From June 22 to 29, 2018, 15 adventurous sole sistas hiked 65 km through the backcountry of Bow Valley in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Here is our photo diary of this magnificent Tredsup trip!
THE HIKERS
For Canadian national parks hiking information, including Banff, check out the Parks Canada website and app at www.pc.gc.ca. It provides details on closures/restrictions, permits, bear and wildlife warnings, fires, and daily trail conditions.
DAY 0
Arrivals and Canmore
Our Tredsup gang flew into Calgary airport and we jumped in a van for Canmore.
Oops: I accidentally (and hilariously) booked a party van so we had disco lights, tunes and champagne glasses en route.
The rain was hammering down in Canmore but we threw our gear on, toured the town, and enjoyed a yummy lunch at Crazyweed Kitchen
and fun dinner at the cozy Aroma Mexican restaurant.
DAY 1
Redearth Creek Pass
Moderate; 13 km with 440 m elevation gain; 4.5 hours
The next morning, we met our highly qualified and amazing guides, Ally and Olivier (Oli) from Yamnuska Mountain Adventures.
I would book this company again in a heartbeat. Guides provide all the stories and geological history of the mountains, help you traverse challenging rivers and washed out trails,
know the routes, and are handy with a first aid kit, GPS and sat phone. If you’ve got Oli, he’ll clear brush ahead of you (he’s a super keener).
They also have invaluable information about the fauna, flora and wildlife. Here are the bear spray cans Yamnuska provided. You carry them everywhere, even to the bathroom because bears are omnipresent.
There was a lot of hot, fresh bear poop on the trails and recent, large paw prints like this:
And dangerous cougars…
We hit the Redearth Creek trailhead (1,400 m or 4,593 ft) around 10 am with full backpacks… and the rain magically stopped.
and hiked 13 km to Shadow Lake Lodge.
We lunched beside Redearth Creek.
It took us about 4.5 hours to reach our the lodge. We passed some incredible swaths of mountain wiped clean by recent, powerful avalanches.
Shadow Lake Lodge is an inviting base to rest your pack for a few days and explore a variety of great trails. The lodge is an original backcountry log cabin that was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1929 for adventurous visitors who wanted to see more of the park than just hotels. The Brewster family purchased it and added cabins, plus eco-friendly amenities, to their off-the-grid destination. All food and supplies are flown in by helicopter every two weeks; the toilet receptacles and garbage are then flown out.
Note: book early as it is popular! The food is five star gourmet
and the cabins are delightfully cozy with comfy queen beds (which we shared.)
We broke bread and played games with travellers from England, USA, and Australia.
Here’s the view of Mt. Ball and from all of our cabins: a damn pretty sight every morning! When we arrived, we were told that a grizzly bear had been hanging out in this front yard meadow and had just left the day before, slowly loping away despite the 12 gauge crackers the lodge managers fired.
DAY 2
On the first of our all-day hikes, each guide took half of the group.
Little Copper Mountain via Gibbon Pass; Twin Lakes
Rating: Moderate to Strenuous; Elevation Gain 480 m (1,574 ft); 8 hours
We emerged from the woods on Gibbons Pass to marvel at Castle Mountain to the north and Mt. Temple to the West from our beautiful meadow vantage point.
We then scaled Little Copper Mountain of which the second half is a steep climb on loose shale. It was worth the cardio workout: the views of Copper Mountain and Mount Ball were phenomenal.
This is one of my favourite pics. The lakes are bright blue due to glacial silt. Canada, in all her majesty…
Jenn and Julie stood guard with bear spray!
Jen and I on some late June snow atop Little Copper Mountain.
With Pat! Copper Mountain on the steep other side…
Our descent was more of a shale slide…
The sun was out, so we lay like broccoli and soaked it all in after lunch.
That’s us — those little sticks — on top of Little Copper. Cool.
