The North Peak of Crowfoot Mountain turned out to be a great off trail trip to do in the Bow Lake area. Our group of 12 Rambler s left the parking lot at 9:30 am under warm windless blue sky conditions.

The North Peak is left of centre along the upper ridge

Morning reflections on Bow Lake

What was unusual about this trip was that none of us had done this trip before. After hiking around the lake and across the flats, we made our way to the chock stone over the gorge. It gets smoother every year, but was negotiated without issue.

A few hundred metres up the trail, we came to a fork and turned left. A few more metres down this trail we turned uphill at flagging and after a very short bushwack, we arrived at the bottom of a boulder field, A faint trail took us around the left of the boulders and we then climbed the slope to the base of the cliffs. We made our way around to the left, and soon came out at a treed meadow area, where we took a short break.

From there the group hiked up the vegetated slope into the meadow and then up into a broad basin.

The summit is left of centre on the skyline

We could then see our destination above us on the skyline.

The talus slope leading to the upper ridge was not steep and provided very good footing.

Gary heading up with the meadow below

Iceberg Lake and the Wapta Icefield

The North Peak of Crowfoot Mountain from the upper slopes

The views along the way were great.


Clifton approaching the summit

Once on the upper ridge it was a straight forward walk to the summit.

We enjoyed a long lunch break on the summit, with panorama views of the Wapta Icefield and peaks around the Bow Lake area.

Bow Lake from the summit of the North Peak

Group photo at the summit

Looking South from the summit

We retraced our route back down the basin to the meadow, and eventually to the main trail above Bow Creek.

Carl starting down from the summit

At the chock stone we got to witness a very unusual Rambler descent off the chock stone.


A piggy back one of Susan's less than great idea at the chock stone

Susan what were you thinking!! Piggybacking isn't the way to do it.

We retraced our steps around Bow Lake and arrived back at the parking lot at 3:30 pm.

My thanks to the group Gary,Alda,Susan,Carl,Nardi,Jack,Clifton,Teresa,Simon,Toshiko andMarysefor their great company and humour, and for joining me Kevin (S/C) on a fabulous day of off trail hiking in the Bow Lake area.

total distance 12.5 km

Net elevation gain 800 m

time 6 hrs