*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 04, 2017

Whistler's Summit/Indian Peak September 2, 2017

Today was probably the latest I have ever started hiking in a day.  We didn't start actually hiking till about 6:30pm.  This was thanks to the Jasper Skytram that knocks off like 900 meters of elevation gain!  Anyways we wanted to bad these two peaks and figured we could do it before the last tram cam down at about 9:30pm.  So we headed on our way, well we noticed the clouds getting darker and darker as we hiked and it started to spit rain a little on the way up.  After we had summited both peaks and were on our way back it started to really look like it was going to storm and about half way down it really started to rain and the wind really picked up.  Eventually we were in a fog of cloud and couldn't see to far ahead of us and were getting soaked from Whistler's Summit to the tram station.  We eventually reached the tram by about 8:30 pm which was only 2&1/2 hours from the start of our hike so we did it pretty quick.  Since the wind was blowing so hard from one direction my boots were soaked on one side but still dry on the other side.  Anyways, once we got inside the tram building we noticed there were a bunch of people in line to go down the tram and I guess they had been there a while.  The tram doesn't operate if the winds are greater than 45km/h.  So we were stuck there till the winds died down.  Well after about an hour of waiting, and standing they numbered us so we could get out of line because they said it may be a while.  Each tram car holds about 25-30 people and Carter and I were numbered to be in tram number 6...the last tram car.  So I figure there had to be close to 150 people stuck up there with us.  Since Carter and I were pretty wet we got cold pretty quick.  We eventually secured a blanket and then a reflective blanket as well and sat in front of the gift shop cash register and tried staying warm.  After about 2 hours they started making free french fries for everyone as people were pretty hungry.  Then eventually at about 12:30am we got down the tram.  Some groups didn't have to wait as long but we were the last car down at 12:30am.  So it was quite an adventure and kind of fun as well.  The staff were awesome and I thought it could have been a lot worse.  One staff member said this was the longest they had ever had the tram delayed!  Well quite an adventure my only regret was I didn't get to see Mt. Robson from the summit, they say on a clear day you can see it in the distance.  Well next time I guess.

Riding up the Tram with the Sun breaking through the clouds

View of Jasper Town site from above

Summit one for today (Whistler's Summit)

I thought that in the distance was Mt. Robson but not sure

Looking towards Mt. Edith Cavell behind Marmot basin

Closer shot of Edith Cavell

Indian Peak our next objective

Looking West Whistlers and Indian Peak

Heading up Indian Peak

Can see the summit again (nicely trailed all the way till the last about 30 meters elevation gain)

Another shot of Edith Cavell, I want to climb this one!

Summit Photo

Terminal Mountain on left and Manx Peak on right (kind of reminded me of mountains on the Lord of the Rings Movies)

Edith Cavell between Marmot Mountain and Terminal Mountain

Seeing the storm approaching, time to get down!

Last picture I took on the way down (too wet) of the clouds coming over the mountain and limiting our visibility

Selfie in the Tram station waiting with everyone

Huddling under our blankets at the cash register

Eating our fries

Just before we left a little picture of our spot we sat at for almost 4 hours, I'm even wearing a coat from the gift shot they let me borrow to keep warm!

View of Jasper town site on our way down
Panorama on Whistler's Summit





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