Newman Peak and Avion Ridge

July 8, 2025. A long, beautiful loop route in Waterton that lends itself well to multi-day backpacking or a big day trip. Region: Waterton Lakes National Park. Traditional territory of the Blackfoot, Tsuu T’ina, and Ktunaxa First Nations Distance: 29.3 km Newman Peak 2517 m Avion Ridge 2448 m Total Time: 7h 25m Safety and […]

Drywood to Loaf Mountain Traverse

June 18, 2022. A scenic long-distance ridge walk in the Castle Wilderness. Region: Castle Wilderness. Traditional territory of the Blackfoot, Tsuu T’ina, and Ktunaxa First Nations Distance: 30.4 km loop Total Ascent: 2127 m – there is substantial and repeated loss and regain of altitude along the route Elevation of Objective: 2634 m (the summit […]

Mount Coulthard

August 29, 2021. A scramble in the Crowsnest Pass featuring 3 summits, an outlier, and the debris from a plane crash. Region: Crowsnest Pass. Traditional territory of the Tsuu T’ina, Ktunaxa, and Blackfoot First Nations Distance: 22.9 km round-trip Total Ascent: 1493 m Elevation of Objective: 2640 m Total Time: 6h 50m Safety and Disclaimer […]

Rainy Ridge and Middlepass Lakes

June 18, 2021. A bike and hike trip to a true hidden gem of the Southern Rockies. Region: Castle Wilderness. Traditional territory of the Ktunaxa, Tsuu T’ina, and Blackfoot First Nations Distance: 23.8 km round-trip Total Ascent: 1300 m Elevation of Objective: 2463 m Total Time: 6h 46m Safety and Disclaimer I decided to visit […]

Mount Gladstone (via North Castle)

June 11, 2021. A bike & scramble featuring some great views but also some prolonged hiking off-trail in dense forest. Region: Castle Wilderness. Traditional territory of the Tssu T’ina, Ktunaxa, and Blackfoot First Nations Distance: 20.5 km round-trip Total Ascent: 1500 m (the route involves some gain/loss/gain of altitude) Elevation of Objective: 2453 m Time: […]

North Drywood Falls

May 29, 2021. An easy and popular family hike to an attractive waterfall. Region: Castle Wilderness. Traditional Territory of the Tsuu T’ina, Ktunaxa, and Blackfoot First Nations Distance: 4.1 km one-way Total Ascent: 150 m Elevation of Objective: 1690 m Time: 1h 15m one-way Safety and Disclaimer Often just referred to as Drywood Falls, this […]

Spread Eagle Mountain (Mount Roche)

August 23, 2020. A scramble to the summit of Spread Eagle Mountain and its impressive western outlier in the Castle Wilderness. Region: Castle Wilderness. Traditional territory of the Blackfoot, Tsuu T’ina, and Ktunaxa First Nations Distance: 17.8 km round trip (I estimate that omitting the outlier summit would shave about 2-3 km off that distance) […]

Victoria Peak

August 4, 2020. A scramble to the summit of a distinctive mountain in the Castle Wilderness. UPDATE September 3, 2021: This post has been updated to reflect changes to access. Old access instructions have been deleted but time and distance information below still reflects the old route. The new route can’t be bike easily. Region: Castle […]

Drywood Mountain

July 10, 2020. A full-day excursion involving biking, scrambling and ridge walking in the Castle Wilderness. Region: Castle Wilderness. Traditional territory of the Ktunaxa, Tsuu T’ina, and Blackfoot First Nations Distance: 25 km round-trip Total ascent: 1417 m Elevation of objective: 2473 m (official summit), 2485 m (ridge high-point) Total Time: 7h 33m Safety and Disclaimer Climbing Pincher Ridge last […]

Pincher Ridge

July 3, 2020. An easy scramble (with some unpleasant bushwhacking) to the summit of Pincher Ridge in the Castle Wilderness, followed by a quick visit to Drywood Falls. Region: Castle Wilderness. Traditional territory of the Ktunaxa, Tsuu T’ina, and Blackfoot First Nations Distance: 14.7 km round-trip Total ascent: 1082 m Elevation of objective: 2426 m Total Time: 4h 49m Safety […]