Backpacking to Berg Lake/Mount Robson in the Rockies

This year I had the opportunity to join Nigel on some of his backpacking adventures back home in Edmonton. Having been told he'd be "slightly disappointed" (being such a chill person I knew this would not be a line to cross) if my plane arrived during an act he may really like at the Edmonton Folk Festival, so I arrived the next day. It was the same weekend at the Kitchener Blues Festival, so I had made the best of that here. I'd tell you something interesting happened on my flight or a funny story, but I suppose an uneventful flight is a good one. Getting to Nigel's parents' home, I immediately wanted to take their yard home with me; gigantic sunflowers, raspberry bushes and cherry trees everywhere. From their place, I had a very good view of the refineries, which really reminded me where I was. The day was pretty relaxed, packing stuff up and getting things organized for the trip, which Nigel and his dad were clearly experienced at and helped a bunch. I was also sleep deprived from the blues late night a few days before and waking up at 4am for my flight so I was ready to start catching up on sleep.

Starting the trip

Thanks to my mom for the knit portable Totoro, it got lots of likes at the airport

Mountain sheep!

Starting the hike

Nigel captured the sunny rain

Kinney Lake

View from Whitehorn campsite

Suspension bridge!

You can see the two colours of glacier water mixing (or lack of mixing)

Me on the suspension bridge

Tuesday we headed out at a reasonable morning time, threw our packs in the car and started the 5-6 hour drive along the Yellowhead Trail through to Jasper National Park. Jumping just over into BC, we get to Mount Robson Provincial Park where we had an almost comically grumpy park lady. The first 4 km are a wide, very well packed, and a constant shallow grade increased trail that is used by day walkers, hikers, and runners alike. The trail follows the creek (read: very fast and high flow creek) to Kinney Lake, the first of the available camp sites. It was around here where we got our first little blip of rain. Since it was large enough drops, we suited up, but the rain stopped not long afterwards and sunny skies broke through. Getting past the 6 km bike parking point, the trail gets hillier and the steep cliffs and drop offs start (but still in the trees). Crossing the flats at the head of Kinney Lake and collecting our first water from the creek (and me learning how to chlorinate it), we cross to the other side and onto a medium-level steep portion. We crossed a suspension bridge which lead to our first campsite at Whitehorn at 11 km. The site was in the valley between Mount Robson and Whitehorn where little white trickles of water were all individual waterfalls (and likely really large you just couldn't tell). The sites are apparently very well set up, even by Rockies standards, with lock boxes instead of bear poles, washbasins, and greywater pits. The din of the super active waters of the creek at our campsite was relaxing. Each dinner was the same but still really good; macaroni, a tomato veggie basil soup mix, and beef jerky. Tuesday night was the only clear night and we stayed out to watch the stars and the last days of the Perseids. Even though it was early in the night, we saw a few meteors which was awesome.

Wednesday morning was our second hike day with another 11 km, but this is where it got steeper. Walking upstream, we crossed the waters again and then made our climb through the Valley of a Thousand Falls (I hesitated telling my mom the name of this part of the trail before I left). Switchbacks took us through the trees with strategically placed lookouts for White Falls, Falls of the Pool, and Emperor Falls. All of the falls were impressive, but Emperor Falls wins by far. Being able to walk right up to them, there was less wind and mist standing right next to the falls than being 20 ft away. There was a very nice rainbow and secondary bow but we missed the photo op. Once we spent a bunch of time around the falls, we walked on to reach the downstream end of Berg Lake, where Mist Glacier was readily visible. It's the dirtier of the lake-side glaciers but the colour between the seracs (the almost pillars of ice formed by cracks) was still deep blue. As we walked alongside the edge of Berg Lake, Berg Glacier became more visible. Our lunch spot was right on the lake's edge (~9 km), with the unseasonably warm temperatures preventing us from feeling cold whilst in t-shirts and shorts. It was in the timeframe for a few hours that the peak of Mount Robson was visible, which made for very awesome pictures. Walking 2 km further, we got to the Robson Pass campsite, where we spent two nights. Since we arrived at the campsite early afternoon, we went on a short day hike up to Mumm Basin. We didn't get to the caves but we got as high up at the trail goes on Mumm Peak. There were fantastic views of the surrounding mountains and we had crossed the border between BC and Alberta. After dinner we ventured out to Adolphus Lake, which we had seen on our hike up Mumm Peak and it was much more colourful (greens and blues) than Berg Lake (a blue-milky colour).

At Falls of the Pool

Emperor Falls 

Me being silly right next to the falls,  and yes that's all water

Mount Robson, clearly this is my wallpaper now

It was really cold water

Berg Glacier

The top of the summit, the ridged part of snow to the right progressively turned to ice throughout Wednesday

Duckies!

