mountain

Sulphur Skyline (Jasper)

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  • Length – 7.7 Km
  • Elevation – 649m
  • Difficulty – Moderate

We ended up hiking Sulphur Skyline Trail on the first day of summer. Of course, this means nothing in Alberta and mother nature decided we needed a good snow fall to start the summer out. Undeterred, we drove 4 hours from Edmonton to get to the trail.

The trail head starts past the Miette Hotsprings. The parking lot is large but even on a weekday after a large snowfall it was half full. There was a black bear walking around the parking lot being stalked by tourists. Please please don’t do this. This is how you sentence wild animals to death. People were getting within 10 feet of the bear and this is a recipe for disaster. I’ve said this before but i’ll say it again, regardless of what kind of animals you encounter on your hikes, please leave a very healthy and respectful distance between you and them.

Having said that, the beginning of the trail is paved and has a few small wooden bridges to cross over creeks that one could easily step over. The first 1/3rd of the hike is a relatively easy assent.

You will come to an intersection, left goes to Mystery lake. Originally we had planned to hike to Mystery Lake and then Sulphur Skyline. We made it about 200 meters in to the Mystery Lake portion before turning around as the snow was up to our hips.

Right is Sulphur Skyline trail and this is where the switch backs begin. They aren’t particularly daunting and offer some terrific views. This is also where the crowds really begin to thin out.

It won’t let me flip this image….

Above the treeline the real fun began. The switch backs stop and instead you just hike straight up to the top. This is the most difficult and exhausting part of the trail (even more so because the snow was above our knees).

I’d love to say that this trail was worth all the trouble but unfortunately the mountain was completely blanketed by fog. Having looked at pictures of this trail in the past I know that there should be an endless sea of mountains behind me. We couldn’t even find an outline. Such is the way with mountains though. You have to be a sucker for punishment as you aren’t always rewarded with fantastic views and instagram worthy pictures. We will be back for redemption and when we are I will make a new post.

We did manage to luck out on one thing though, at the very top we came across some wild flowers poking through the snow. It’s the little things. So to recap. Busy parking lot with chance of bear sightings (bring bear spray). The first 2/3rds are heavily tree’d and in the summer months you can expect bugs (mosquitoes, ticks, deer flies) so bring bug spray!! This is a busy and easy mountain hike with no real technical spots. I’d say its a very good beginner mountain hike. Happy Hiking!

East End of Rundle (EEOR)

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  • Length – 5.6 Km
  • Elevation – 883m
  • Difficulty – Hard

Yesterday my son and I decided to hike up EEOR. Rundle is actually a huge mountain that stretches from Canmore all the way to Banff. EEOR is the east end (obviously) and is the section closest to Canmore. Conditions were perfect, it was 15 degrees and a cloudy day but all the clouds were above the peak so that didn’t bother us. Trail was dry and with the exception of a small portion near the top there is no snow left on the trail.

The trailhead is located on the Three sisters parkway. Follow the parkway past the Grassi lake turn, the pavement will turn to gravel. The road isn’t in the best shape and it can be busy with not only cars but animals, cyclists and pedestrians. You will see a series of pullouts at Whitemans Pond. Pass the first pullout (with the outhouse) and park in either one of the other 2 further down the road. If you reach Ha Ling then you’ve gone to far. The trail head for EEOR is not marked. From the parking lot cross the road and you should see a small path, that is your trailhead.

Before I get in to the hike itself, lets talk about difficulty. As far as mountain Hikes go, this isn’t a difficult one. I’d rate the hiking portion as moderate, however there is quite a bit of scrambling on this trail which ups the overall difficulty to hard. I rate hikes based off my fitness abilities so please keep in mind, if you are just getting in to hiking or you are not as fit as you’d like to be you may find this hike more difficult.

If you are unaware, scrambling is when you have to use your hands (sometimes knees and butts) to navigate the terrain. EEOR is a fantastic beginner scramble. I say this because well there is quite a few sections where you will possibly be using your hands, there is very little exposure and therefore the risk of serious injury or death is low.

Lets get to the hike. The beginning of the trail is through the trees and the path is well worn and easy to follow. You will be gaining a significant amount of elevation the whole way.

The trail continues up and once you are through the thickest part of the trees you are rewarded with one of my favourite views. From here the fun and confusion begins. The trail becomes less apparent as people have created their own roots to scramble up different sections of rocks. All in all though the paths usually converge back onto the main trail.

Eventually the trail goes right to the edge of the mountain. This is the most exposed you will be on EEOR and this is where I chose to attach my son to me. He would remain attached until we got passed this point again on the way down.

From there the scrambling becomes a little more difficult but still very manageable. This was my sons favourite part. He had a blast picking routes and monkeying his way up.

Once we passed the trees we were rewarded with fresh, cold water flowing in small streams from the ground. Here the trail splits into 2, if you stay to the left you will get to the peak. The right offers up some really sick views as well. We stayed left and then crossed the scree to the other trail on our way down. The trails makes it way through some scree and then through snow, very very soft snow. I sank to my knees more then once. I would assume by June the snow will be completely melted.

Essentially once you are passed the tree line you will be hiking on scree. Scree is basically just a bunch of loose rock. This can be tricky and a little scary as the ground can slip out from under you. This is especially dangerous if people are hiking below you as rocks being kicked out by hikers can and do kill people.

There is one more small section of scrambling to get to the top. When you pull yourself up over that final ledge the view is mind blowing. Make sure you look for the little ammo box, it contains pens and papers and you can sign your name or leave a little message for others.

After the summit we headed back down the slope a little ways and then crossed the scree to meet up with the other path. Remember those sick views I was talking about? It takes you to a ledge and you get a really good view of Three Sisters. If you aren’t quite ready to go all the way to the summit, I highly suggest sticking to the right when the path forks, you will skip the worst of the scrambling, most of the scree and you will still be rewarded.

To recap, this is a fantastic beginner scramble. You don’t have to make it all the way to the top to be rewarded and there is very little exposure and risk of death. The hike itself is moderate to hard depending on your fitness level. I do not recommend bringing children on this hike unless they are experienced hikers and you are confident in both your abilities as well as theirs. It took us around 4 hours to do with lots of stops for pictures and 15 minutes on the summit. Happy Hiking!