We had a very wintery hike! There was lots of room at the Lake Louise parking when we arrived around 9:20am. Temperature was -2.5 when we arrived, with clouds and intermittent fine snow. The temperature stayed slightly below zero all day.
Cloudy views going up to Saddleback
There was a little fresh snow on a packed icy surface as we started up the trail towards the Saddleback turnoff, so many of us donned our spikes and left them on for the whole trip.
The snow depth increased as we gained altitude and was knee deep if you stepped off the trail in the open areas of the Saddleback. The sun started to peek through more regularly once we reached that area in the late morning. There was a surprising number of needles left on the larches adding to the scenic beauty of this area.
Deep snow off the trail at Saddleback
The trail to Mt. Fairview had not been travelled recently so although there was a packed base, it was difficult to discern its path, but Teresa with help from Cristina did a great job picking the route.
As we broke out of the trees to the exposed, steep and rocky part of the ascent, suddenly strong winds started up whipping up the loose snow. We retreated a short way back down the trail to pause in the shelter to see if the wind would abate, which it did about 15 minutes later, so we continued.
Should we wait or should we turn around?
Although a bit windy, it wasn’t bad until it started up again close to the top of the mountain; by this time, going was quite tough with the ‘trail’ totally obscured and deep drifted snow to plow through.
Wind-whipped snow on ascent
Snowswept panorama
As the snow was quite slippery and the underlying rocks weren’t visible, the trail breakers were at risk of injury and summitting in the strong winds wouldn’t be pleasant anyways, we decided to shelter behind some rocks on the slope with great views for our lunch.
Lunch group
The wind dropped (even on the top) with bright sunshine for our descent.
Sunny, low wind descent
Descent from Saddleback
Arriving back at the cars earlier than planned, we went down to the lake to admire the view, then drove to the Lake Louise hostel for snacks and drinks before the drive back to Calgary.
Thanks to a great group for joining me on this enjoyable and beautiful hike.
Peter,Teresa,Cristina,Dana,Clifton at sunny Saddleback on way back
Participants: Peter,Barb,Clifton,Teresa,Cristina,Dana