Canadian Rockies, July 1996
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Summer 1996.....at the time I was working for an engineering consulting company called Packer Engineering  in Naperville Illinois.  Naperville is located about 45 minutes outside Chicago.  I was also going to school full-time at Northwestern University, as part of the Industrial Engineering master's program (an engineering management degree).  My studies were sponsored by Packer, and required both day and night classes.  It was my most stressful time since graduating from college - I was continually torn between work and school, and was never able to dedicate sufficient time to either activity.  The commute between Packer and Northwestern was also about a hour's drive, which also hurt my time efficiency.  I ultimately left Packer in September of 1996, and moved to Houston to work for Schlumberger.  I finished the final two courses of the Northwestern degree at the University of Houston in 1997.  I was still very interested in hiking and backpacking - I had recently spent a month during the summer of 1995 touring the national parks of North America with Aida (my ex-girlfriend, not to be confused with Mark's friend Aidda above).  This was also the first trip where I had gone with a large group - we were five in total.  It was more difficult than traveling in pairs, but had many new benefits.  It was the first of many group trips that I would take over the following years.  The trip report is as follows.....
Friday June 28, Chicago to Calgary
Mark Langille, his brother Ryan, Aidda, and I flew from Chicago to Calgary.  Greg Baker flew from Erie Pennsylvania, where he was working with International Paper.  We arrived in Calgary early in the evening, rented a minivan, and started the drive towards Banff.  We stopped at the Bow Valley campsite, just before the town of Banff.  We arrived late, and found one of the last available spots.  We were asleep just after midnight.
Saturday June 29, Banff Hike Day 1
We woke up early, and headed into Banff to the backcountry hiking office.  We inquired about a variety of trails within the various parks, and found that we had arrived very early in the season, and that snow still covered much of the hiking trail network.  It had been an above average winter in terms of snow, and there was still over six feet on many of the trails.  We chose a hike in Banff National Park at lower elevations, and hoped that we would be able to follow the trail through any still present snow.

We walked around town, bought food, fuel, and other necessities, and headed up to the trailhead.  The trail started alongside a ski resort, and followed a ski run for the first 1500 feet of elevation gain.  We hoped that the slopes would be clear of snow, but when we arrived at the trailhead we found that the slopes were still in decent skiing condition - not even close to being clear.  We briefly talked to a person in the ski hut, and started hiking up the ski run.  We hoped to hike up and over the resort to find less snow-covered trails.

After two hours we reached the top of the slopes, and saw only white in all directions.  Mark and Ryan had stopped once to trade backpacks - Ryan's pack was too tall for his frame.  We were able to catch limited glimpses of the trail on certain wind blown slopes that could not accumulate much snow.  We followed the patches of trail for another hour, until it completely disappeared.  We continued using a compass and the view of the peaks around us (visibility was great), but we found ourselves fairly lost after a few hours of hiking in the snow.  To make matters worse, we had not rented snowshoes, and were sinking in thigh-deep, which made progress slow if not impossible.  Finally we conceded that we would not be able to follow our original hiking plan, and looked for a way down to lower snow-free elevations.  We could see a clear valley just to our right, but it was a good 1000 feet below us.  We tried to find a good route down, but continuously ended up at an edge of a steep snow slope.

After much debate, we decided to take one of the steep snow slopes down to the valley.  I unwisely decided to drop my pack, and let it slide unaccompanied to the bottom of the slope.  We watched as the pack slid, gained speed, hit a tree halfway down, and started sliding to the right side of the slope, directly for a flowing stream.  The backpack vaulted off the top of the river snowbank, and landed directly in the middle of the stream, wedged between a few boulders.  I had no choice but to jump immediately and slide down the slope, in hope of recovering my backpack before totally soaking my gear.  I gained speed as I slid, but safely arrived within 10 feet of the river's edge.  I yanked the pack from the river - and was happy to find that not much water had gotten into the pack.  I looked back up the slope to the rest of their group, who watched and laughed from the top.  Now it was their turn to come down.  No one wanted to attempt a similar slide, so they slowly roped down, one by one.  After an hour, we were all safely at the bottom of the slope.

