Not exactly far from the madding crowd, the Lake Louise parking lot was filling up at our arrival time just before 9:30. As usual, the view from in front of the Chateau was beautiful:


morning view of Lake Louise

We worked our way up past the teahouse turnoff and avoided being trampled by the horse trains heading back down from their visit to Little Beehive. The crowds were left behind after the junction with the St. Piran trail and the views opened up as we got higher:


Temple, Aberdeen & Lefroy from Mount St.Piran trail

Two of us pushed on to the top where there was time for a summit photo:


Ron & Madeleine on the summit of Mount St. Piran

While lunching on the summit we heard a roar and saw the end of an icefall come off the glacier high on Mount Lefroy and fall to the valley glacier below. Shortly thereafter a larger chunk did the same. Forewarned, we kept an eye on the mountain and the largest one of all ensued:


Icefall on Mount Lefroy

Splat! closeup of icefall on Mount Lefroy hitting the lower glacier

With the grand finale complete, we headed down and enjoyed a terrific floral display as we descended, including:


Pink Heath and White Heather

Creeping Beardtongue (Penstemon ellipticus) on the St. Piran trail

Indian Paintbrush beside the Little Beehive trail

As is usually the case on this trail, we were entertained by the amazingly flimsy footwear that some of the people heading up were wearing. At the parking lot, space was at a premium and cars were parked along the road all the way down to and a bit beyond the old 1A highway turnoff.
 
After a short stop at the Fairview picnic area to replenish needed electrolytes, we headed home and ran into the only downside of the day. There was a crawling slowdown on the TransCanada just past the Morley turnoff to the top of the Scott Lake Hill because there was only one lane open eastbound account paving. The 8 kilometres took 25 minutes.
 
But it was a great day, thanks go to Madeleine (photo) for calling the trip that was greatly enjoyed by participants Ron (photos, scribe) and Karen.