It ended up being not quite the planned trip as the wind proved a little too much for our liking. It was rather breezy as we headed up the trail and we found that if you were in the open areas when a gust came that you felt you might be blown over. But we decided to push on and there were some sheltered spots behind trees or ledges that were fairly sheltered. Higher up, though, the gusts had not abated and with the prospect of open slab slopes below the summit of Door Jamb we decided not to risk being blown into unintentional base jumping sans parachute down the precipitous eastern cliffs. (Philip advises that Nakiska Ridgetop gusts were apparently 106 km/hour at 11:00 am). So we turned back at that point:

On the way down some of group met a couple of guys who were mountain biking up this very steep trail; it was hard to imagine they would be able to stay on the bikes with the wind. There was even a sign of spring in one of the crevices:

We managed to make it down without getting blown over:

We then hiked along the base of Loder over to Jura Creek, with one snowshoe hare, now brown, spotted en route. We found a sunny spot with less wind for a comfortable lunch and we were found by another sign of spring- the wood ticks are out and about. From there it was an interesting walk up the lower slot canyon of Jura Creek:

and then a short stretch of walking on ice that filled the creek bottom. We continued up the dry bouldery creek bottom with occasional sojourns through the uneroded forest areas beside the creek. We went as far as the upper canyon which is just beyond the geologically interesting spot where the Exshaw & Palliser formations are visible:

This was a good turnaround point at about 2:00pm, so we retraced our steps and had one final rest stop below the lower slot canyon:

Philip's GPS indicated about 10.5 km covered and about 440m vertical. Only one participant forgot their boots and caused a slight delay to the start, and only one participant gored themselves on a branch badly enough to draw blood.

Thanks for an enjoyable day to those who joined me: Philip (photos), Rosanne, Yolande, Jane, Peter, Jim, Mihaela, Bernie, Jeannette, Arnold and Nancy.
Ron, C/S/P.