Route finding and bushwhacking were both much easier than we had anticipated. The trail is decent and if you follow the yellow flagging it’s hard to get lost. We missed one turn early on but it was pretty evident so we turned back to get the right way. Look for a small piece of bright green cord at that junction and hang right
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Worth every vertical step. Nothing technical but spectacular views. Loved the ridge walk.
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Fantastic hike in the fall. Not terribly crowded. About 3 hours from the trailhead to the end of the Rawson Lake trail. Gorgeous views! About 1,000 feet of elevation.
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Great hike. Quite steep on the way up but definitely doable. The way down is very steep and slippery, I recommend using poles. Route can be a bit tricky to find so make sure to use some sort of map or gps
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Winter hike so the spikes and the hiking poles were absolutely required.
Same for gaiters!
Some places the snow was knee deep at most so snowshoes we’re not necessary.
The trail was easy to follow and the views were incredible.
Highly recommended winter hike!
★
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Started at 4a, done at 12 (stopped at ridge for breakfast/coffee and lots of pics!!). Insanely busy on the way back- parking lot was almost full. Definitely do not recommend doing this hike during the day. Sunrise was the way to go!
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Great way to connect 5 peaks in under 15km. Straight forward other than the scree slog up Tyrwhitt, and the ascent of Mt. Pocaterra. The descent down the east face was also a little tricky. Follow the map trail to avoid cliffs.
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Great snow still for spring. 175 cm depth on se aspect, stable pack
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First day solo touring. Dug full profile at 2140 m on Ne shoulder in N Bp
18 people on trail throughout the day. Snow conditions good. Stormy Wx with -8° temps. S1
Powder on df. Lots of ski tracks in treed areas. Cross loading. 50km gusts. Mod winds OVC.
HS 120
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Excellent ski tour leading up a valley, across a frozen marsh, up a steep trail to an upper valley, and on up to the pass. Wonderful views.
The same trail can be hiked in the summer.
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Great trail! The rocks can be ankle breakers at times though so poles are an asset. Flies are pretty bad at both campgrounds especially at the hottest part of the day. Smoke wasn’t too bad! It would settle in the evening but be gone by morning. Beautiful area
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A great snowshoe trip with a nice payoff at the end. The out and back route starts with a descent to Smith-Dorrien Creek which was nicely frozen over. After crossing the creek it was a steady grind up for about 200 meters on a fairly well-worn snowshoe track - softer in spots where it was steeper created some slip-back conditions but minor. We had a blustery day up top but the snow conditions allowed a trip to a great view point overlooking Kananaskis Lakes.
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stars
Sept 20, 2020
Larches perfectly yellow at this time. Trail was 100% dry.
The south side parking area gets insanely busy - need to get there before 0800 during larch season. The north side is significantly less busy. We saw no one until the halfway point when we started at 0900 from the north side. The south side was a line up.
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stars
Sept 29, 2020
Gorgeous hike! This hike takes you past the other side of Mt. Smutwood and offers beautiful views for relatively low effort. There are campgrounds past Burstall pass (US18 and US15 in Banff National Park) if you want to stay the night for a backpacking trip. Trail was completely dry at this time, some snow on tops of the mountains made for beautiful photos. Larches perfectly yellow this day.
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One of my top hikes ever!!! Extremely challenging in the last kilometre up. Steep, but so worth it!
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Started at 8:10am, back to parking lot at 4:30pm. First 0.3 km steep incline. After that pretty much flat and some steady incline (totally doable). There are about 3 water creeks that you have to pass, however no water is really needed. One has a log set in place. I didn’t get up to the last Piper Pass part because it’s too steep, and probably very slippery on the way down because it’s just loose rocks!!! Too dangerous.
Overall it’s an okay hike, easy-moderate all the way except for the very last steep part up to the mountain! It also has Elbow lake view. It’s a bit too long and bit boring. Pretty tired after this.
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Great ridge walk from Tyrwhitt to Pocaterra, We did a small down climb right before the summit of Pocaterra but beside that stayed on the ridge the whole way. When you come down off the ridge on the Pocaterra side stay left, there are a couple rock bands to navigate down.
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Best hike in the area for views. Be sure to walk over the pass to the viewpoints on the ridge looking west.
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Great hike .. relatively easy with only the first ascent to the lake a bit steep.. after that the trails are tame ... After the falls I was heading for Rae Lake .. the trail was hard to find and I had to backtrack a bit using gps ... even then the trail led off the gps map marked trail .. About 1k from Rae Lake I encountered fresh bear scat .. so I aborted as I was solo and hadn’t seen a soul for the last 5k...
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Initial climb will shock you with a steep climb. After which is gradual and a good hike. Only got to see the falls and didn’t get to tombstone which is another third of the hike. Maybe next time.
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Beautiful views, although the trail is a grind. Lots of loose rock and can be easy to lose the trail. Up and down took us 5 hours
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Still quite muddy with some snow patches remaining. The lookout tower did not appear to be staffed. We spotted some alpine poppies in bloom.
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Alpine touring with David. For my current level of training, it was a tough day for me. Good turns in good snow for Kananaskis.
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A nice easy snow shoe route starting from William Watson Lodge.It manages to avoid all ski trails to keep the skiers happy!
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Trails are in great condition and the alpine meadows are LOADED with wildflowers. The trail across the alluvial flats may have changed as there are numerous small creek crossing where there weren't other years (easy to cross though). Waterproof hiking boots or poles to help with balance on the logs may be beneficial for creek crossings.
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stars
Hikes to rae glacier June 17, 2019. Trail is completely dry. Super easy trail to elbow lake then some easy route finding up to the nearly melted glacier. Beautiful views!
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Did this hike on April 23, 2019. Still snow on top and some icy sections where we were glad to have spikes/poles. Absolutely gorgeous hike, one of my favorites!! Check for bear closures before heading out! Hike starts on the north side of the bridge and starts going up right away. Short and steep until you get to the ridge then it's a flat wide ridge walk to the top!
★
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