Hooray! More Pictures!
Zomg! It has been a while. So let's see...
With Josh, the old palacemate moved out, i've somewhat moved in. I'm still being very slow about the moving process because I still intend to switch to a new, better palace (bigger harem space) at some point in the near future. But it's nice having a few more comforts around and available.
One of my friends from work has moved into the palace next door by himself. He and I have been hanging out and enjoying our solo pads quite a bit lately. In fact, today we took a hike. A long hike. It was only 13km long but it was a vertical kilometer up over the course of the first 5k. Down was a little less grueling. Last night, he and I were drinking beer and perusing this nifty trail guide I found on sale and we found this hike which was described thusly by the authors:
"Caution: do not underestimate the physical exertion that this hike requires. The trail is also hazardous when the ground is frozen or there is snow and ice on sections of the route"
Naturally, with a disclaimer like that, we decided to do it. So with that in mind, we went to Cory Pass, up 8000feet. As you might imagine, it was cold, snowy, windy, and utterly exhausting. It was also very worth it.
Where we started. Can't see any mountains, to speak of. Nice forest though. The first KM of the trail climbed that hill in the background. We couldn't even see our destination until we crested the first bit.
Mount Norquay from the "back" side, at least as far as my reference points go. Ski slopes on the far side
Pretty...
Looking back towards Banff. The "cloud" was actually caused by a small forest fire, it's not a real cloud. We aren't that high yet. The small hill in between the trees in the bottom left is Tunnel Mountain, the easy, 25 minute hike right from downtown Banff. I scoff at that hike now. Mount Rundle, the big one on the right, is the one that always seems to catch clouds and send them streaming over like a sky river. I hope to climb that mountain (from the sloped side) sometime next summer.
Our first view of Mt. Edith. I was mostly dead by this point. About 1/3 of the way up
First view of our destination, the cory pass. It's up there in the upper right. Keep looking.
Another gratuitous mountain view with the Bow River Valley in the foreground.
This was our path. I promise, it's there. It was pretty awful at this point: muddy, thin, and wet. The avalanche slope went down at least 1,000ft on the left, we were almost at the top. On the right is a sheer rock face that we followed the entire way. It really makes you feel small. Also, that little wedge in the upper middle is the pass.
The side of Mount Cory. Getting cold. It always strikes me as funny when you look at mountain tops by facing ways other than straight up.
We reached the pass and were greeted with this...formidable...landscape. It's like another planet.
Down the back side of the pass. Mt Louis on the left.
Gargoyle Valley (just past the pass). What you can't see is that this valley is completely dominated by 3 sheer rock, mountain faces. Really incredible. Also note the path that you can see by small trail of snow.
One of those rock faces - Mt Cory in this case
I'm standing on one of the rock formations (gargolyes) that gives Gargoyle Valley its name. It's about 20feet up on the front side. Maybe 5 in back.
Rowan is from Sydney, Australia and even this much snow was exciting for him. The whole time we were up there he couldn't stop playing in it and then complaining about how cold his hands/feet were.
Looking out of Gargoyle Valley.
Looking back into the valley while I was navigating. Thanks for your sunglasses Bob - they work great! I really like this picture.
Mt Louis from the other side. We've come down quite a ways already. We actually each lost our footing at about the same time on the avalanche slope and slid for about 50-75ft at one point. Pretty crazy.
Gratuitous. I never get tired of looking at views like this and I hope you don't either because there are many more coming.
The last 3km of the hike was a relatively flat walk through this incredibly moss covered, "old forest." It was a nice end.
As you can see, the weather could not have been any better; we certainly lucked out. It would not have been nice to be up there with the weather turning sour. The entire hike took 6 hours and, let me tell you, victory beers have never tasted so good.
One last thought: in Gargoyle Valley it was completely, 100% quiet. So much so that a small rock slide caused probably by some kind of squirrel or chipmunk on the very far side caused me to jump. Maybe 4 or 5 small stones fell down the hill.
Tomorrow or Tuesday I'll have a few more pics from this hike, as well as pictures from Bow Falls.
With Josh, the old palacemate moved out, i've somewhat moved in. I'm still being very slow about the moving process because I still intend to switch to a new, better palace (bigger harem space) at some point in the near future. But it's nice having a few more comforts around and available.
