Canada: Summer 2007

On 27th June 2007 4 members of UBES, Anna, Joe, Caroline and Mark, started our adventure in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. We flew out to Calgary airport and then drove into Banff National Park and to Tunnel Mountain Campsite, where we were warmly welcomed by the mosquitoes.

Next day we explored our new surroundings, visiting the small but quaint town of Banff and walking back to our campsite along a river where we saw beautiful snowy mountain views, several wild elk and a wild deer.

During our first week in Banff we did some single pitch sport climbing at a couple of the local crags – Wasootch Slabs and Grassi Lakes. We also did a 4 day/3 night hike through the backcountry, carrying all of our supplies, obviously just the essentials – sleeping bags, tents, first aid kit, pineapple…

We scrambled up Copper Mountain on the 2nd day of this backcountry trip, it was 2795m high. Near the bottom where we were jungle bashing, we suddenly saw 3 wild grizzly bears right up close! It was a mother and 2 cubs. They followed us for a little while and we backed away, Bear Beware spray at the ready, but not til we’d got some photos of course. The rest of the scramble was great – up a gully, over plenty of rock and a few snow patches – til we got to the summit where the views were fantastic. That night we were treated to unexpected but familiar grizzly visitors which turned up just 10m away from us at our campsite whilst cooking dinner. We didn’t sleep overly well that night! The rest of the trip was less eventful but just as good, we visited some lakes, still partially frozen, and met a couple of crazy but fun guys from Florida, Nick and Andy.

At the start of our second week we drove up to Lake Louise ‘village’ which was actually just a small complex of about 3 shops, a post office, a café, and a restaurant. We spent a few days in the area, and did some more climbing, this time at the back of Lake Louise itself and canoeing on Moraine Lake. We did another backcountry trip, this time 3 days, no bears, and scrambling up to 3086m (Mount Richardson).

Half way through the trip we drove up the famous Icefields Parkway where we got amazing views of the mountains and glaciers. We went to the foot of the Athabascas Glacier and played in the snow.

In Jasper National Park we did some more scrambling, this time up Mount Wilcox, climbing at the Rock Gardens, Morro Bluffs, had a campfire and plenty of wine into the early hours, explored Jasper town, did some horse riding, and another backcountry trip along the Skyline Trail. By this time we were covered in mosquito bites, itching like mad and Anna covered in pink spots of Calamine comparable to our recent spots and stripes social! Back in the ‘frontcountry’ we got the Skyline Tram up to the summit of Wilcox Mountain from which we could just about make out the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, Mount Robson, which was nearly 80km away.

We drove back to Banff National Park, stopping on the way at the Athabascas Falls and Sunwupta Falls, very touristy but nevertheless quite striking! We spent our last 4 days together in Banff rock climbing, at the Rock Gardens, Grassi Lakes, Cougar Canyon and Yamnuska. Most notable was Yamnuska, where we did a fantastic 300m route up Grillmair’s Chimney – 8 pitches in total, the last one almost completely enclosed by the rock, caving style! We spent our last couple of days walking through Mystic Valley, which was mostly walking through trails in the woodland. On our finally day we did plenty of gear shopping at the amazing MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) before flying back to London. Great trip!