Rockwall Trail and Central Rockies Classics

We flew back to YYC early Friday morning for our annual Rockies hiking trip with a few friends. We were missing out on a few for various reasons so there was a lot of scheming on how to get them back on board for next year. The smoke upon arrival was of the eye burning sort, and had me quite panicked about our trip. I left the good (read heavy) camera at home already knowing the photos would be subpar. Thankfully smoke had cleared somewhat by the time we reached Canmore . We were off to floe lake trailhead for a car drop then to the start of the Rockwall trail at Paint Pots. The hike in was as described, a few elevation sections along the creek, but mostly a solid warm up day and very doable with an early arrival at YYC. At the end there is a nice campground with views out towards Helmet Falls. Here I realized I had forgotten my Japanese whiskey in the car, but at least I remembered my keys.

Following morning we were a bit slow out of the gate, there is a reasonably gentle asecent with broken views of the waterfall, then there are a few plateaus with really gorgeous meadows along the rockwall. We took a break for lunch at the next campsite, then headed up to Numa Creek. The last hour after a decent and some stream crossings is through some low growth scrubs which had me doing a fair bit of bear calls. The campsite for the night is nicely set at the junction of two streams. There are ample bear lockers and benches for eating with sites across the stream. We had originally planned on stopping at the very scenic Floe lake for the last night, but instead aimed to push through to the end as we heard from several groups going the other direction that the bugs were quite bad. The next day is a long, steady ascent over Numa pass. Great views of the rockwall and down to floe lake as you cross the pass and descend. It is all downhill from here. We had lunch at Floe lake, which was beautiful but were all were in agreement that it was too buggy to camp there, so with plenty of time we hiked out down to the car through the remnants of the previous forest fire. Ball mountain looming in the distance with its memories of last year.

It certainly felt like a world class hike to us. Epic views walking along the meadows of the rockwall, well maintained trail and campsites. It is a tough several days, but should be doable for most hikers, no section was backbreakingly steep, a couple of stream crossings (one on a log) but otherwise very little technical aspects. Highly recommended and worth the challenge of trying to reserve it. We were pleased with decision of going north to south, but I would probably just take whatever you can get.

We said goodbye to friends and prepped for the next part of this Rockies adventure. Coming out a day early gave us an extra night of R&R in a real bed and non freeze dried food. We found a good last minute rate at RimRock and their restaurant Eden which I had read good things about so we set that up. An obligatory long shower was followed by a very nice tasting menu with very friendly hosts, obviously anything would have tasted good at the time but we both felt the cooking was to a high standard and equals if not surpasses Post hotel for best meal in the Rockies. Quite the transition. We stocked up on more food and supplies in Banff the following morning and then finalized plans with our mountain guide. Trying to juggle the conditions and the smoke is a bit tricky, but we settled on a day at the crag at Lake Louise (‘rest’ day), a day on Eisenhour tour, and an overnight up to Victoria. Icefields parkway, rogers pass and bugaboos will have to wait for another year.

The crag at the back of lake louise was really fun. Had to keep reminding ourselves to look back at the lake at the top of the pitch. We’d seen climbers here several times so it was fun to give it a go. Very different rock from what we are used to in Squamish.

Afterwards we decided to forgo the camping for a while, and found a basic hotel in Banff (elk ave); sometimes all you need is a bed and a shower and both were quite adequate here. We had a 4am wake up to give Eisenhour tour a go. We chose a few extra hours of sleep instead of goal of summitting, as we needed to stay strong energy wise for rest of trip. There is a steady approach along a nice trail, followed by some fun 4th class stuff until you reach the goat plateau. From here we did a handful more low 5th class pitches to get up to Dragons back which was our objective for the day. We traded epic Bow valley views for a smokey abyss but the effect was pretty cool and the alpine scenary of Eisenhour itself was really fun. Plus this wasy we didn’t have to feel bad about not sumitting. There were actually 3 other groups up here despite it being midweek on a smoke filled day, some friendly folks. A fun few raps down and some downclimbing got us back to our hotel around 6pm. Time to pack up and get set for Victoria. We managed to check out Bison, near our hotel which was quite good as well for dinner.

Part of the appeal of the south summit of Mt Victoria was the chance to bypass the lottery to get into the Lake O’hara zone, our guide booked a bivy permit for Abbott pass and off we went on the bus. Was our first time, and despite some more smoke was a gorgeous approach into the basin of Abbott pass. Will definitely have to get into Lake O’hara lodge someday.

The fun turned into Type 3 as we ascending the narly scree to the pass. It seems to be less travelled than normal years due to hut being closed perhaps so it was one step forwards, two backwards for 500m. We finally made it up to abbott pass and setup tent a few hours later than expected, with some more guarded ambitions for the next morning. We slept in again till 4, and aimed for the sickle summit, on the south ridge. We reached a ledge on the ridge 100m shy of this, but with great views in both directions and decided it would be a good spot to turn around with plenty left in the tank for the scree. We learned to ski on rocks that day, a few tumbles but somehow our knees and ankles made it out unscathed. Down below was another great day of hiking in Lake O’Hara until we reached the bus stop (bring some cash so you can buy an ice cream sandwich). Threw on my crocs and drove into Calgary. The bell staff at Le Germain were super helpful in getting our dirty gear up to our room (great city hotel it seems) , a quick repacking job followed by a visit to Shokunin. The meal was excellent although the waitress severely underestimated our appetite so a few more rounds were in order. Trying not to pass out after a few glasses of sake we got back to our hotel for some sleep (aside from our partying neighbours down the hall) and headed back home on the 8am flight (still do not know why I didn’t book the noon flight)

It was a jam packed week in the Rockies. I was really glad we had the rest of the long weekend off to recuperate. Our guide was great, hope to get out with her again next year. Hopefully I can handle a bigger pack than her by then!