We still were not certain of our location, and we were still in knee-deep snow.  But, the clear valley lay ahead just below us, and we moved onwards to find snow-free terrain.  An hour later we reached the bottom of the valley, and found a trail through the thick pine forest.  We barely even knew which direction to hike along the trail, but we chose to go right.  Within minutes we reached a trail junction, and were able to locate our location on the map - only six miles from the road, and only minutes from a backcountry campground.  We continued along the trail, and came upon the campground within minutes - we decided that it would be our final spot for the night.  We made a fire to dry our gear, warmed up, and enjoyed a night of retelling the events from the day.  One of the highlights was Ryan and Mark making foot booties from their torn rubber pants.  A few images from the day:
 
On top of the ski run
End of the trail
Mark on the descent to the valley
Aaron on top of the descent slope

Sunday June 30 - Banff Hike Day 2
We woke up to blue skies in the valley, and started hiking down the trail.  We were now fairly certain of our location on the map, and we believed that it was only six miles of trail to the road, and then another mile back to the car. Two hours later we reached the road, and found the car soon thereafter.

We drove back into town, and went directly to the ranger station.  We signed out, and complained a bit about the lack of warning from the ranger about the amount of snow still on the trail.  The ranger did not pay much heed to our complaints.  We contemplated our options - most trails in Banff exceed 7000' elevation, and would certainly be under snow.  We decided to head north to Mt. Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia, one of my favorite hiking areas in the world.  I had hiked to Berg Lake at the foot of Mt. Robson the year before with Aida, and had been amazed by the waterfalls, thick forest, lakes, and amazing view of the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies.  Plus, the hike started at only 2000' elevation, and never exceeded 5500' - and would most likely be free of all snow.  Everyone agreed that it was a good idea..

We enjoyed the rest of the day in Banff, including burgers at a local diner, and spent the night in a Banff campground just outside of town.  Ryan was mesmerized by the caribou (elk) that wandered about the campground, and sat within a few meters of our tents.  

Monday July 1 - Banff to Mt. Robson
We left Banff early, and started the 4 hour drive up to Robson National Park, just west of Jasper Alberta on Highway 16.  We drove up the famous highway running through the heart of Banff and Jasper National Parks, passing the Columbia Icefield.  Little did we know that five years later we would return to the Columbia Icefield to climb Mt. Athabasca.  We saw mountain goats, a bear, and various other wildlife - despite the other campers and tourists cluttering the road.

We arrived at the Robson Visitor Center in late afternoon, and reserved a backcountry campground for two nights at Berg Lake - a little over 12 miles of hiking from the visitor center.  We found a car campground nearby, and made a fire before going to bed early.

Tuesday July 2 - Mt. Robson Day 1
We awoke to clouds and a light mist.  Mt. Robson was nowhere in sight.  We parked the car at the trailhead - about 2 km down a road clearly marked from the visitors center, and started the hike through thick forest alongside the roaring Robson River.  The wide trail followed the Robson River to Kinney lake (7 km), only losing site of it a couple times, and had narrow boardwalks over the boggy areas.

Beyond Kinney Lake the trail remained flat for a short while and crossed a few bridged streams before coming to a junction of a horse trail and the main people trail.  The horse trail drops down onto the river bed, which is pass-able if the runoff water level is low.  We chose to follow the main trail off to the right and back into the forest, climbed up a bit, and then traversed the cliff edges along the river.  After about 15 to 20 minutes of short ups and downs we made the descent back down to the Robson River and crossed a couple bridges before coming to the flats.  At the end of the flats, the trail climbed a few switchbacks before leveling off and making a short drop back down the river at Whitehorn camp (11 km from start).

The trail picked up again at the end of Whitehorn and followed the river for a short distance before crossing the 2nd suspension bridge.  After the bridge the trail steepened significantly, but we were rewarded with the "White Falls" plummeting off the cliff directly across from us.  The trail continued on up for about 1/2 hour before leveling off slightly and arriving at the "Falls of the Pool" rest stop.  At this point we got our first views of the gigantic Emperor Falls in the distance.  After a slight descent we arrived at a trail junction, where the trail to the right takes you directly to the base of the falls.  We followed the main trail to the left to the Emperor Falls camp.  From the junction the trail took a steep short climb before leveling off again and after about 15 to 20 minutes we arrived at Emperor Falls camp (16 km from the start).  The falls thundered in the far background.

The light sprinkles finally subsided, and the skies began to clear.   After Emperor Falls the trail disappeared into the forest for a short distance before coming out at a large rock slide area, and from here we got our first view of Mist Glacier.  There were dozens of marmots scattering about the rocks, and making very shrill whistling noises.  They certainly deserve the nickname "whistlepig".  After some scrambling along the rocky flats, we arrived at the Marmot campsite - if you plan on continuing the trail in a circuit by taking the Hargreaves Lake / Mumm Basin route this is a good place to camp, if not it is better to continue to the next sites. From Marmot, Berg Lake camp is only two more km  following along the lake side. Berg Lake campsite is the largest site (26 campsites) and has a log cabin with picnic tables, wood stove, rack to hang wet clothes and food storage, a nice place to warm up and eat in cooler temperatures.  We chose to continue on to the Berg Lake campsite.