One of my friends from work has moved into the palace next door by himself. He and I have been hanging out and enjoying our solo pads quite a bit lately. In fact, today we took a hike. A long hike. It was only 13km long but it was a vertical kilometer up over the course of the first 5k. Down was a little less grueling. Last night, he and I were drinking beer and perusing this nifty trail guide I found on sale and we found this hike which was described thusly by the authors:
"Caution: do not underestimate the physical exertion that this hike requires. The trail is also hazardous when the ground is frozen or there is snow and ice on sections of the route"
Naturally, with a disclaimer like that, we decided to do it. So with that in mind, we went to Cory Pass, up 8000feet. As you might imagine, it was cold, snowy, windy, and utterly exhausting. It was also very worth it.
Where we started. Can't see any mountains, to speak of. Nice forest though. The first KM of the trail climbed that hill in the background. We couldn't even see our destination until we crested the first bit.
Mount Norquay from the "back" side, at least as far as my reference points go. Ski slopes on the far side
Pretty...
Looking back towards Banff. The "cloud" was actually caused by a small forest fire, it's not a real cloud. We aren't that high yet. The small hill in between the trees in the bottom left is Tunnel Mountain, the easy, 25 minute hike right from downtown Banff. I scoff at that hike now. Mount Rundle, the big one on the right, is the one that always seems to catch clouds and send them streaming over like a sky river. I hope to climb that mountain (from the sloped side) sometime next summer.
Our first view of Mt. Edith. I was mostly dead by this point. About 1/3 of the way up
First view of our destination, the cory pass. It's up there in the upper right. Keep looking.
Another gratuitous mountain view with the Bow River Valley in the foreground.
This was our path. I promise, it's there. It was pretty awful at this point: muddy, thin, and wet. The avalanche slope went down at least 1,000ft on the left, we were almost at the top. On the right is a sheer rock face that we followed the entire way. It really makes you feel small. Also, that little wedge in the upper middle is the pass.
The side of Mount Cory. Getting cold. It always strikes me as funny when you look at mountain tops by facing ways other than straight up.
We reached the pass and were greeted with this...formidable...landscape. It's like another planet.
Down the back side of the pass. Mt Louis on the left.
Gargoyle Valley (just past the pass). What you can't see is that this valley is completely dominated by 3 sheer rock, mountain faces. Really incredible. Also note the path that you can see by small trail of snow.
One of those rock faces - Mt Cory in this case
I'm standing on one of the rock formations (gargolyes) that gives Gargoyle Valley its name. It's about 20feet up on the front side. Maybe 5 in back.
Rowan is from Sydney, Australia and even this much snow was exciting for him. The whole time we were up there he couldn't stop playing in it and then complaining about how cold his hands/feet were.
Looking out of Gargoyle Valley.
Looking back into the valley while I was navigating. Thanks for your sunglasses Bob - they work great! I really like this picture.
Mt Louis from the other side. We've come down quite a ways already. We actually each lost our footing at about the same time on the avalanche slope and slid for about 50-75ft at one point. Pretty crazy.
Gratuitous. I never get tired of looking at views like this and I hope you don't either because there are many more coming.
The last 3km of the hike was a relatively flat walk through this incredibly moss covered, "old forest." It was a nice end.
As you can see, the weather could not have been any better; we certainly lucked out. It would not have been nice to be up there with the weather turning sour. The entire hike took 6 hours and, let me tell you, victory beers have never tasted so good.
One last thought: in Gargoyle Valley it was completely, 100% quiet. So much so that a small rock slide caused probably by some kind of squirrel or chipmunk on the very far side caused me to jump. Maybe 4 or 5 small stones fell down the hill.
Tomorrow or Tuesday I'll have a few more pics from this hike, as well as pictures from Bow Falls.
posted by Anonymous at 10:50 PM
5 Comments:
Absolutely awesome! Six hours hiking, you must be in some terrific shape. Put us all to shame. The pictures are wonderful, I can't believe the landscape. Keep them coming.
mmmm sheer rock faces. i'm looking forward to the falls pics. and seeing you TOMORROW!
who are you "anonymous"? Geesh..... :p
hey hey! isn't it amazing how far you can actually push yourself? I've had a few of those hiking experiences here where less than halfway through I was wondering how the heck I was gonna make it. Good times. Two main differences between mountains here and mountains there
a) canadian mountains are higher and colder
b) korean mountains inevitably have a river of people climbing them. Your pictures, which included exactly no people other, than you, were refreshing!
Anonymous is mom cause I don't know how to set up an account to put a name to. hee hee
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