Our campsite at Robson Pass

There was a little rain overnight, but nothing too major. It still looked a tad cloudy in the morning, which lead us to bring our rain gear with us in our packs for the day hike to Snowbird Pass. Luckily, the clouds lightened up and past the 1-2 hour mark, there were only happy clouds. The trail followed the creek upstream of Berg Lake around Rearguard Mountain (attached to Mount Robson). Then you're scooted up a moraine on switchbacks (the most intense of the trip) and on the ridge that runs above Robson Glacier. So for about an hour, you're walking alongside a giant glacier. Apparently, the easiest way to summit Mount Robson (and it's not easy what with requiring expert ice climbing experience for the end) is going the long way around the back of this glacier and jumping over the crevices. At the end of the ridge we were walking along, we turned left and instant alpine meadow! It was so sudden and beautiful it was great. The super clear stream made for a great lunch spot, which was also an optimal spot to take off the hiking shoes and cool (really cool) off the feet. During this trip, we would pass and get passed by the same subset of campers from our campsite, which was silly and awkward at the same time. In the meadow, we saw marmots and golden ground squirrels, which look like giant chipmunks. At the end of the meadow, there were some small patches of snow and the skree started. The path at this point was a suggestion but kinda a guaranteed route up the skree to the pass. Getting to the top was a nice break in the climbing, and then walking just a little farther into the pass you realize why people do this trail. Standing on the edge of a skree cliff, the view opens onto an expansive icefield which I had never seen before. The huge patch of ice was scratched into by rocks and crevices emitted the burbling noises of under-ice creeks. In the distance were other large mountains, some capped with the remains of snow. We spent a while there, climbing the skree on either side of the pass to see just a bit higher (one of the guys, called Big Dave, from other group went down the skree cliff to get to the level of the ice). While hanging out there, we met a couple that were from the Netherlands and another that was moving to Edmonton, both of which were nice to talk to and share the experience with. When we finally decided to turn back, the climb down in some places took as long as the climb due to tricky terrain (dust-covered gravel was difficult for my shoes to grip onto). Coming back for dinner, we took a leisurely stroll to Berg Lake where Nigel and I made a game of trying to steer a stick on the water by the waves from a rock thrown in the water.

Marmot!

Me standing in snow between the meadow and the skree up to Snowbird Pass

Reef Icefield at Snowbird Pass

We made it!

Back down!

Robson Glacier

Friday morning was our last day there and we were going all the way down and out in one go. Of all of our days on the trip, we naturally woke up the earliest on this day, which gave us lots of time to get down the trail and drive back. I suppose we were one of the first groups on the trail that morning because we saw the most wildlife on this morning. I spotted a pika (pie-ka), think large cute mouse but part of the rabbit family, in the skree and was chirping. I spotted a grouse and as I turned a corner in the woods I came within a few inches of one and I didn't notice until I was beside it. Like the day before, the downhill climb was more technical than the physical grunt of getting up. Going down the mountain and seeing the same sights over again was somewhat of a farewell victory lap, which was nice. My trail shoes, not the same ruggedness as everyone else's hiking boots, held up great but my feet were started to give up 1-2 km to the end. We got back, changed, and drove back to Edmonton to be welcomed by a very excited Nigel's mom.

Saturday Nigel slept in, but I think I was still riding an energy high from the trip so I woke up super early (I'd pay for this lack of sleep later). Picking some raspberries from the garden, Nigel's mom and I made smoothies for breakfast. Once we finally got ourselves in order for the day, Nigel and I borrowed his parents' bikes and we travelled along the river path to the Old Strathcona market where the Fringe festival was also taking place. We walked around there and on Whyte Ave. Along the way we found a band, Great North Blues Band, that was playing some swing tunes so we danced which was awesome. Oh ya and we got gelato! Mmm pistachio. I got a tour of UofA where I got to see their campus that is clearly better than UW's (sigh). We started biking downtown and then we got caught in an intense hail storm where the hail was splitting in two when it hit the ground. It made a crazy loud sound hitting my helmet and hands so we found shelter near the provincial legislature where kids were running around in the fountains. Making the rain break into a food break, we ventured out again as the rain lifted, stopped by to look inside city hall which was super pretty and had a glass pyramid on top. We headed back through the downtown and we were back in time to pack up the rest of our stuff for our flight and have dinner.

I can say enough good things about the trip, I was super fortunate to have lovely hosts!

Oh and I had estimated that there were 25 bridges and Nigel said 30, I counted (honestly) 24 :D