22 km from our starting point we reached the Berg Lake campground (elevation 1628 meters).  The mountain rose another 2400 meters above us, with glaciers streaming down all sides.  Berg Glacier stretched all the way to the lake's edge, where it occasionally dropped large ice chunks into the lake.  The calving of the ice from the glacier sounded like thunder, and we never really got accustomed to hearing it in the background.  There were dozens of icebergs floating around the lake - some even within swimming distance of the shore.

It was late in the afternoon, and we quickly chose a site and setup camp.  We spent the evening relaxing in and around the Berg Lake hut.  There were several other hiking groups in the camp that night, but there was more than enough space to share.  The sun emerged from behind the clouds in the early evening, and beamed on the summit - the entire Robson glacier was a light shade of pink and orange.  It was an incredible site.  We were more than happy with the day's hike, and everyone was pretty worn out.  Despite their fatigue, the Langille brothers decided to help the campground by chopping the log stumps behind the hut.  After  fifteen minutes the Langille brothers had chopped so much wood that one of the backcountry rangers came out and told them to stop chopping.  Great reward for just trying to help!  Images from the day:
 
Marmot friend along the trail
Just before Berg Lake

Wednesday July 3 - Mt. Robson Day 2
We woke up late, made breakfast in camp, then day-hiked up approximately 1500 feet above the lake.  We followed a river to the top of a pass, and passed along side an incredible waterfall stretch - the waterfall was at about a 35 degree angle and stretched for hundreds of feet, and was over 50 feet wide.  We climbed beyond the waterfall and above the treeline, and found a small cave in the side of the pass.  We spent an hour scrambling around the shallow cave, then downclimbed back towards the camp.  The view down onto the lake was well worth the climb above the treeline.  By late afternoon we were back at the campground.  For lack of anything better to do, I offered Ryan $20 to swim out to one of the icebergs and touch it.  After lengthy contemplation, he decided that it was worth the money.  He stripped down to his shorts, jogged out to an iceberg floating in waist-deep water, touched it, and earned himself  a few free meals at McDonalds.  Quite impressive.  Images from the day:
 
In front of the cave entrance
View of Mt. Robson & Berg Lake
Hiking above the lake
Mountain goat on a cliff near the trail
Thursday July 4 - Mt. Robson Day 3
We woke up late, had breakfast outside the tents, and then packed up camp.  We started started the long hike back down to the car in the late morning.  The weather was clear, and everyone was intent on making it back to the car as fast as possible.  After a brief stop for lunch at one of the valley lakes, we really picked up the pace, and broke off into smaller groups.  No one really spoke much for the last hour, as we hoofed from Kinney lake back through the thick forest alongside the now-roaring Robson river.  We arrived back in the parking lot after lunch, happy to complete what I still consider one of the best 3-day hikes in North America.

We drove to the nearby town of Jasper, had pizza at a local restaurant, and found a campsite just outside town.  We still had time before returning to Calgary, but our bodies and minds were a bit fatigued, and we could not make a good decision about what to do.  This always plagued us at the end of trips - our best intentions to climb and/or hike always end in a hotel room and too many beers.

We spent the next day and a half relaxing and driving around the various sites and backcountry roads, wandering through the gear shops of Jasper and Banff, and even saw the terrible movie "Independence Day".  The Canadian crowd even began to boo and throw popcorn at the climax of the movie, when the United States saved the entire world.  We walked around Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, and avoided the throngs of tourists that surrounded their shores.  Aidda even got a chance to use his fishing pole in a smaller lake off the main tourist path.  He did not catch anything.

We returned to Calgary on Saturday afternoon, and cleaned up at a hotel just outside town.  We drove to the Calgary airport on Sunday mid-day, and flew back to Chicago with no delays or problems.  It was a great hiking trip with a great bunch of guys.  This trip was the first of many that I have since taken with Mark, and it still ranks among the best.  I spent an entire month with Baker during the summer of 1994, but I have not spent a night in a tent with Baker since Mount Robson.  I hope that we will again have a chance to backcountry camp in the future!  And, now that I have moved from hiking to mountaineering, maybe some day I will return to Mount Robson to actually climb the mountain to the top!
 

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