This would have been a spectacular day out in September or October, but to have a perfect day like this in November? Wow.

There was already a noticeable wind as we left the cars, but it didn’t take long for everyone to warm up. The trail up the ridge was bare ground covered with a couple of centimetres of new snow, so we didn’t need spikes. The walk along the ridge was surprisingly not that cold, and both the snow-covered mountains and the wind-sculpted snow under our feet were beautiful.

Climbing up the slopes to the upper ridge was challenging given the snow that was nearly hip-deep in places, and, despite several of us donning spikes, there was one place where floundering was inescapable. We carefully made our way up the scrambly bit and over the rocks to the summit. After lots of photos, we settled behind a good windbreak of trees for lunch.

The sunshine and views continued throughout the return journey, and we arrived back at the cars just before 3:30. Wildlife: a ptarmigan, a bald eagle, a sheep along the road, and the usual roving gang of chickadees.

Thanks to the group for good conversation, trailbreaking, and especially for seeing a blizzard outside of their windows on Sunday but still having enough optimism to sign up.

Participants: Bill,Brian,Bruce,Pam,Krzysztof, and coordinator Ingrid.

The steep part is over - now we get to enjoy the ridge

Fantastic wind patterns in the snow

Sunshine and snow-covered mountains

Forgetmenot Ridge summit

Heading back after lunch (photo by Bill)