Pleasant weather, and company, made this an outstanding trip. The group met for coffee at 8:30 am on Friday Feb.18, and we were soon off to Lake Louise, and to the staging of the car shuttle for our journey on the Wapta. We got going on Bow Lake about noon and made our way to the Bow Hut for our first night’s stay.

Bow Hut is set below the destination for the next day, that being Mt. St. Nicholas, “the pointy one” that stands over the most popular entrance to the Wapta. Saturday morn broke with some cloudiness. As we ascended up the slope from the hut a breeze picked up and temperatures dropped considerably. Visibility had gone down but was still quite reasonable. We rounded the bend and went to the saddle between Mt. Olive and Mt. St. Nicholas. We began our ascent of St. Nicholas by proceeding on skis for a ways, we soon left our packs behind and hoped we could get back down before any enterprising ravens started forcefully examining them, as reports say they are want to do, Then after a ways further we left our skis behind and made our way on foot towards the summit. Visibility decreased the further we went and by the time we reached the summit it was socked in. The descent led us back in our same tracks and when we were making our way to near the saddle, we saw a lone traveler approaching us. This was Rambler Sim, out on the Wapta for a go at the next summit prospect on our schedule, that being Mt. Balfour. We now glided down the Vulture Glacier towards our next abode for the night; Balfour Hut. The visibility steadily improved and it was quite clear by the time we got there. Balfour hut is situated in a very open setting and affords some great views, to say the least.

The next morn it was as clear as a bell, and we skied up the high ramp towards the Balfour high col. Although we passed the leavings of an ice avalanche off of Mt. Balfour the main concern is for crevasses.

As one gains the col a tremendous panorama unfolds in nearly all directions.

Here those who would bid for Balfour’s summit would lighten their load by burying some of their belongings in a snow pit, in hopes of thwarting any ravens about. It was about 1:30 in the afternoon now. We all proceeded on skis up the first bit and saw the route up the mountain before us. Your scribe Stuart felt he could not make any good time on the “airier” parts of the way, and would end up running out of daylight. I decided to take up Arnold’s offer to anyone who would like to head back to the col and proceed with the rest of the day’s travel. I thank Arnold for the company, he has been to the top of Balfour before, but I think he would have liked to have headed for the summit on this day, his generosity to his fellow travelers prevailed though. As we neared the col, Sim skied up along side us. She had left from Balfour hut earlier than us, and had bagged Mt.Balfour solo! We chatted awhile and then she headed off for the long ski back to Bow Lake.

Arnold and I took our time skiing down to the Scott Duncan hut, but still had lots of time to get water and things ready for the others. The first to arrive at the hut were two gentlemen from Calgary who said that they had met our guys on Balfour, and said they were doing well. It was just getting dark when the last of the group made it to the hut. David, Christine, Alda, Margaret, and John had all reached the top of Mt. Balfour. Congratulations to all on this outstanding ascent, and of particular note here is Margaret. Margaret is one of the most remarkable people you could ever meet. She is incredibly bright, pleasant, and strong, among many other virtues. Oh yes, she happens to be 74 years "old". That eve we enjoyed a great main meal prepared by Arnold, and capped off with John’s famous homemade fruitcake. John even surprised us with a liter of port wine to complement the treat. After the usual uncountable cups of tea, we headed for the sleeping bags, and were serenaded to sleep by the winds of the icefields against the walls of the little hut.

The next morn we awoke to another beautiful day and began the final leg of our ski, to Wapta Lake, via the very beautiful Schiesser/Lomas route. Some exciting trail skiing had us reach the end of our journey by late afternoon.

We got the transportation ready and headed for Canmore, where we had supper at a restaurant the name of which begins with one of twenty six letters, I’m pretty sure. Many thanks to Dave for calling the trip, and for lending his very capable leadership to the experience. And thanks to Dave and all the other great people; Alda, Arnold, Christine, John, and Margaret, for their friendship. Looking forward to the next memorable trip!

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