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SELECTED PICTURES FROM OUR HIKES IN LAKE O'HARA AREA

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I would like to write how great the Lake O'Hara area is, but that you can read in any book. So this is just a short story, kind of selected memories, from our dayhikes in the area.

On a dayhike in 1998, we went to the Yukness Col. This was our first visit to Lake O'Hara, so we had read different books trying to pick up the trail with the best views. The task is hard as the area has all kinds of prominent viewpoints in many directions. Finally, the choice was made according to "the higher the better". Renata was not too excited about going up on an unmaintained trail, but eventually we never had a problem to stay on the disappearing overgrown path. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. From the Col, among other great views, you can see Lake Oesa at the valley bottom deep down right below your feet. According to Don Beers the lake is supposed to be "frozen thirteen months in a year". Apparently, we were there in a fourteenth month. The free falling scree on the opposite side of the lake is the glorious most convenient approach to the Abbott Pass and the hut of the same name. Serious. Obviously, it is more convenient to fight an uphill battle with the scree than get killed by an avelanche in the Deathtrap on the other side of the pass. Renata started laughing heartily when I suggested that the pass was the place we were destined to hike to on our next visit to Lake O'Hara. We also smiled when a party of three arrived to the Col some 30 minutes after us. It was a couple with a guide. Talking with the two customers we understood that the guide had told them how remote and scarcely visited this place was and that the unmaintained trail was very difficult to follow. However, right on top they ran into Ma, To, and Mo quarreling over who gets the last tuna sandwich, and were mercilessly told by Renata that we had never been to the area before. Anyway they probably did not mind paying for the guide since they said they were staying down at the Lodge and paid over 400 dollars per night. Trying to justify the price the young lady added that the Lodge provided them with free lunch packages when they left for dayhikes. I could not help myself and suggested to her that for four hundred dollars she fully deserved it. I would probably require a free tee-shirt as well. And a free helicopter ride.

We were fortunate to hike the Opabin Valley for the second time in just a few days. This was on a major hike from Morain Lake through the Wenkchemna and Opabin Passes to Lake O'Hara. Unfortunately, at the end of the day we missed the bus ride from Lake O'Hara down to the highway as the Opabin Glacier crossing from the south of the pass proved more difficult than expected. From a distance the pass looked OK. Avoiding the cracks once on the glacier was a different story. Luckily, the snow had melted away. So it all turned out to be just a bit risky and very long hike. We arrived at Lake O'Hara close to 9pm, three hours after the bus left, and did not feel like posing for a picture in the dark.

We next visited the area in summer 2000. This time we did not have to think hard where to go on a dayhike. Once the vertical kilometer of the scree leading to the Abbott Hut was resolutely vetoed by Renata we had no problem to agree that the place to go was Lake McArthur. We also added the Oderay Grandview to the trip and I kept hoping that the All Souls Prospect can be done in the end of the day as well, maybe by a trick of following a "wrong trail" down from Schaffer Lake. The weather, however, did not cooperate as it did two years ago: clouds all the time, storms every afternoon. Neither did our luck in obtaining the seats on the bus to the lake. With Ma and To we woke up at 4:50am on Friday and drove to the Field Information Center in hope of getting a satisfactory position in the bus reservation line. However, a young lady sitting there in her sleeping bag informed us that their party, having arrived at 2:00am, is taking five out of six dayhiking seats for the following day. On that account I commanded my disappointed crew to get back into the car and drove home. The following morning we did exactly the same as on Friday, unable to wake up earlier. This time it was Brian who beat us at the Information Center by about 30 minutes. Fortunately, he was taking just two seats. Sleepy as I was, I did not realize that Brian and his wife fell into a different bus category since they wanted to camp at Lake O'Hara for two nights. I only claimed four seats, which then helped Glenn and Cindy (and their lovely daughter Sierra) to get in too. That was great because Glenn with his family joined us for the hike the following morning. It also meant I got a chance to hike up the road to Lake O'Hara and test how much time and effort that would take. I should mention that going to the lake on Sunday was an act of God's Providence since on Saturday afternoon, the day when we had originally planned the hike, an extra large and early storm developed in the Lake Louise area and as we later heard there was big hail at Lake O'Hara during the storm. Cold and foggy Sunday morning required real enthusiasm (and courage too) to start the hike. Renata drove me to the bus road and I started walking the eleven kilometers at 6:40. That turned out to be sufficient since I was at Lake O'Hare before the bus arrived and even had time to experiment with the sunrise and reflections in the lake. (See also the shaded side which, being a reflection, actually looked like this when I took the picture.) Shortly after 9:00 we were all on the trail to McArthur Pass, walking together with the Glenn's family. It appeared we were the first group of the day to cross the restricted pass. The Grandview indeed provides for a grand view. The great panorama cannot fit into one picture, so here the view continues to the right . (And here is a closeup of the Glacier Peak and Mt.Ringrose with the Yukness Mt. in front of them .) I almost feel that the hike to the shore of McArthur Lake was something secondary, although originally the lake had been set as the main destination. It was cloudy with light rain when we got there. (Forget superb pictures of the most blue lake in the Rockies.) Any moment the dark gray clouds around us could have broken into a heavy rain. Luckily, they did not. In this state of mind I even gave up on the All Souls. I should mention that Renata, always wary of my true intensions, had inquired the rangers on the morning bus and was told that a large patch of snow was making the traverse impassable. This time we did not have problems to catch the bus down. Instead, there was another danger: Ka seemed to be determined to test how it feels when one runs into Lake O'Hara. Nevertheless it was Mo who was leaving with her feet wet.