BAD TRAVELS

Mount Fairview Summit - Banff NP, AB

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This was our favourite hike here! The elevation gain of 1031 m was the most physically demanding of any hike we did and the views at the summit (2722 m) were stunning. Felt like we were at the top of the world. Check out the BLOG!

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Some perspective. This shot of the Saddleback (bottom arrow) and Mount Fairview (top arrow) was take on July 12. Still quite a bit of snow on the then but much less on the 19th when we did the hike up.

Going up! Started the climb at 10am, still cool but we knew we’d heat up fast since it’s up all the way to the saddleback.

Going up and up and up

View of Lake Louise village and the campground our trailer is parked in.

Glad we waited a week to do this hike. Still snow on the trail but a lot less than 7 days ago.

Made it to the Saddleback. It’s 3.7 K up to here and 595 m elevation gain. We did it in about 1.5 hours and felt pretty good.

At the saddleback there’s another trail you can take but it’s in the restricted area where it’s mandatory to hike in a group of at least 4 due to lots of bear activity in a narrow valley.

Yes, the top of that pile of rock is where we’re going. From the saddleback it’s 1.4 K to the summit and “only” 418 m up. Holy crap, this is going to hurt!!!

In the tree line, taking in the views.

Lunch break in the rock scree….higher than we got in 2009 when we didn’t summit due to Dave’s hamstring injury.

Wow, there are monkeys in the mountains…..who knew?

Surprising bits of colorful wild flowers tucked into all the rock.

At this point we’re only about halfway up…you can see the trail up to the saddleback down below.

More snow up higher, the lighter green lines in the mountain in the distance are the ski runs of Lake Louise.

More unexpected colour in the rock scree.

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See that glacier, there are people climbing on it…seriously!

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Those 3 little dots are people

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……..really insane people!

Still going up!

Made it to the top! That’s Lake Louise below, and opposite, the Big Beehive. We’ll be going up that in a few more days.

What a view! A couple of days later we hiked that trail in the valley to the 6 glaciers

Taking a minute to enjoy the view and the accomplishment. Feels like we’re on top of the world!!

My favourite picture! What incredible scenery!!! The elevation at the top is 2744 m just over 9,000 ft.

Monkey on the summit! No bears!

These little squirrel/chipmunk critters were all over the top looking for handouts!

Going down….hard in a totally different way but faster!

Flowers are always a good excuse to stop and take a picture and rest!

Tempting to take a slide down on the snow….too bad you’d go flying off the edge into the air and then plunge to your death!

Getting closer to the treelike

Hard to believe we were up there. It doesn’t look so steep from this perspective but trust me, it is!

Back in the saddle, going down

One last look at the view

A sleepy hoary marmot

Hairy flowers. I was told they’re some sort of anenome

Admiring the view of Lake Louise village area and the campground

That’s the chateau

Back at Lake Louise. The mountain on the left is Mt Fairview. Pretty sure we were on the top of the middle peak. How did we do that? Looks so much higher from this perspective.

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