Mounting Robson

There are a plethora of choices of outdoor activities throughout the Rockies, whitewater rafting, canyoning, horse riding, mountain biking, helicopter flights, gondolas, kayaking, but that which dominates them all and that which best fitted our meagre budget is hiking. We chose the trail that is acclaimed as one of the most, if not ‘the most’ beautiful and popular in the parks area – The Berg Lake / Mt Robson trail. This is a 42 km round trip, beginning on a heavily used trail in the thick woodlands leading to tranquil and luminous Lake Kinney, you then cross a wide open river bed, before ascending through pine forests to the 11km marker where Whitehorn campground sits next to a fun rope bridge where you can sway over the river and look up to the steep slope ahead.
This rapid ascent takes you and your protesting thighs past three stunning sets of waterfalls, with the final display at Emperor falls being the ultimate reward for the climb. A thundering spectacular wall of water making you feel fabulously insignificant under its roar.

Then the landscape changes again, out of the trees and across a scree slope where we could see and hear the pikas chirruping to us as we passed by. There are marmots here too, but we were not fortunate enough to see any this time.

After the scree, is a wide open expanse dotted with cairns, scrubby plants, and a network of small streams twisting, connecting and separating again and again.

There were wisps of mist twining around the pines and higher up a cloak of cloud was shrouding the top of Mt Robson ( the highest mountain in the Rockies at 3954m) from view. We had not passed any other hikers since Lake Kinney and to have this whole place to ourselves as we turned the corner to see both glaciers gliding down to meet us, was just perfect.
The aptly named Misty glacier hangs back in the valley a little, while the pristine ice of Berg Glacier flows down into the lake and as it breaks off into the water, it creates hundreds of icebergs, which drift and change into the the most fantastic shapes as they melt and rotate in the sparkling water.It was a welcome relief to set up camp and cook up some hot food in the snug wooden cabin kindly provided by the park department.
Whilst I was doing domestic goddess preparations like wielding a can-opener, the boys had a sighting of a lynx, it simply sat and stared at them from its big intelligent eyes, unfazed by their presence until it heard a loon calling and vanished into the thicket. I am still green with envy that I missed a rare chance to see such a beautiful animal - bugger bugger bugger

That night was cold – damn cold! We had on all our clothes and our thermal sleeping bags and still shivered all night. On the upside – being awake for such extended periods gave us plenty of time to listen to the multitude of creatures, thumping, scuttling and padding past our tent.
When the bear came it didn’t bother us at all, listening to his heavy snuffly breathing inches away, was thrilling, but not scary, and even when I felt a pressure of something pressing gently against my head, I just tingled with excitement.

In addition to the animal noise, there was the constant cracking and groaning of the ice, it is an incredible sound when huge chunks of the glacier would split away and thunder into water, causing waves to splash up against the shore.

We made the trip back down in around 4 hours, striding out the last 10 km with the thought of a hot shower in mind, passing a very sweaty school party on their way up the incline, as we cheerily strode on by.
We made it back all in one piece with our cameras crammed with beautiful shots and not one blister between us. As pub ideas go, this was one of the more successful.