Surprise & Amphitheatre Lake

Hike Name: Surprise & Amphitheatre Lake

Activity: Hiking

Distance: 14.3 km (RT)

Altitude: 2,920 m

Elevation Gain: 900 m

Area: Grand Teton National Park, WY

Crew: Bennett

Time to Summit: ~2.5 hrs

Lisa's Mom Rating: Yes

Trailhead: Taggart Lake Trailhead


Additional Info:
We arrived in Jackson the night before and needed to do a hike in the Tetons! It was pretty cloudy as we started but we had faith that the views would open up - and they did. There was a surprising amount of snow up at the lake which contributed to the cancellation of our plan to do the Death Canyon Shelf - which we will 100% come back for some day!

We did this hike during our Wyoming Roadtrip.

 Surprise Lake

 Ben taking a dip, of course

 Amphitheater Lake

Quick Westy + Teton Pic!

Mount Harvey

Hike Name: Mount Harvey

Activity: Hiking/Scrambling

Distance: ~15 km (RT)

Altitude: 1,652 m

Elevation Gain: 1500 m

Area: Lions Gate (Vancouver, BC)

Crew: Jaimie, Steph

Time to Summit: ~3 hrs

Lisa's Mom Rating: No

Trailhead: Lions Gate


Additional Info:
Steph and I decided to visit Jaimie, Dan & Trevor over the weekend in Vancouver. We wanted to do a hike and settled on Mount Harvey - it seemed like we were going to be socked in the entire time, and as we neared the summit we started losing hope that it was going to clear up - which is disheartening after 1500m of elevation gain! Anyways. We got a few windows of views towards the ocean and snapped some photos at the summit, and on our way down it cleared more and we got some sun. Lesson learned - always sleep in! There were some groups that were on their way down as we were hiking up who only got whiteout views from the summit.

 Gorgeous canopy

 HUGE TREEEES

 Steph & a cool dome spider web.

 Our only view of the lions today...

 A photogenic Jaimie running down a snow bank on the ridge to the summit

In the clouds! 

 Tatty

 Views opening up

 My scramble sistas

 Clearing up more on the way down

 Group pic!

 Clearing up..

 J'amie!

Viewpoint on the way down. Couldn't see anything here on our way up.

Mount Buller

Hike Name: Mount Buller

Activity: Hiking/Scrambling

Distance: ~10 km (RT)

Altitude: 2,805 m

Elevation Gain: ~1000 m

Area: Kananaskis (Spray Reservoir)

Crew: Bennett

Time to Summit: ~2 hrs

Lisa's Mom Rating: No

Trailhead: Buller Pass Trail Parking


Additional Info:
We hiked up Mount Buller after the snow finally melted enough for us to venture a little deeper into the mountains this year. We didn't encounter any snow, but the wind/clouds made it a little chilly - perhaps I was too ambitious in my short-shorts! We initially planned to do Mount Sparrowhawk, as recently there was a photo posted in a Facebook group of the summit block relatively snow-free, but after a snowfall during the week, we concluded it was probably a no-go now. We settled on Mount Buller as we drove by Sparrowhawk, and I am so happy we did. Getting a view of Sparrowhawk from the summit showed us that we would not have made it to the top that day. We had a lovely day on Buller! There is some route finding & bushwhacking after you leave the Buller Pass Trail and once you hit the saddle, you continue up to the right to reach the summit. There are some slabs to scramble up near the summit which may make some uncomfortable but we found that navigating them was alright.

 Almost at the summit, view looking to the NW up the Spray Reservoir

Bean & Bass!

 Starting to descend

 Bam.