Hi,

I was thinking of going to Jasper in the next week and thought of maybe hiking to the Tekarra campground and scrambling Tekarra, Centre Mountain, and Excelsior over 2 1/2 days pending conditions and other logistics. Does anyone know of snow levels on these mountains above Tekarra campground? Just wondering if these would be doable with simple ice axe and crampons or would the routes maybe require ropes etc. As always, feedback is well appreiciated. Would also be open to any trip companions as well.

I hiked to Landslide Lake June 13-15, 2010 via the Cline River route. The lake still has snow on it. The last km of the trail had quite a lot of snow, so it slowed us down with post-holing. It should be fine there by now! It's probably still too early to get there via Wild Horse Pass.

I've attached a photo of the lake:

Went up to Devil's Thumb early morning on Sun. The route is free of snow if you take Highline trail to Big Beehive. Deep and icy snow on the more popular trail to Big Beehive from Lake Agnes. The steep ascent gully to Devil's Thumb is completely free of snow.

Wanted to do Babel Tower in the afternoon but the upper section of the ascent gully still holds some snow. Didn't dare to venture there without an ice-axe.

I hiked in the sheep river valley on saturday. No snow in the earlier foothills, even in shady sections, but definitely on the peaks further in. We were hit with a blasting thunderstorm that left the formerly almost-dry trails as flowing rivers. Expect a good bit of mud, unless it's solid sun this week.

I went up Saturday evening because I thought it did look pretty much free of snow!

There was just one 3m long patch, if you wanted you could avoid this completely. I would call it free of snow. Ice axe definitely not needed.

Too bad for me! I got impression of much more snow being there while looking at Babel Tower from a driving car on Moraine Lake Road. I made a mistake not walking on Consolation Lakes Trail for a couple hundred meters and inspecting the gully from a closer distance. A hike to Eiffel Lake (still ice-covered) wasn't as enjoyable as a scramble of Babel Tower could have been.

I tried the Nihahi Ridge traverse again on Saturday. The last attempt ended after the wind got too strong about 2 km along the ridge, going north. This was our third attempt in two years....and it ended at the start of the ridge proper, where there was a foot of wet snow on the slabs, from the very top to the bottom, 500 m or more below. I'd hoped that the top of the ridge might have been blown clear or melted out by the wind and sun, but instead it was immaculately plastered. An ice axe was demonstrably useless - it wouldn't catch anything on the wet, loose snow over rock. There were also some big thunderstorms passing by then, and so we ran down off the ridge to the east as fast as we could, eventually linking up with Knoll Trail. It was a fun half-day, but I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever stand on the north summit!

Stoopid snow! If you want a much shorter and pleasant access to the north summit of Nihahi, go in the way we did (my second time bagging it) - you can even combine with Compression Ridge for a great two peak outing. Details at http://www.explor8ion.com/vern/scram...mpression.html

I had the opportunity to spend the weekend in Kananaskis. I'm surprised how much snow there still is around there, I kind of figured most at the lower elevations would be gone by now.

We went up to Chester Lake and the Three Lakes Valley with a couple friends to introduce them to hiking. The Chester Lake Trail is mostly dry with a few patches of snow and mud over the last kilometre before Chester Lake. The snow was pretty consistently 1/2 to 1 metre deep between Chester Lake and the Lake 1. Between Lake 1 and 2 it alternated between scree and a metre of snow. We didn't go past the second lake because there was too much snow! I think I did a good job breaking trail, between our group and a few others packing it down, it should be easy enough to follow! Spring growth was just starting -- my guess is it will look spectacular in about 2 weeks.

Sunday we visited Rawson Lake, along with a hundred other people, to stretch out our legs before driving back to Edmonton. The trail was dry until the last 500m before the lake, which was quite muddy in places. There's still snow around the lake, but you could still get around to the far side. The Upper Lake shoreline trail is closed west of the Rawson Lake fork as well.

I wonder if that Upper Kananaskis Trail closure is due to a bear? The Calgary Outdoor Club trail run trip on Saturday ran into a Grizzly feeding on some animal carcass right on the trail. I hear it was just a little past the Rawson Lake turn off this Saturday morning. They reported it to the warden.

I do believe it said the Upper Lake Trail closure was due to bear activity. The trail was roped off with tape at the Rawson fork. However, there was no indication of the closure at the Upper Lake day use area parking lot.

It would be a bit of scare to see a bear feeding on carcases on the trail. Good thing its closed for now.

Joe L: If standing on the north summit is your goal over doing the actual ridge traverse, you may wish to consider starting at the north end like here (scroll down 1/2 of the page): https://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topi...7&whichpage=28

Have fun!

G

Mt Aylmer is in good condition pending your experience level and comfort with partially snow covered slopes. Trails were as advertised by Parks Canada.
Snow had a crust above 4-6 inches down that wet snow would slide on, so beware of wet snow avalanches on all aspects over about 30 degrees. Lots of water available along the route right now.

Other hikers reported another hiker (third or fourth or ? hand) sighting a bear somewhere on the Aylmer Pass Trail. Nobody could give any details. No signs of bear activity were sighted (ie diggings etc) and the trail condition reports and recent bear activity web pages did not report any bear sightings for this area beforehand. The "bear update" hasn't been updated for last week. There are lots of signs up about the July 15 on group size restriction. Lots of parties on the Lakeshore trail and at least 15 parties on the lookout trail while I hiked it.

Did the Skyline Saturday, June 26, starting at Maligne Lake. Still a fair bit of snow which meant wet boots the whole day but we were just happy we could skirt around the cornice on the notch by staying right and angling up the scree.

I was also on the Skyline Trail this weekend with a couple friends and met the previous poster's group. Good work guys on finishing the trip - that's a hard day for this time of year. We were going slower and decided to drop into the Watchtower Creek basin for Saturday night and headed out that way on Sunday.

Still lots of snow as previously mentioned, and the creeks are all very high. It will still be a bit of time until the surrounding peaks are dry. A few more photos:



Ian