Mount Assiniboine, Canadian Rockies | Alberta, BC

Travels

“Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.”
― John Muir

 

Last June along with my childhood friends I got to go on the biggest hiking trip of my life; back-countrying through the great Canadian Rockies ! Whoa!  who would have thought i'd be tackling the Rockies !? I mean I always had love for the mountains and had been enjoying hikes around the local areas but Rockies ? Different beast. Anyway, I wasn't exactly sure about what I was getting myself into at the time but when the opportunity came around, I said yes anyway. And I cannot be any happier to have gone on that trip cause what I have seen and experienced over 6 days have left me with precious lifelong memories. We left Vancouver on the 9th of June and spent first day getting there and driving around Banff. We camped the first night somewhere near the Bryant Creek relaxing and prepping ourselves for our journey to come. The next morning our Mount Assiniboine exploration began. Through the wilderness we walked and walked. Up the mountain, through the forest, across the river, along the lakes. Our path were often muddy or frozen, or sometimes even non-existent. Weights of our bags were pressing us down, but every step we took, more lighthearted we became.  What laid before our eyes were just mesmerizing, almost surreal.  Approximately 80 km I think we covered in 6 days. We started out from Mount Shark Trailhead, traveled over Wonder Pass (where we briefly experienced moment of panic), through Bryant Creek Trail and looped back to the Mount Shark Trailhead. 2 nights out of 6, we slept in our tents under the stars + rain + snow and 4days we base camped at Assiniboine Naiset hut. We couldn't shower for 7 days but we got to wash our hair in brain-freezing super fresh ice-cold glacier water (while we screamed our souls away under ever so softly falling giant snowflakes lol). We ran into grizzly once (which stood approximately 50m away from us on a higher ground across a tiny little stream that would not have stop it from charging at us if it wanted to but luckily did not really care for us...) and got to witness an avalanche (from far far away on the mountain across from a ginormous lake) :D Wow, just wow. What an incredible place we live in? People from all over the world travel to Canada just to see the great Rockies and we have it here as our own backyard - A backyard that needs to be explored over many many days cause what we have witnessed over 6 days were just a mere glimpse of this divine landscapes. Would I ever do this again? HECK YAS OF COURSE!! it is truly a spectacular, eye-opening experience that opened up a whole new world for me...plus the idea of being able to see something that not everyone can make it even more addicting... Well here is a brief overview of our Rockies trip. I really want to do it again - who is in?!

kananaskis country canadian rockies

Here are us, starting out strong.

And shortly after we ran into couple of rangers.

Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canadian Rockies Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canadian Rockies

Always Stay Alert ! Us practicing for emergency bear encounters

the entire time we were hiking we were getting rained / hailed on lol

Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canadian Rockies

kinda impossible not to stop every step of the way cause the view is too too gorgeous…

Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canadian Rockies

Because we started quite early in the season, trails were still covered in snow a bit. A BIT? little did we know…

Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canadian Rockies

Holy mountains !


anndddd here we go… snow storm is upon us…


mmm this is where we kinda panicked. The sign was telling us to proceed on, but the direction it was pointing towards to, there was nothing but endless fields of white. Snow was upto our knee and cause of the thick fog visibility was super low. Plus the wind was so strong that we couldn’t even walk properly. At the moment I was not really scared but when I think back on it oh dear… I think it is cause the entire situation did not really register in my head.

Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canadian Rockies
and next moment, sun is out like nothing has happened.

Wonder Pass

View of the Wonder Pass! GAHHHH GORGEOUSSS
by this time we kinda forgot that we were in a dangerous situation like a second ago.

When we came down from the Wonder Pass we were extremely tired…

Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canadian Rockies

and from far far away we spotted  Assiniboine Lodge. Ones shown in the photos below are actually fully serviced and reservable lodges and you can get to it by helicopters. The ones we stayed at are Naiset Huts

Assiniboine Lodge

Anthony going over the routes we took

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View from the main lodge…

Knob Peek

Knob Peak

Celebratory out house dance lol

Lake Magog

walking through the Valley to get to the valley of rocks…

We were pretty damn sure that was a bear condo

Lake Og

Valley of Rocks Mount Assiniboine Lodge

Can you spot the grizzly??

Later that grizzly came down near us while we were getting supply of our water. I think that was the scariest moment…
So freaked out by the encounter, we went back to our hut and decided to stay in for couple hours and then these lay flat photos happened.
Mountain essentials :D

Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park
After couple hours, we got restless, so we strolled around the area and revisited Lake Magog again.


Last day time to loop back

Helena is champ at map reading

on our way down, we found this communal cabin but decided to sleep in the tent for the night at the near by camping ground anyways … and Oh my… the coldest night ever ! i don’t think I was able to sleep much that night.

walking back to the trailhead ! End is near :)

Drivers dream omg !

rewarding view till the end. Driving through Jasper to get home and <3 <3 <3

Check out my friend Anthony’s  for blog here more info !

Thank you Anthony and Helena for taking care of everyone throughout the way and keeping the team together !

Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, ㅍ무채ㅕㅍㄷㄱ ㅈㄷㅇ야ㅜㅎ ㅔㅙ샣ㄱ메ㅗㄷㄱ, ㅍ무채ㅕㅍㄷㄱ ㅔㅙ샣ㄱ메ㅗㄷㄱ

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