We left the Fish creek trailhead just after 9:00 am for the trudge up to Temple lodge which I find a bit boring - but you do occasionally get views if you look back across the valley to Temple etc. All the way to Hidden lake there was not really any snow on the trail and much of the muddy sections were frozen. At Hidden lake we had to decide which route to take up to the Richardson ridge.
John, Bill and Arnold at Hidden lake looking at and discussing route to Richardson ridge
With the snow I wondered about taking the obvious bench and just heading up to the east end of the ridge but we decided to catch the ridge further west to enjoy the views a bit longer. There was probably 20-25 cms of snow mostly and we took turns breaking trail. Just below the ridge terrain got more bouldery and snow had blown in so we were punching through some boulder holes in spots which made travel a bit tedious - but it was of fairly short duration. With the wind picking up we stopped just below the ridge getting a bit of a lee for lunch. Most of the day the tops of the peaks to the north, Pika, Ptarmigan, Douglas, St, Bride remained in cloud but the Louise peaks to the south obliged us with nice views from the ridge.
Looking towards Lipalian with Temple on the right of photo from Richardson ridge (our return was through the larches bottom left of the photo)
The ridge had one section that, with the snow , required care to down climb.
Crux of the Richardson ridge trip - a little trickier with the snow
On the previous day John had discussed this trip with Douglas, who has done this trip many times, while they were having lunch with Premier Notley and others celebrating the 40th anniversary of Kananaskis country. Doug had mentioned the steep slippery grass slope we found and we all put on the spikes to get down this section.
Descending east end of Richardson ridge (steep grassy slope off to right of photo)
Then we went along a bench through the larch forest to just below the Paradise chair. Seemed like the resort was doing maintenance tasks getting ready for ski season as we saw a few crews and heard a chain saw(!) a few times. Getting back to the trailhead just after 4:00 pm we met 3 young backpackers who had spent 4 days hiking from Johnson Canyon, particularly enjoying Badger pass and Baker Lake. They were french (from France not Quebec) but living in New York and asked how far to Lake Louise village and where to stay. I took 10 minutes to drive them to the Parks info centre after assuring my companions who waited at the trailhead I would return! Thanks to participants: Arnold,John and Bill from John for enjoyable and helpful company on this exploratory trip for the coordinator and patiently waiting for the short trailhead delay at the end of the day.
Our track for the day (elevation 1032m with a distance of 17.4 kms) courtesy of John
Hidden Lake - Richardson ridge - Paradise chair