We completed this hike on Sunday, July 2, 2017. Present company was Sheldon, Curtis and I. The temperature was perfect for this hike. We got a late start due to Canada Day celebrations the night before, so we weren’t starting in the cool early morning. By the time we hit the trail, it was 15 out.

The trail starts off fairly steep but then it levels out. The first stop is the lake with some gorgeous hike in camping. We made a mental note to come back another weekend and camp. There were still some spots left, so we think we can grab one early Saturday or Friday night.

From the campground, the trail kept on to the creek bed. It followed the creek all the way to the glacier it as we climbed up, the creek veered away a bit. There were deep gorges cut from the water runoff (which was quite substantial given its July). There was one last steep section then it levelled off. The glacier was close!

We encountered a few people hiking up to ski the glacier; apparently this is a thing, who knew! Once we could see the glacier (which has shrunk a lot in the last decade), we veered to the left and sat on top of the waterfall and had lunch.

After lunch, we kept left and hiked up the hunch that overlooked the entire Elbow Pass valley. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky so it was perfect weather for pictures. Curtis and Sheldon stayed there for a bit and I hiked up a scree slope (which I think was an avalanche chute and runoff). The further up I got, the steeper it became. My goal was a cave that I saw, but I didn’t reach it. The angle of the mountain was increasing and I didn’t have the energy to fight the scree. I stopped and turned, snapped a few pictures, then skied down.

At first I was hesitant because the rocks were fairly large but once I got going, the finer rocks underneath kept me going. It was neat because the rocks started to slide in front of me and behind, like I was floating on a rock slide.

Once I returned to the group, we headed down. There was still snow up there so we skied a bit down with our boots. The way down was a lot easier it seemed (always is).

In Summary:

A great hike and a great day. It was 27-28 at the top with no wind. Round trip was about 5 hours. The views were spectacular.