Off the Beaten Path
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Calgary
Posts: 498
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Eagle Hill
Eagle Hill is the most diminutive peak I'm comfortable putting on my newly started summit list. With a summit of 1730 m it is lower than most nearby trailheads and it rises only 180 m above the surrounding gently rolling terrain!
Here is a photo of it from a few kilometers away:
We didn't actually mean to hike it last weekend, but as we approached the main range we were met with a wall of cloud extending to valley bottom and thus made the decision to stick to the front country instead. Going off memory and a GPS track we ended up taking a fairly long route to the summit, but slip-sliding through the snow on the trail along the way helped give us a good workout. We saw 12 grouse along the trail through forest like this:
In the fall the trees would likely be spectacularly yellow.
Summit views were limited to the west and south due to trees and a fence on the summit and weren't exactly spectacular, but then again we did get in 13 km of hiking in the sun on a cloudy day in the mountains.
View west from just below the summit:
Bow Valley from the summit. The cloud has risen a bit from the morning, but it's still cloudy.
Yamnuska:
It's easy to tell where the border between native land and public land is:
The trail we followed started at Sibbald Lake and basically followed the valley bottom for a bit more than 6 km to Eagle Hill. Along the way I wondered why it wasn't following the ridge to the north and so on the way back we did just that. It turns out that for most of the way along the ridge there is a trail, bushwhacking is extremely minimal, and it was nearly entirely snow-free. Views were actually worse along the ridge as the trees were thicker, but it was a nice variation.
From near Sibbald Lake, the trail follows this valley:
Here is a shot of the ridge we gained and followed on the way back from a lower southeastern summit of Eagle Hill.
I can't exactly say this is a must-climb summit, but if you're in a bind weather-wise and still want to get out and explore it's a nice walk. More photos, etc. at http://mattclay.zenfolio.com/eagle_hill
Here is a photo of it from a few kilometers away:
We didn't actually mean to hike it last weekend, but as we approached the main range we were met with a wall of cloud extending to valley bottom and thus made the decision to stick to the front country instead. Going off memory and a GPS track we ended up taking a fairly long route to the summit, but slip-sliding through the snow on the trail along the way helped give us a good workout. We saw 12 grouse along the trail through forest like this:
In the fall the trees would likely be spectacularly yellow.
Summit views were limited to the west and south due to trees and a fence on the summit and weren't exactly spectacular, but then again we did get in 13 km of hiking in the sun on a cloudy day in the mountains.
View west from just below the summit:
Bow Valley from the summit. The cloud has risen a bit from the morning, but it's still cloudy.
Yamnuska:
It's easy to tell where the border between native land and public land is:
The trail we followed started at Sibbald Lake and basically followed the valley bottom for a bit more than 6 km to Eagle Hill. Along the way I wondered why it wasn't following the ridge to the north and so on the way back we did just that. It turns out that for most of the way along the ridge there is a trail, bushwhacking is extremely minimal, and it was nearly entirely snow-free. Views were actually worse along the ridge as the trees were thicker, but it was a nice variation.
From near Sibbald Lake, the trail follows this valley:
Here is a shot of the ridge we gained and followed on the way back from a lower southeastern summit of Eagle Hill.
I can't exactly say this is a must-climb summit, but if you're in a bind weather-wise and still want to get out and explore it's a nice walk. More photos, etc. at http://mattclay.zenfolio.com/eagle_hill
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High on the Mountain Top
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Posts: 1,155
Looks like a nice day out. A bit colder this weekend...
Vern Dewit
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