Window Mountain Lake

May 27, 2018. A moderately challenging bike-and-hike to a backcountry mountain lake in the Crowsnest Pass. Window Mountain Lake is mentioned by Joey Ambrosi in the Southern Rockies Trail Guide as one of the best hiking destinations in the Crowsnest Pass area. I’ve previously researched the hike, and did a bit of a reconnaissance of the […]

Prairie Bluff / Corner Mountain

May 21, 2018. A solo trip, following an easy scrambling route up a peak in the Castle Wilderness. I have been wanting to climb Prairie Bluff (also known as Corner Mountain) for a long time. It’s a low peak in the front ranges of the Castle Wilderness area near Pincher Creek, Alberta. There are several […]

Carbondale Hill

March 17, 2018. A moderately challenging snowshoe trip up to a fire lookout in the Castle Wilderness. Carbondale Hill is the site of a fire lookout and is featured as a hiking or snowshoeing trip on a number of blogs, as well as Nugara’s book. I had an unscheduled day and the weather was friendly: […]

Island Ridge

March 11, 2018. A snowshoe trip up a low mountain in the Crowsnest Pass with moderate elevation gain, in challenging snow conditions. This is a trip I’ve been sizing up since the beginning of the winter. It’s described by Dave McMurray on his amazing Peaks and Streams blog, which drew the attention of Andrew Nugara, […]

Tunnel Mountain and Stoney Squaw Mountain

February 10 & 11, 2018. Two easy snowshoe trips to the tops of a pair of low mountains in Banff. I had a conference in Banff over the past weekend, so part of my preparation was making some plans to snowshoe. There was a winter storm which rolled through the province just before the start […]

Wedge Mountain Trail

January 26, 2018. A solo, easy snowshoe trip to the shoulder of a low mountain in the Crowsnest Pass, with a challenging extension up towards the summit. Wedge Mountain, the so-called “poor man’s Crowsnest Mountain”, was my objective on my latest outing in the Crowsnest Pass. It has a wide, easy trail that begins by […]

Grass Pass to “Sheep Summit”

January 5, 2018. A solo, moderately challenging snowshoe trip to an unnamed high point in the Highwood region of Kananaskis Country. Southern Alberta is about one week out from its most recent major snow dump. I spent most of December 30, 2017 shovelling snow off various driveways. Actually, I can’t ever remember spending so much […]

Mount Albert Loop

December 27, 2017. A solo, moderately challenging snowshoe trip to a peak in Beauvais Lake Provincial Park. The remnants of Southern Alberta’s first snowfall of the winter season vanished in Chinook winds in early December this year. At the beginning of last week, temperatures were well above freezing and I was afraid I’d have a […]

Piney Point Loop

November 17, 2017. A solo, moderately challenging snowshoe trip in Beauvais Lake Provincial Park, Alberta. It’s been a long time since I got to do any hiking. The latter part of the summer saw our nearby mountains damaged by an significant forest fire. Waterton Lakes National Park instituted backcountry bans as the fire rolled in, […]

Hampstead Heath Circuit

August 12, 2017. A stroll through an ancient London Park, tagging the “summit” of the County of London. It’s vacation time, and I have the great good fortune to be spending 2 weeks in the UK. Getting ready for this trip, I hadn’t really thought about exactly what I wanted to do. I’ve been to […]