Sat, Sep 20 2008 - Opal Peak (View Original Event Details)
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What a great day! 6 of us met at 6am at the LRT station, and we drove out to Jasper. We had a pit stop at the Tim Horton's in Edson and by 10:30am, we were at the trailhead for the Opal Hills trail just next to Maligne Lake. We met our two remaining trip participants at the trailhead. We geared up and by 11:00am we were on the trail. We held a moderate pace up through the lower forest and with the odd break we were soon at tree line. We could see our objective, Opal Peak high above. We hiked up a bit further to where the vegetation met the scree, stopped, and had a nice snack. We then made our way to a high saddle south of the peak to enjoy the views thus far gained. We plodded up the southwesterly slopes and in around 3:30hours were on the summit! The weather was great and the views awesome, especially to the south where big glaciated mountains dominated the view. We ate our lunch, took some photos, signed our names in the summit register, and relaxed before going back down. We went down the north side and met some interesting moderate scrambling on loose rock but with some patience and care, were soon down to another high saddle north of the summit where a few of us saw two mountain goats. We made our way down and intersected the Opal Hills trail and finished the loop by reaching the cars by about 6:15pm. We had a nice dinner at the Earl's in Jasper and left for home around 9pm. We arrived back in Edmonton at just after midnight. What a great trip! I really enjoyed myself in Jasper today and loved being on the summit of Opal Peak. I highly recomend this one. Just a steep hike. Thanks to those people who signed up and came out. Thanks to Lenka for driving. I hope to see you on future trips. 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.