After a Donald Maass workshop on Saturday (more on that later), I headed up to Lake Louise for a family holiday. The weather is amazing – hot, perfectly clear sky, and a really high avalanche risk as the spring melt begins.
This morning: snowshoeing at Bow Summit, on the glacier parkway, just past Bow Lake and Bow Glacier, the headwaters of the Bow River, I think.
I’d forgotten the great joy of spring skiing – being on snow in warm, warm air. We snowshoeed across a meadow and then into the trees. Later I rested, stretched out in the sun, on my jacket laid out across the snow, the mountains stark against the deep blue sky.
We’d been warned to get up there early, while the snow was still crusty. By 10:00 it was soft and getting harder to snowshoe across, so we drove past Field to Wapta Falls, ate and hiked in summer heat, and then stopped at Emerald Lake on the way back. We’ve now done a snapshot tour of Banff and Yoho National Parks.
Tomorrow: a quick trip into Kootenay National Park. Many Rocky Mountain trails (most?) are unsafe at the moment, because of the avalanche risk. It’s especially bad as spring started last Thursday, and the temperature is summer-warm, and the show is melting and sliding. Our next hike will be at Marble Canyon, with cleats for the ice, because it’s not at risk of avalanches, and the view is astounding.
Maureen
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