Mt. Yamnuska

Matt and I completed our 2nd official hike while living in Calgary: we conquered Mt. Yamnuska.  I think it was a bit more difficult than we originally anticipated, but it was amazing.  We arrived at the mountain at around 8 AM, fully prepared with our hiking boots, walking poles, camel packs, bear spray and trail mix.  From our online investigating and research, we planned on the hike lasting about 6 hours.  We headed to the base of the mountain from the parking lot and came upon the hiker sign-in book along with a warning sign:

But, that didn't stop us!  We continued on up the path.  The beginning of the trail was a breeze; nice and flat and shaded by the trees.  I thought to myself, this is pretty easy.  Little did I know I'd be eating those words a bit later.  We had a nice view of the mountain as we hiked up...yes, that's what we were about to climb!

Matt checking out the mountain

As we continued on our hike, we came to a sign that directed us where to go:  rock climbers to the left, hikers to the right.

So of course, we headed to the right.  We were making great time and enjoying the hike up to the tree line.  The views on the way up were unbelievable:

After about 2 and a half hours of hiking, we were approaching the tree line.  We were both starting to feel the burn in our calves and quads but continued on up the mountain.  Once passed the tree line, the path was significantly less obvious and Matt and I were a bit confused as to where to go.  Luckily, a few other hikers came along and pointed us in the right direction.

Finally, after about 3 hours of hiking, we made it to the first false summit.  We decided to relax for a bit, have a snack, and enjoy the view (as we hiked, we discovered that there were several "false" summits along the way).

While we were eating our snacks, a few other hikers passed us and continued on up the mountain.  We watched as they made their way toward the summit.  You can barely make out the hikers in the middle of the picture below (one was wearing a red backpack) - it gives you a bit of perspective on the size of the mountain....

After our snack and rest, Matt and I continued "onward and upward," as Matt liked to say during our hike.  We came to a part of the hike in which we were required to hold onto a large chain bolted into the mountain and we carefully walked along a small ledge.  We also had to use the large chain to scale down a bit of the rock to continue on the "path."

This part of the hike was quite terrifying but this picture makes it look worse than it really was...

After making it past the crux (technical mountain hiking term meaning the most difficult passage on the way up), we continued up to the second false summit (which we thought was the real summit).  This part of the hike was extremely unnerving and this is the point at which Matt and I freaked out a little.  We realized though, that continuing up was easier than turning back, so we pressed on.  We finally reached the second false summit after a bit of minor rock climbing.  The views were totally worth it:

At this point, we thought we had made it to the top but quickly realized that we hadn't as we looked to our right and saw the true summit up above.  I was really questioning whether or not to continue up but many other hikers that came by let us know that continuing on up and heading down the mountain on the other side was a much easier route back down than turning around. So, yet again, we pressed on.  After not too much more climbing/hiking, we made it to the very top!  Finally, we had reached the real summit!

As you can see, Matt had a very uneasy look on his face when we reached the summit.

Along the way, there were several "inukshuks" for us to follow - leading us in the right direction.

Once at the top, we took a minute to catch our breath and take in the amazing scenery.  We even enjoyed a vienna sausage with another hiker, who convinced us it was a long-celebrated tradition.  We also received some instructions from a family of hikers on the best method back down the mountain.  They basically explained to follow the "path" down, which would eventually curve around underneath the cliff of the summit.  Once around the other side, we could then "ski" down the scree (another technical mountaineering term referring to small bits of broken rock).  So, we headed down...

This is a view of the summit from below on our way down the mountain,  You can barely make out the other hikers at the very top...

As Matt and I took our time carefully trekking down the mountain, other hikers passed us by, practically running down.  It was helpful, though, so we could see where to go and better yet, how to go.  When we reached the scree, we watched as a family of hikers literally skated down the mountain.  It was literally straight down and Matt and I were extremely skeptical, but realized it was the only way down.  So, we started down, and once you start, there really is no stopping.  But, as you go, it really does feel like you are skating down because the scree allows you to slide your feet as you move down the side of the mountain.

In this photo, you can see the scree that we "skated" down - it looks like a line down the middle of the mountain.

Once reaching the path at the bottom of the scree, we had to sit down and empty out our boots that had filled with tiny bits of rock.  Our legs were white with powder and dirt from skating down, but it was such a crazy experience.  We then continued on the trail down the rest of the mountain and reached the tree line.

At this point, I was happy to be hiking through the trees because that was a sign that we were almost to the bottom.  We finally looped back around to the trail that we had started the hike on.  Eventually, we made it back to the sign-in book and were thrilled to sign-out.

We completed the hike to the summit and back in less than 6 hours!

We continued onto the parking lot to our car.  We were exhausted!  We were so glad we had made it all the way to the top but we both agreed that it was the craziest/scariest thing we'd ever done.

Yeah, we just climbed that.

The drive home was a long hour and half but the weather was so beautiful.  We were relieved to head home for a well-deserved nap.

Such a gorgeous day...

What mountain will we be climbing next, you might be wondering?  TBD...