Having driven out to Radium the day before, six of us met at 8 AM on July 2, 2004 to drive out to the Diana Lake trailhead about 45 km North of Radium. It took about an hour on highway and forestry roads to get there. The trail rises gently through lush forest and finally emerges in open subalpine larch terrain surrounding Diana Lake. Here we found a picnic table and had lunch with a lake and mountain view in sunny weather. Those of us who had brought bathing suits for the lake were a bit disappointed to see half the lake still covered by ice. After lunch we hiked past Diana Lake lodge (just a log cabin) to Whitetail pass and then up a long open ridge towards The Judge. It was easy going and only the last 200 vertical meters involved scramble 5 type rock. The summit offered us great views of the Columbia valley, the Bugaboos and even Mount Assiniboine. We then decided to explore a new descent route via the South ridge of the Judge to a gully which links up with the Diana Lake trail below the lake. This turned out to be a lot of fun and very fast, first on scree and then on avalanche snow lower in the gully. The trip back along the trail was fast because a thunderstorm was passing behind us. By six o'clock we were back in Radium where we reconvened for a delicious supper at Helna's Stube restaurant. Over beer we decided to try a hike on the West side of the Columbia valley next morning: the "Lake of the Hanging Glaciers" trail. Two people decided they were too tired to hike a second day in the morning, so the remaining 4 of us drove up the Horsethief Creek forestry road in a Jeep for about 1.5 hours. Because of a wash-out we could only drive to within 2 km of the trailhead and had to start hiking from there. The trail itself is a rain forest experience most of the way and follows a roaring creek with continuous white water for the second half. At the Lake splendid scenery greeted us: glaciers hang off the surrounding horseshoe of mountains and one glacier touches the lake at it's upper end. It's a view comparable to Lake Louise but outside any park. Unfortunately a thunderstorm broke just as we ate our lunch, making us huddle under rain capes for about 20 minutes. Luckily it cleared and we were able to do the return hike in sunshine. After another long forestry road trip back we arrived in Radium at 7 PM, had supper and then drove home to Calgary late. This trip provided a nice chage from the usual Banff scenery. Participants were Alan, Evelyn, Doug, Sue, Photini and Rita.