I thought that this hike/scramble would be an easy affair, especially given the perfect weather conditions - completely clear

sky, no wind, and temperatures ranging from -10 to 0 degrees Celsius. I thought wrong!.. again!

Wearing our new winter hiking boots, that are reported to be good to -100 degrees Celsius, we started the hike along the

Centennial Ridge hiking trail, in a shallow layer of new snow. As we gained elevation, however, we snow became

increasingly deep and travel increasingly slower. About an hour and a half in, I made a terrible navigational error that took

us off the wide trail and into dense forest. We realized my mistake after about 15 minutes and ended up wasting another

half hour and an enormous amount of energy bushwhacking back to the trail.

Finally, the ascent route up Collembola came into view. We thought that the summit seen here was the true summit, but

again we were dead wrong. The ascent of the snow-covered, steep slope was long and physically brutal. The fresh and

unconsolidated, foot to two feet of snow was very difficult to negotiate and snowshoes would not have helped. By the

time we had made it to that first (and one of many!) false summit, we were absolutely drained physically.

After several more false summits, the true summit finally came into view, but it was still a long distance away and the

daylight hours were rapidly approaching their end. We continued on for a while, however, it became obvious that the

summit was not going to be achieved today. We stopped at a peak, about 500 m before the summit block, and took a

very well-deserved break. The winter scenery was stunning. Obviously, the four peaks of Mount Lougheed dominated

that panorama to the west. Also, of note were Mount Allan, Mount Bogart, Fisher Peak, Mount McDougall, Old Baldy

Mountain, the Wasootch area, Mount Lorette, Mount McGillivray, Pigeon Mountain, and The Three Sisters.

Although the descent was considerably easier than the ascent (taking less than half of the time), it was also brutally long

and exhausting. This trip definitely belongs in the category of "Our most grueling days in the mountains". I can't wait to