*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

January 09, 2021

Lakeview Ridge Jan 8, 2021 Waterton Lakes National Park

 I had a friend in town and so I took the day off work and headed up to Waterton for a winter hike.  I figured Lakeview would be clear enough of snow and I was correct.  It was a beautiful cloudless windless day in Waterton.  I've had some windless days on mountains but today was unreal.  For about half of the hike I had stripped down my layers and was only wearing my t-shirt.  I think I may have even got a bit of a sunburn.  With no wind it was so quiet and peaceful, it was a real treat.  The hike wasn't too difficult, I'd done this summit twice before, but we cam from a different way and bagged a couple other high points on the ridge which gave better views towards Upper Waterton Lake.  All in all it was a great day to be in the mountains and to spend time with a good friend. 

We started the day all layered up anticipating a colder day

Beautiful clear crisp morning

Our first obstacle of the day...actually our only real challenge of the day crossing the stream

These were the only trees on the entire hike that were not burned

Up on the first false summit of the Lakeview Ridge looking towards Waterton Lakes

Some of the drifts today were pretty big but with all the wind lately they were like concrete

Another great view looking towards the Lakes from Lakeview

Looking towards the South Castle Area

Second highest point of the day looking towards Lakeview Ridge

This picture shows how much the wind makes these burned trees sway, pretty incredible dead trees sway that much in the wind

Summit in January in a t-shirt eating an eatmore

These snow drift must get pretty big in the winter

I took a picture of this drift to show how the wind carves the weirdest shapes in the snow

Beautiful clear sunset horizon on a great day

Track of Hike







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