Four spectacular viewpoints on one hike!
We hiked from Lake Louise to the Little Beehive, Mount St. Piran, Big Beehive, and finally the Devil’s Thumb (2 of us).

The weather report was iffy for the morning and we couldn’t see any of viewpoints when we started out, but the clouds conveniently lifted as we climbed. From the Little Beehive we couldn’t yet see Mt. St. Piran, and when we got to St. Piran, Niblock and Whyte were still wreathed in cloud. But before we started down to Goats Pass (the St. Piran/Niblock col) the sky was basically cloudless.

We left the parking Lake Louise parking lot around 9:30 and battled our way through the crowds of tourists wielding an array of photographic equipment. They seemed amazed at our appearance (and our typical Rambler day packs). We took our first break at the Little Beehive.

Group at Little Beehive (Mt. Richardson in cloud)

From there we could see our afternoon objectives, the Big Beehive and Devil’s Thumb.


Big Beehive and Devil's Thumb from Little Beehive

There was about five cm of fresh snow on the Mt. St. Piran ascent trail.


Ascending the "Swiss mountain guides' trail" to Mt. St. Piran

We summited around 12:30.


Group on Mt. St. Piran

It was still cool (about 2 c), but there was thankfully very little wind and so we took time for our first lunch. We then headed down to Goat Pass and from there down to the top of Lake Agnes. Ivan knew from previous trips that there were frequently Rocky Mountain goats near here and we were not disappointed, a herd of eight entertained us on the descent. We also entertained each other with several slips and slides on the steep snowy, muddy and grassy slope.


Jan and Dee descending from Goats Pass (three goats in the sunshine)

From the upper end of Lake Agnes it was back uphill to the Big Beehive


Group at Big Beehive (background - ski area, Mt Redoubt and Lipalian Mt)

We enjoyed our second lunch here. We then set off to get to the Devil’s Thumb which is a small peak above the Big Beehive. Unfortunately a poor trail description had us following a trail that was a little too low. Eventually we got into some SC5 terrain with no confidence that we were actually on the right route. Three turned back, two persevered and actually fairly quickly ended up on a well used route (OT4, maybe even TL4) to the top. The top of Devil’s Thumb is a very interesting rock formation that looks like severely cracked pavement.


Jan on the "Cracked Pavement" of Devil's Thumb

. On the return, the two encountered more mountain goats, who in this case didn’t move until we were within 20 meters or so.


Rocky Mountain goats below Devil's Thumb

Reunited at the col, we returned down the south slope to the Plain of Six Glaciers trail. It was by now, too late at this time of year to contemplate heading up to the teahouse and we just headed back, returning to the cars shortly after 6:00.
Distance: about 16 km, climb: 1200 m including Devil’s Thumb.

Many thanks to Ivan for calling (in response to this scribe's request) and coordinating the hike. Participants: Dee, Kim, Jan, and Carl (scribe).

Rocky Mountain Ramblers perched over Mts Richardson, Pika and Ptarmigan!