Great Weather, Great Rock, Great Scenery, Great Company, Great Backpack! The backpack trip to Baker Lake Campsite and the scramble ascents of Oyster Peak, Brachiopod Mountain and Anthozoan Mountain were definitely all of the above mentioned. The actual purpose of the trip was to ascend Oyster Peak as part of the Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition project and to place an ACME canister and register on the summit. This was accomplished under clear skies and brilliant sunshine.

The trip officially began at Hidden Lake Campsite where the two parties of two met after having hiked in. Both parties were lucky enough to have been offered rides from Fish Creek trailhead to Temple Lodge. After setting up our tents and a pleasant meal we tucked in for a good night's sleep in preparation for an early morning start. At 8:00 am the next morning we were packed up, fed and on our way to Baker Lake Campsite. Arriving at Baker Lake before 10:00 am, we set up our tents and were on the trail to Oyster Peak by 11:00 am. The route to Oyster Peak branches off from the northbound trail to Red Deer Lakes and after a walk through Alpine meadows, ascends along a creek to Oyster Lake.

From Oyster Lake the route is a brutal scree slog up to the most easterly of two cols. From the first col there is an interesting SC6 ascent to a second col and from there a really interesting SC6 ascent to the south summit of Oyster Peak.

From the south summit, the route follows the ridge for approximately 2 km. This ridge walk is very much like Northover Ridge according to Christine and offer incredible views along the way. The ridge also promises and a hospital bed to the west and a tombstone to the east if one were to slip.

Once the ridge has been navigated, there remains yet another interesting SC6 ascent to the north summit where an ACC canister resides, now accompanied by a spanking new Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition canister and summit register.

After the obligatory ACME summit celebrations, we started our descent by following the ridge for a time before dropping down into the valley with a tiring descent through scree, rubble, slab before finally reaching the valley and the trail back to Baker Lake Campsite.

Dinner and early to bed were in order after a very tiring but rewarding day.

The next day, we allowed ourselves to sleep in an extra hour before heading off to ascend Brachiopod and hopefully Anthozoan Mountains. After hiking to the meadow to the west of Brachiopod, two of the group opted for a more leisurely day lolling around the meadow while two decided to continue with the ascent. We more or less followed Kane's route up the western slope but managed to turn his relatively easy SC5 into a much more challenging SC6 by cresting the ridge a little farther south, between some columns of rock and the main summit.

After summitting Brachiopod, we turned our attention to Anthozoan Mountain. We found Kane's SC5 route and descended to scree slopes that we traversed en route to the south ridge of Brachiopod and a further descent to the col between the two mountains. From a distance the ridge between Brachiopod and Anthozoan appears to be continuous but this is an illusion and far from the truth. In actuality one makes a significant descent from the south end of Brachipod before slogging up a long scree slope to the north end of Anthozoan. Once you have slogged up the scree, it is an easy ridge walk, with exposure to the east in places, to the summit of Anthozoan.

We then made an interesting descent to the meadows below for the return hike to Baker Lake Campsite.

After reuniting with the rest of our group at Baker Lake, we packed up and were on the trail by 5:10 pm for our journey back to Fish Creek trailhead. This time there were no good samaritans to offer us a ride from Temple Lodge to the trailhead, so after a long 3 hour and 30 minute trudge we were back at the trailhead by 8:40 pm. We quickly changed into clean 'town clothes' and headed off to the pub in the Post Hotel for a late dinner. The Post Hotel Pub offer a limited menu at that hour and the prices are a bit steep but the food is excellent and was a fitting end to fantastic weekend journey with fantastic company to a fantastic Alpine locale.

Trip Participants: Christine; Carmie and Mark. Coordinator, photographer and scribe Jim.

Trip statistics:

Day 1 - Temple Lodge to Hidden Lake CS: Distance - 3.73 km; Time - 1 hour; Elevation Gain - 138 m; Maximum Elevation - 2211 m.

Day 2 - Hidden Lake CS to Baker Lake CS: Distance 5.8 km; Time - 1h, 49m; Elevation Gain - 156 m; Maximum Elevation - 2341 m; Elevation Loss - 120 m.

Oyster Peak Scramble: Distance - 10.7 km; Time - 9h, 2m; Elevation Gain - 939 m; Maximum Elevation - 2781 m; Elevation Loss - 963 m.

Day 3 - Baker Lake CS to Brachiopod/Anthozoan to Baker Lake CS to Fish Creek Trailhead: Distance 25.7 km; Total Time - 11h, 16m; Elevation Gain - 1232 m; Maximum Elevation - 2767 m; Elevation Loss - 1713 m.

3 Day Totals: Distance - 45.9 km; Elevation Gain - 2465 m.