Wed 30 May 2007
Berg Lake Trail - Mt Robson Provincial Park (with Video)
Posted by Ewen under Hiking , Jasper , Video[10] Comments
Distance: 21km to Berg Lake, one way.
Elevation: 862m - 1646m.
Effort: Medium-high to get to Berg Lake in one day.
Maps: NTS 83 E/3, Mt Robson Park 1:125,000
Rating: 9.5/10 If you include trip to Robson and Mist Glacier.
A stunning trail featuring close-up glacier action, the Canadian Rockies Highest Peak (a staggering 2.5 vertical kilometres above the trail), blue-blue lakes, and more than one fantastic waterfall. Also some pretty forest in the lower sections.
Well finally, I’m ready to write about my latest backpacking trip, done May Long Weekend. I went to Mt Robson Provincial Park, just over the border in BC with Lucas and Rob (from NAIT Outdoors Club). The plan was to do the Berg Lake trail, despite rumours of trail closure due to rockfall and deep snow (in MAY? yeah, I know). Forecast was for rain all over all parts of the Rockies. Oh well.
We left Edmonton after work on the Friday, and made it to the trail head for around 11pm. We decided to hot-foot it to Kinney Lake, the first campground, under cover of darkness. We made the 7km in around an hour and twenty mins, its a mostly flat easy trail. The rain held off just about the whole way there.
Day 1
The next morning I awoke to a gorgeous view of Kinney Lake, the first time I’ve been here. Despite the grey clouds and threatening rain, the lake was still a lovely colour. We had a lesiurely 10am start on the trail, intending to take it easy on our way to Berg Lake that day. We checked out some areas for potential climbing on the way (I didn’t like the look of the rock though). At the start of the Valley of a Thousand Falls (12km) the trail was closed. Apparently it was just closed for when they were actually working though, it didn’t look like anyone was. So we naughtily jumped the sign. Falls of the Pool were first on our list. Wow. They are gorgeous. The sun even came out for the first time while we checked them out. A short 10min detour of the trail, across a rather loose scree slope (see video!).
We then continued up the very steep and long switch backs of the notoriously aerobic part of the trail. It wasn’t really that bad though. 500 vertical metres in 4.5km to give you an idea. Nearing the top of the climb you come across the impressive Emperor Falls. I prefer the Falls of the Pool for aesthetics though. We hit our first snow around here, and it wasn’t long before we got the snowshoes out.
Continuing on we had our first view of a shoulder of Mt Robson as the cloud cleared up, and we broke into the broad, flat, New Zealand-esque valley of the upper-robson river. We soon had fantastic views of Mist Glacier, the closest glacier just before Berg Lake. Berg Glacier quickly followed into view. Both these superb glaciers (the scary Mist and the pretty Berg) come RIGHT down to the valley bottom, and Mist Glacier was begging to be explored.
We detoured of trail and had a CHILLY ford of the Robson River (in Crocs, see video). We then hiked right along the ridge of glacial morraine, enjoying stunning vistas of the frozen Berg Lake, and the two glaciers. Awesome. We then had to return to the trail, via another even colder ford. This time the rain had returned, with a strong icy wind and an ambient temperature of 0C. Not a time to be getting your feet wet in a river that has chunks of ice floating down. I will remember this as one of the least enjoyable of the trip (hence the lack of video footage) as I quickly lost feeling in my fingers and toes…for a good 45mins.
We hurried our freezing extremities the last few kilometres to Hargreaves Shelter, a beautifully situated cabin (no beds, and not for sleeping). We quickly got a fire going, and soon discovered the stunning view had from the deck of the shelter. The clouds all but cleared the summit of Mt Robson, and wow was it amazing.
Day 2
We had another leisurely start (12) as we waited for the minor blizzard to cease, and the few inches of snow to start melting. Today we had it in mind to go as far as possible on the Snowbird Pass trail.
After an hour and a half or so of easy hiking, the toe of Robson Glacier came into view, and we descended from the trail to investigate (safely!). As you can see from the video, it makes for some impressive footage.
Carrying on up the valley, we now stuck to the very edge of the glacier for easier hiking. But the snow-covered nature of the glacier, and the avalanche risk from above meant we were unable to get all the way to Snowbird. We did have the fortune of a beautiful day opening up, treating us to a virtually cloudless sky for the whole afternoon. Lucas discovered that suncream really IS necessary when on a glacier in the sun.
By the time we made it back to Berg Lake, Mt Robson was COMPLETELY clear of any sort of cloud, a rare occurrence i’m told. It remained clear the rest of the night AND the following day until we had actually driven out of sight of it. How lucky. We, however, ran out of SLR batteries, video camera batteries, and compact camera batteries!!! Major error. We did capture some footage though. Oh and I almost forgot, we also got great shots of a HUGE massive avalanche of the side of Rearguard Mountain.
Day 3
We headed home, and made it back to the car from Berg Lake in around 6 hours. Including all stops (one for nearly an hour). So it really is possible to do this trail, with a nice day for side trips, in a 3-day weekend. From Edmonton.
