Alberta in my new favourite area.  The South Castle is a spectacular area and today was more proof of that.  I'm thinking with Waterton's ban on hiking right now this area will become more popular.  Well we started out with a large group today and headed up to the ridge spine on the east side of the summit.  This approach was pretty awesome.  There was a fair bit of route finding involved and lots of hands on scrambling and climbing.  Not for the faint hearted if you don't like exposure.  We had some beautiful views all around.  I will say the only real dis-tractor of hiking in this area is the Shell Gas Plant that sticks out like a sore thumb in such a beautiful area.  The descent route on this hike is also awesome, you have this great scree slope that you can descent quite nicely and it is so fast to go down.  There is a little bush whacking at the bottom to regain the quad trail and then a 3 or 4 km hike back on the quad trail.  Great hike with great views all around.

View of summit from start of hike we climbed up the centre of photo and climbed the ridge on the right

Neat looking dead tree

Our first view of the ridge to the summit we would tackle

Beginning of some of our climbing

View to the south of Drywood

Surveying which way to go

We went left and up the crack in the middle

Our scout scouting out the way

Little peak-a-boo from Castle Peak poking it way out from the ridge, Victoria on the right

Last section of ridge, still a ways to go

Faint trail on the right going up

We definitely didn't go on the left

More route finding

Stopped for lunch in a nice grassy area blocked from the wind

One of the final climbs with a huge rock above covered in yellow lichen

First view of Summit

Summit Shot

Great view of Windsor, Castle, and Victoria

Skiing down the great scree slope

Beautiful valley we kept starring at on descent

The Bush at the end

Shot of Drywood where people do rock climbing and in the winter ice climbing

Summit Video

Panorama on Summit

Track of Hike

5 Peak Day (Appistoki/8650/Henry/Medicine/Scenic) June 6, 2018

Today was a beautiful day to hike but a very exhausting day as well.  The disadvantage of going to Two Medicine is that it is over two hours away.  We left at 6am and didn't get home till close to 10pm.  We hiked for 10 hours and drove for like 5 hours.  But it was all worth it.  This day is mostly a long ridge walk.  We started on the Scenic Point trail and took that till a ravine then scrambled up to Appistoki.  The views all day long were spectacular.  We got a better view today of Stimson than when we hiked Stimson, it was all covered in snow.  Henry was the elevation high point of the day and was well worth it.  The only tricky part was coming down Henry towards Medicine where there was a little bit of a sketchy section to down-climb.

Where we left the Scenic Point trail 

This is where we climbed up Appistoki, we stayed left of the snow

Had to traverse a few snow patches nearing the summit of Appistoki

First views of Two Medicine Lake

View towards the next two summits of our day 8650 and Henry

That is Stimson covered in snow in the middle of photo

Almost got the full view of Two Medicine Lake

Little window approaching 8650 we found

On top of 8650 an un-named summit but worth the visit with its great views

Summit of Mt. Henry

Mt. St. Nicholas in the middle

Look at the snow in the middle it almost looks like a face!

Tricky down climb shot

Looking back at what we climbed down

Summit of Medicine, we didn't think it was much of a summit approaching it from Henry but when climbing down the ridge and looking back we gained a greater appreciation for it being a named summit

Looking back at Medicine mountain heading over to Scenic Point

Can see three of our Summits in this picture Medicine, Henry and Appistoki

View from Scenic Point our final Summit for the day

This little feller followed us down the trail for a bit...not sure why

Great view on the way down of Two Medicine

Gnarly little tree on the way down, there was a whole valley of similar trees on the way down from Scenic Point

Better view of our ascent route up Appistoki, we stayed left of the creek and snow on the bottom and middle of photo then headed straight up the middle of the snow near the top

Panorama on Appistoki

Summit Video on Appistoki

Panorama on Mount 8650

Summit Video on 8650

Panorama on Henry

Summit Video on Henry

Summit Video on Medicine, no panorama done

Panorama on Scenic Point

Summit Video on Scenic Point

Track of Hike

Divide Mountain Glacier National Park June 2, 2018

Well today I had to be back for a meeting so I didn't want to do a hike that would take to long.  So today's summit was Divide Mountain.  It would have been an even shorter hike if there hadn't been a drift on the back country road that made us walk and extra 1 or 2 km each way.  Anyways it was a great day except for the wind.  I took my two youngest kids on this adventure and they made it most of the way up.  They puttered out by the abandoned look our tower and I carried on to the summit alone.  The views were great and the hike was pretty straight forward.

Our views to start the day

Two options go left or right, we chose to go up from the left, there was still significant snow to go around on the right

Rising up above Saint Mary Lake

Looking toward Logan Pass still covered in snow

Looking at the Summit through the fire lookout window

Looking through another window to Logan's Pass

View of the Fire lookout

Summit view looking West

Cairn view looking Southwest

Another view of the Fire Lookout

Haven't seen tonnes of flowers this year, but haven't hiked in lush areas yet either

Descending the way we went up

Looking back at our summit for the day

This was the snow drift that impeded our vehicle from going any further, hence the extra few km of walking on the road

Summit Panorama

Summit Video

Track of Hike