Canada Day Celebrations - Mt Robson hike

As much as we would've liked to hang around Edmonton for the long weekend celebrating Canada Day (quite an event apparently) - the lure of the supposedly magnificant Mt Robson (the highest montain in the Canadian Rockies at 3954m) hike beckons! And we weren't dissappointed. It's 23km each way hike starting at the bottom of the western face and hiking up the valley and around to the Northern face to Berg Lake - so called because Berg glacier actually touches the water line and ice bergs regularly calve off and make their way across the lake to the camp ground on the shores - the saying goes ýou bring the scotch the bergs bring the ice'. We didn't take any scotch, but did cart in some red wine and íce wine'(which is this truly splendid drop that is made by taking just a couple of drops from the first grapes after the frost leaves the vine).

We got into Rearguard camp at the top end of Berg Lake about 6pm. This only has 5 sites and has the most stunning views of Mt Robson and Berg glacier. The thunder kept us awake in the night (which was actually the glacier moving and calving) and Jenny slept with the bear mace next to her just to be sure!

The next morning we took a short walk toward Snowbird Pass to give us as magnificant view of Robson Glacier. The walk out took us past Emperor Falls - this HUGE waterfall that you can walk right up close to. Of course Ian got too close! We also saw our first Hoary Marmot - these cute little creatures named after the frosted white snow which is called hoar.

We got back to the trailhead at about 6pm on day 2. A 50 km hike which is truly one of the most spectacular walks we have ever done. There's a very nasty 5km section in the middle which is straight up and bloody hard yakka - but otherwise a reasonable grade. Along the way you pass 16 glaciers and are never out of view of Mt Robson - though we have been extremely lucky this weekend to have perfect weather. Because Mt Robson rises up as a 3000m vertical face is creates a lot of cloud - only 20% of visitors actually see the peak. So we were lucky to see it for the whole 2 days!