Mount Siyeh

July 27, 2024. Scrambling to the summit of a “10,000-er” along Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road. The last outing of my late July trip to Glacier was to bag the peak of Mount Siyeh. This mountain sits alongside the Siyeh Bend section of Going-to-the-Sun Road. It is apparently the easiest 10,000-er to climb in the […]

Mount Alderson

July 9, 2024. Straightforward but scenic scrambling to a summit overlooking the Carthew-Alderson trail. Mount Alderson is one of the Waterton scrambles described in Kane’s Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies. The ascent route is very obvious when hiking on the Carthew-Alderson trail from Cameron Lake down to the Waterton townsite. From the hiking trail the […]

Angels Landing

May 27, 2024. Hiking the most spectacular trail in Utah’s Zion National Park. After 3 days of hiking in Grand Canyon, Bhaskar and I departed Arizona and drove north to Utah. On a very hot Memorial Day afternoon we arrived in a predictably crowded Zion National Park. Bhaskar had managed to win a lottery for […]

Mount Haig and Gravenstafel Ridge

August 5, 2023. A return to Mount Haig to deal with the “unfinished business” of Gravenstafel Ridge. Almost exactly 4 years ago I climbed Mount Haig. That day I decided to return to my car by descending down to Haig Lake and following the trails out. For whatever reason I didn’t feel like ascending adjacent […]

Syncline Mountain

July 29, 2023. Tagging 2 of the 3 peaks of a distinctive mountain in the Castle Wilderness. Nugara describes the route for Syncline Mountain in More Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies 3rd edition. The mountain has 3 summits, and the eastern-most is the true summit. It’s also the lowest of the three. I’m not sure […]

Ninastako (Chief Mountain)

June 17, 2023. An ascent of the most iconic peak in Blackfoot Territory. The flat mountaintop could be seen from many locations, and it became one of the main landmarks Jerry Potts used to confirm his bearings as he travelled the prairie. He, like many Blood warriors, had climbed the slopes and rested his head […]

Deadman Peak

June 7, 2023. Scrambling on a clear day to an impressive peak in the Crowsnest Pass Deadman Peak is an unofficial summit that’s described by Nugara in More Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies 3rd ed. Dave McMurray and So Nakagawa seem to have pioneered this trip in the scrambling blogosphere and their reports remain useful […]

Bertha Peak – “Gullies” route

June 3, 2023. Route finding and moderate scrambling to the top of Bertha Peak. Alan Kane’s Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies describes a route to the summit of Bertha Peak which involves scrambling up gullies on the east face beginning at a spot somewhere behind the backcountry campground. On previous visits to the lake I’ve […]

Forum Peak & Akamina Ridge

October 8, 2022. A scramble to a summit on the Alberta/B.C. boulder followed by an iconic Southern Rockies ridge walk. Akamina Ridge is one of the premier hikes the Southern Rockies. The usual route involves following a well-maintained trail starting in Waterton Lakes National Park which passes over Akamina Pass and enters British Columbia’s Akamina-Kinishena […]

Anderson Peak and Lost Mountain

August 6, 2022. Visiting a pair of summits near Waterton’s Red Rock Canyon. Region: Waterton Lakes National Park. Traditional territory of the Blackfoot, Tsuu T’ina and Ktunaxa First Nations Distance: 18.2 km round trip Total Ascent: 1325 m Elevation of Objective: 2692 m (Anderson Peak), 2513 m (Lost Mountain) Total Time: 7h 16m Safety and […]