This is a fantastic summer hike, especially if you include the ’scramble’ up to the of Cirque Peak, which sits just under the 3000m mark. It is one of the most easily attainable peaks of this height in the Canadian Rockies, with absolutely spectacular views.
The trail starts off through some fairly open pine forest, giving you some nice views of the Icefields Parkway valley (is this still called Bow Valley this far up?) as you climb steadily. After 45mins or so the trail steepens as you start to climb out of the trees, and you soon break into the Helen Lake valley. This area is beautiful if you catch the alpine flowers in june/july. From here the trail heads easily onwards to Helen Lake. Awesome views of the Dolomite Range and Cirque Peak surround you. Watch for bears…this is prime grizzly country. The trail is sometimes closed if a bear is known to be in the area.
For Cirque Peak, follow the obvious trail anti-clockwise round the lake, and begin to ascend the high ridge over looking the lake. This is still all on a fairly easy trail, so even if you don’t fancy ascending Cirque Peak, it is worth to top out on this ridge for a view Eastwards over Katherine Lake to Dolomite Pass.
But there is no exposure at all to worry about. When you reach the top (the first obvious top)…you can be amazed by the tinyness of the summit you just ascended with ease. It’s extremely precipitous on the backside, but you can keep well away from that if you want. If you want to obtain the true summit, there is a little bit more exposed (but still very easy) scrambling to do as you head right. If you don’t have a head for heights, don’t worry. The view is much the same from the both summits.
Looking out across the Icefields Parkway, you can see Bow Glacier, and the gorgeous looking hanging lake right above Bow Falls which I now HAVE to visit one day. If you like spotting peaks, I’m sure you could name about 20 of the tops you can see from this vantage point.
I have not done this particular descent, sounds nice though!
This very short outing is surprisingly entertaining. Its an off-trail hike/scramble up to a little rocky summit above Lake Abraham. If you like rock, you can find a lot of interesting (not exposed) scrambles on the way up. If you don’t, nearly all can be avoided and hand-use becomes necessary on only a few occasions.
Then just pick a path directly up the ridge until you reach the obvious knob that is the hikes high-point. Big sheep are more than likely to be seen here, one of their favourite haunts. Consequently beware of ticks! They are all over the place on this hike. The scrambling is very easy and basic, but you can make it more entertaining if you wish. There are some wicked dead trees to be found, that seem to have been twisted round and round.
See photo below top-right.
Easter long-weekend is traditionally becoming the first backpacking trip of the year for me. Well, I have been both Easters I’ve been in Canada….I’m not sure you can call it a tradition QUITE yet. Last year took me on 
and so we decided on bringing 3 pairs of snowshoes between 7 people. Enough to break trail, but few enough to keep the weight down for people. We decided against Littlehorn Meadows, because I was sure it would be impassable with deep snow and avalanche risk.
relatively boring trail that sticks mostly in the trail, with a few creek crossings providing a welcome change of scenery. We missed the notoriously hard to find turn off for the Stelfox Loop trail (the tell-tale 2m long log probably well buried in snow!) and ended up camping where the creek from Stelfox Pass joins Whitegoat Creek. In winter this option works very well, as the creek provides nice, easy access up to Stelfox Pass. It is around 6km from the trail head.
There are some OK views, but nothing that spectacular. You never really get out in the open, it’s a very low pass. To spice things up we decided to scramble up the ridge on the south side of the pass, the ridge that leads up to Mount Stelfox. It was steep on loose rock and talus, but it was well worth a 1hour side trip for some excellent views.
Once we reached Coral Creek, the going never really got easier. More rough terrain, many stream crossings, snowshoes on and off every 10mins, lots of rocks underfoot, some bushwacking all made for a tough hike with big packs on. We never really located the ‘trail’ which is not that consistent or easy-going either. Eventually we gave up rock-hopping across the semi-frozen creek, and opted for the wet feet approach. A wise decision considering the 20 or so crossings we undertook in total!
Overall it was a fun hike, a hard hike in winter with the multitude of tough terrain, but easily do-able in one short 6km day, and a longer 15km day. The scenery is pretty nice, and you get a good wilderness feeling. I would definitely do this again in winter, probably on skis in one long day.
This one is a bit different from my normal kinda hike. A fun, rock-hop up a stream bed with some interesting terrain/features. Turn round when you get bored/have to go home.
because there is little water, and it was mostly frozen so you could hike/slip up the ice, or rock hop. Whatever takes your fancy. Or you can walk along side out of harms way for a lot of it too. In times of highwater..there will probably be some wet-feet spots. But I think it would be good fun to try and get up there still!
Our hike was made more interesting when we rounded a corner to find a huge wall of snow blocking the valley in an otherwise snow-less area. Avalanche! This was pretty recent too looking at it…no more than a week. We took full advantage and had a mini snow battle, before pressing on to explore the cave at 3km-ish from the start. Keep an eye out for it, it’s located at the top of a scree/talus slope on the righthand side. A faint path can be found up to it. If you brought your torch and you like climbing, you can probably have a bit of fun getting up to the back of the cave. I didn’t, so I’m not sure how far it goes. Look out for the mounds of bat poo.