From Little Copper, we headed to the first of the Twin Lakes, met up with our other half and turned around because of a few upset stomachs. They proved to be real troopers as it was a 6 km hike back which is a far hike when you are feeling crappy. We hit some untouched snow patches en route
and interesting wildlife.
Every day, we took over the main lodge and Connie led us in post-hike yoga. The lodge has an ample supply of mats and a wood-burning fireplace. We loved that Ally, our guide, joined us to stretch! Thanks, Connie, for persevering despite some giggles from her punchy participants. Who me?
DAY 3
Shadow Lake Waterfalls and Amphitheatre
Rating: Moderate; 11 km return; 230 m elevation gain; we took the full day and enjoyed the sights!
Every day was breaktaking but this one topped it for me because of the varied topography and sheer natural beauty of the hike.
We hiked through stunning forests along a raging river. Sometimes the path was literally 3 inches from the gushing glacial runoff.
Then we hit the most magnificent Alice-in-Wonderland-like meadow of glacial lilies. I teared up twice it was so overwhelmingly beautiful.
We lunched, gazing at the mountains with waterfalls winding their way down their sides.
Compare that to a food court squat and gobble.
The river provided some great waterfall photo ops: day 3, ladies!
The topography of the hike really shifts dramatically on this hike. The end of the trail takes you to a mind-boggling graveyard of rubble which was created by an ancient glacier that has receded over the last 150 years due to global warming. It is a raw reminder of the effects of climate change on our planet.
The seracs, which are blocks of glacial ice which are formed by intersecting crevasses on a glacier, posed a threat so we gave them a wide berth. If they slag or calf, they can be deadly.
Oli and Ally heaved a log into the river so we could cross. I’m pretty sure we could have managed but it was a chivalrous act 🙂 .
DAY 4
Ball’s Pass and Haiduk Lake
Ball’s Pass – Rating: moderat to strenuous; 370 m elevation gain; 16 km; 8 hours
Haiduk Lake – Rating: moderate; 230 m elevation; 16.2 km; 7 hours
Oli’s team hiked Ball’s Pass and traversed some fairly challenging snow ledges off-trail.
Ally’s team hiked to stunning Haiduk Lake, through snow flurries and graupel. This day was a vocabulary expander: Graupel (German pronunciation: [ˈɡʁaʊpəl]; Enɡlish: [ˈgɹaʊpəl]), also called soft hail or snow pellets, is precipitation that forms when supercooled water droplets are collected and freeze on falling snowflakes, forming 2–5 mm (0.08–0.20 in) balls of rime. The term graupel comes from the German language.
From short sleeved t-shirts to full winter wear, the Rockies can throw everything at you. Snow squalls…
This is the soul-healing view from the Shadow lakeshore bridge.
That night we celebrated Louise’s birthday with an hilarious games night featuring the celebrity name game. Two Indianapolis men, whom we nicknamed the Anderson Coopers, and our guides, rounded out the two teams. Hilarity ensued as we tried to act out Prime Ministers, Yogi Bear and other oddities.
DAY 5
Banff-bound via Redearth Creek Pass
We hit the trail hard leaving Shadow Lake and booked it to the trailhead in 2 hours and 55 minutes following the roaring Red Earth Creek.
After bidding Oli and Ally farewell, 
we checked in at the Moose Hotel & Suites in downtown Banff for the night: it’s quite nice and offers a sweet rooftop, fire pit and pools/spa.
Some toured the shops of Banff and others indulged at the Willow Stream Spa at the Banff Springs Hotel. We all rode the gondola up to the top Sulphur Mountain and enjoyed the incredible boardwalks and vistas. Dinner was held in Sky Bistro, where you can see nine mountain peaks! It’s a bit touristy but hey, when in Rome.. It’s worth it.
Final thoughts:
We will be back! There is so much more to explore and I’d like to try ice climbing with Oli.
65 km can hurt. Hiking war wounds for some of the girls below… Buy good boots and break them in! Besides other women, poles are a girl’s best friend.
TREDSUP 