Akamina Ridge, in the in the southeast corner of B.C., is a premiere ridge walk with constant views of three jurisdictions—half of the view is Glacier National Park, Montana, a quarter is the Akamina-Kishenena Provincial Park, and a quarter is Waterton Lakes National Park and beyond onto the plains.

From the parking area near Cameron Lake you cross the Continental Divide at Akamina Pass, then head up a good trail to Forum Lake. Our hike was on a picture-perfect summer day with fabulous flowers in every meadow.

Since the first time I did this hike the provincial park has built a decent trail to the col on the Wall-Forum ascent ridge to the west of the lake.

From the col you get a good view of Wall Lake and the descent trail, which follows the meadows from Bennett Pass below the imposing wall of Akamina Ridge.

After a steep OT5 scree ascent you must get through some entry-level SC5 ledges to gain the top of the ascent ridge and the first top of Akamina Ridge proper, where you see tops #2-5 laid out before you, looking more vertical than they really are due to foreshortening.

The trail through the scree of top #2 runs to a 20-foot high cornice, so some more scree bashing was required.

You get a good view of Kintla Lake, in Glacier National Park, from a couple of angles. The view includes Agassiz Glacier, 10,101 foot Kintla Peak, and the Flathead Range to the west, as well as back onto the plains in Alberta.

The group, minus photographer, scribe and coordinator Carl, poses at the high point.

In the low point between tops #4 and #5, we rested in a glorious little Shangri-la, where there was no wind and the sun caressed the green grass and flowers.

At Bennett Pass we picked up the good trail which slips down a steady slope below the ridge, which rises ever higher until you reach Wall Lake.

We were back to the car at 7:30 and went our separate ways, some back to Calgary and some to campgrounds in the Waterton area.