Fri, Sep 17 2010, Sat, Sep 18 2010, Sun, Sep 19 2010 - Bow Peak & Survey Peak (View Original Event Details)
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All this week I was staring at the weather forecast for the Rockies and just had the most difficult time trying to make a decision for this event. The weather forecast was lousy for the areas covering Bow Peak and Survey Peak for Saturday and Sunday. However, Jasper townsite was showing sunny weather for Friday and Saturday. I decided to alter the trip by going to Jasper on Friday morning to hike/scramble Roche Bonhomme then hike Verdant Pass the next day. With a lousy Sunday forecast, we would return to Edmonton after the hike on Saturday. With this change, our group was reduced to 3: Holly, Josephine, and myself.
We left Edmonton after picking everyone up at 8:45am. We got into Jasper and our trailhead by 1pm. At 1:15pm, we were hiking up the Roche Bonhomme trail. A description I had obtained from the internet said the trail was brutally steep, relentless, and with no switchbacks. Well true that! The good thing, it wasted no time and we ascended quickly enough. Lower down along the trail, there was a nice canyon to entertain us while in the trees. After 3 hours or so, we made treeline which was nice. The next section was a rough scree trail to the summit ridge. This section was quick and before I knew it, we were on the ridge and quickly after, standing on the summit of Roche Bonhomme. There was snow on the upper ridge leading up to the summit but nothing to be concerned about. It was over all, a relatively easy plod along the summit ridge to the summit with only a couple minor scramble sections. The weather was perfect and the views were superb! A special treat, seeing Mt Robson again from Jasper, more than 75km away!! The snow capped summits as far as we could see were truly magestic and with no wind, it was a very pleasant summit break. But as the time neared 6pm, we thought we should make our descent which was just retracing our steps down the steep trail. By 8:30pm and in the fading light, we arrived at the vehicle with a great feeling of making it to a nice and pleasant summit with perfect views. We drove the 20 seconds down the road and spent the night at the Maligne Canyon hostel.
The weather was solid in the morning. At the hostel, we met a German named Christophe. He was trying to find a hike so we casually invited him along on our hike - Verdant Pass. He accepted and the four of us drove out to the trailhead (same as for Tonquin Valley). We were hiking pretty good along the Astoria River trail and almost missed the trail for Verdant Pass. Not that the trail is obscure, quite the contrary, it is an excellent and well defined trail but we were not paying attention as we should be and watching for the trail. A Quebec couple were right behind us and they too nearly missed the trail for the same reasons we did. However, we began hiking up the trail through the forest towards Verdant Pass. A bit of snow on the trail in some sections but only an inch at most and only the odd patch. The guidebook says 6-8 hours return but we took 9 hours. The Verdant Pass area has lots of places to explore. We hiked into the first Edith Cavell cirque where we found a lovely tarn which did not seem to appear on the Gem Trek map. The guidebook said to ignore this cirque but I disagree, it was quite nice and with open alpine hiking, you cannot go wrong by exploring too much. We then hiked further to reach the second Edith Cavell cirque where a much larger unnamed lake sits. This too was nice. We then had to drop down to reach Verdant Pass by passing another tarn then finding another tarn at the pass itself. All these lovely tarns/lakes and a wide open pass with great views, it was easy to understand why this was characterized as 'premier'. After enjoying the pass and the time drawing late after-noon, we reluctanly returned. We all agreed it would be a nice place to random camp. I would like to know if anyone has continued to Campus Pass. Our return was uneventful. Once back at the parking lot, we changed clothes and drove into Jasper for supper. We left Jasper, said goodbye to our German companion, Christophe and arrived back in Edmonton at about 1am.
This was a great 2-day trip and I am happy to have enjoyed fabulous weather. I would like to thank both Holly and Josephine for their good company. Both Roche Bonhomme and Verdant passes were excellent. Photos coming soon...
Cheers! Jeff
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Mark G at photos@edmontonoutdoorclub.com. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to thirty of your favourites (only) for a day event, or up to sixty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.