Scrambling with Mark and Dow.

This trip definitely fits into the category of my favourite scrambles - a beautiful lake, surrounded by craggy mountains, some fun hands-on scrambling (especially on Mount Whyte), two summits in one trip, and unbelievable scenery, including many of Lake Louise's most notable glaciated peaks.

The first part of the trip involved an easy (and crowded!) hike to Lake Agnes. This beautifully, clear lake, back-dropped by striking and craggy Mount Whyte, was a fantastic sight. At the end of the lake we met up with Dow (40 years old, retired, living in Canmore - talk about heaven on earth!). We decide to hike together and I'm glad we did. Dow has a ton of climbing, scrambling, and mountaineering experience and he gave us detailed and interesting accounts of his ascents of Mounts Louis and Robson, to name a few.

The ascent of Mount Niblock was easy and fun. There were a couple of trickier sections on the first rockband, but nothing too hard. The trip from the Niblock/Whyte col to the summit was especially enjoyable - easy hands-on scrambling, stunning rock formations and colours, and an exponentially increasing, magnificent view. At the summit the surrounding mountains were spectacular. Obviously, glacier-clad Mounts Victoria and Lefroy stole the scene. The infamous "Death-trap" glacier between the two giants was almost frightening to look at (almost, but not quite!). Mount Temple, as awe-spiring as ever, took on quite a different look, with huge plumes of forest fire smoke rising behind and above the peak. The view to the west was unbelievable - I could pick out almost every single scramble and alpine route in the Field area, including massive Mount Daly, Niles, Carnarvon, and The Presidents. The Wapta icefield further enhanced the magnificence of the scene. We could have stayed up there was hours, enjoying the view, but decided to give more difficult  Mount Whyte a shot.

Alan Kane warns you that the routefinding is a challenge on this mountain and he's absolutely right! We were all over the place, taking one wrong route after another (Dow had gone ahead and was already close to the summit before we started the ascent). After a great deal of trail and error, a few unnerving ascents up tricky and exposed sections, we were ready to give up. It was only a picture of the crux, from Dave Stephen's website, that saved the day and led us triumphantly to the summit. Take note: read Kane's instructions carefully, and make sure you follow them!

For descent, we made a feeble attempt at the alternate return via the Plain of Six Glaciers, however, we could see far below that Dow was having problems on this route, and so we turned around and used our ascent route. Except for a couple of tricky routefinding spots, the descent down to the col was easier than I expected and we even found a simpler route that avoided some difficult exposed downclimbing. Overall, a terrific scramble, two wonderful summits under our belts, unmatched scenery, and a good test of perseverance for us.