*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

September 24, 2022

Custer Attempt #2 and Forum Peak Sept 23, 2022 Waterton Lakes National Park

 So my son just returned from his LDS mission in Toronto Ontario the 22nd of September and the first thing he wanted to do was go hiking, so we thought we'd try Custer again.  Last year we were snobbish and it was too Smokey and so we bailed.  This year it was nice but too wet and clouded over so we bailed.  Hopefully we'll get it next year?  We made it a little farther this year but we got to a point where we were really at risk of slipping and falling on the wet rock as we scrambled to we were smart and decided to head back.  I don't think the mountain top was viewable the entire day because of cloud cover.  Even if we had pushed ahead we would have had no good view from the top and that is what we want for this beast. So next time Custer, next time.  We did get one summit in though so the day wasn't a complete loss.  I think we may get sick of climbing Forum Peak.

This is what the clouds were like all day, never saw the true summit

Larches on the way up

Pretty sun rays coming through the clouds

There was the odd glimmer of hope that kept us optimistic

But we still got amazing views of Cameron Lake

Every now and then we got a good view over to the Kintla Lakes

On the wet rocks

Why we turned back, too wet on the steep rocks, a fall from here would be deadly

The border marker #272 it said it was surveyed and marked 1903-1907 I don't think may visit this one

Larch season...my favorite

Track of Hike


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Mount Carthew, Buchanan Ridge and Buchanan Peak September 10, 2022 Waterton Lakes National Park

 Often I get asked to take people on hikes and it is usually something I enjoy doing, so today was one of those days were a couple who are working on the peaks of Waterton needed to cross of Buchanan Ridge and Peak and I gladly went along for the ride.  It was an amazing non windy day in Waterton and those don't happen very often.  We got up to Carthew without too much difficulty and headed for Buchanan Ridge.  Last time my son and I went straight down the ridge but it was a little spicy so this time I noticed on Gaia that you point yourself to the Cameron Lake road and head more west and then come back on less steep exposed cliffs.  It was safer for sure but today there was snow on much of that area so it was still a little spicy.  We eventually accressed the Ridge and then continued down to the Peak and then headed to town.  Great day to climb 3 mountains!

Perfect reflection on Summit Lake

Little dusting of snow on Alderson

Custer, Kintla and Kinnerly looking awesome

Summit view looking to Alderson

Our spicy snow traverse

Looking up what I came down last time

Great view to the prairies

Heading for the last summit of day

Carthew Lakes

Alderson Lake

Track of Hike

Carthew Summit Video

Carthew Summit Photo Sphere

Buchanan Ridge Summit Video

Buchanan Ridge Photo Sphere

Buchanan Peak Summit Video

Buchanan Peak Photo Sphere


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September 03, 2022

Castle Mountain August 17, 2022 Banff National Park Alberta

 Decided to rendez-vous with some friends from high school so we decided to head to Banff.  One of the first times I saw Castle Mountain, I thought wow what a mountain and I want to climb it one day, and today was that day.  It's a pretty straight forward hike up to Rockbound Lake and from there we gained the upper ridge and came around the lake to the high point looking over at Eisenhower tower.  On the way back we decided to take the lower shelf and it shaved off a bit of time and distance.  Beautiful scenery and beautiful day.  The rock on the upper shelf was pretty interesting and thanks to multiple cairns we found our way nicely.  It was a long day but worth every minute.  I later discovered that there is an ACC hut on Eisenhower tower, I'm no expert rock climber but that would be quite the undertaking to climb that thing and to stay at the hut.  Also of note this hike was relatively quiet compared to other areas in Banff, so if you want to avoid the crowds and get an amazing view, this is one to do.

For the first while we were in the trees and then got this view of Eisenhower

Perfectly calm Tower Lake with the towers behind it

Rockbound Lake

Heading up looking back at Rockbound Lake and the objective is just to the right of Eisenhower

From the upper shelf looking down on the lower shelf meadow

Another view of Rockbound and our objective on the right

Looking back at where we came, you can see the meadow of the lower shelf that is the way we returned

What a view of Eisenhower Tower

Summit view

Heading back, the afternoon/evening sun was spectacular on the lake

On the lower shelf meadow

Photo Sphere on Summit





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