Heart Mountain & Grant MacEwan Peak

Hike Name: Heart Mountain Cirque
Activity: Hiking/Scrambling
Distance: 7 km (RT)
Altitude: 2,149 m
Elevation Gain: 875 m
Area: Bow Valley (Exshaw)
Crew: Ben, Mark F, Andrew, Lauren
Time to Summit: Unknown (blog created post-hike)
Lisa's Mom Rating: Maybe
Trailhead: Heart Creek Parking Lot

Getting There:
Heading West on the Trans-Canada (Hwy 1) from Calgary, take the exit at Lac Des Arcs. Cross over the highway on the overpass, and park at the Heart Creek Parking lot.

Additional Info:
This is a nice hike up to Heart Mountain (a few places with hands-on-scrambling), but a good beginner scramble nonetheless. If you continue on from Heart Mountain (2135m), you will also summit Grant MacEwan Peak (2149m) before descending down the eastern slope of the cirque, and then walking along a path adjacent to the highway, back to the car.

Ben, Andrew, and Mark F on Grant MacEwan Peak

It is also possible to continue onto Twin Towers from Grant MacEwan Peak.

Sky Diving

Activity: Tandem Sky Diving

Fall Time: 30s

Jump Elevation: 3,000 m

Location: Rosario, Argentina

Crew: Ben

Lisa's Mom Rating: ???

I've always wanted to go skydiving. When I was in Turkey last year, I tried to jump with Oliver, Olivia and Jeevan, however the company in Izmir was not quite open for the season yet. Flash forward 6 months to December while visiting Bennett in Argentina..

We took a 22 hour long bus ride from Iguazu to Rosario. We got off the bus and once we got to the hostel, Bennett told me to grab my runners because we were going skydiving in an hour! WHAT! I can't believe he did such a good job keeping it a secret but it was definitely the coolest Christmas present I've ever received. The best part was that I didn't have the nerves-build-up that he did over the few days that he had planned it and I was just on cloud 9. No stress, just pure stoke.

Me and Seba!

Iguazu Falls

Activity: Hiking

Location: Puerto Iguazu, Argentina

Crew: Ben

While Bennett and I were in Argentina, of course we had to go see Iguazu Falls. We roamed around all day here, admiring the many beautiful falls, we rode on the boat that takes you right underneath some of the falls, and then hiked out to another little swimming hole in the late afternoon! It was damn hot. I've never been in a rainforest before - it's so different than hiking back at home! ;)

 Bennett and the falls!

Me and the falls!

On the boat

Mount Rae

Hike Name: Mount Rae
Activity: Scrambling
Distance: 8.3 km (RT)
Altitude: 3,232 m
Elevation Gain: 1040 m, ~600 to turnaround point
Area: Kananaskis Valley
Crew: Mark, Jaimie, Eric
Time to Summit: No summit (came back in 2018)
Lisa's Mom Rating: No

Trailhead: Highwood Pass Parking Lot/Ptarmigan Cirque

Getting There:
From the Trans-Canada (Hwy 1), go south on Kananaskis Trail (Hwy 40). Park at the Highwood Pass Parking Lot. It will be on the right side of the highway. The parking lot is past the turn-off for the Smith-Dorrien.

Additional Info:
Follow the trail up to Ptarmigan Cirque. You will cross the highway and head up the mountain. Enjoy the beauty of this area! Once you have reached the far end of the cirque, instead of turning back, continue around the mountain to your left (there should be a faint trail in the scree) up to the ribs in the rock. Pick a rib to go up, aiming for the saddle. Head right once you hit the ridge. You can follow the ridge or avoid the exposure below the ridge in the trails that can be seen through the scree. We stopped at the saddle after running into some snow. I came back in 2018 with Steph!

Note: Kananaskis Trail (Hwy 40) is seasonally closed. It closes from Peter Lougheed Provincial Park to the Highwood House Junction from December 1 to June 14 annually.

View from the saddle after attaining the ridge

Yamnuska ii

Trip #2:Crew: Connor, Matt, Katie, Mark, and Ben
Date: August 9, 2014
Time to Summit: Unknown (blog created post-hike)
Click here for the Mount Yamnuska Post

Ha Ling ii

Trip #2:Crew: Julia and Praveen
Date: July 27, 2014
Time to Summit: Unknown (blog created post-hike)
Click here for the Ha-Ling Post

Mount Baldy West

Hike Name: Mount Baldy West
Activity: Scrambling
Distance: 10 km (RT)
Altitude: 2,192 m
Elevation Gain: 870 m
Area: Kananaskis Valley
Crew: Mark, Jaimie, KT
Time to Summit: Unknown (blog created post-hike)
Lisa's Mom Rating: No

Trailhead: O'Shaughnessy Falls

Getting There:
From the Trans-Canada (Hwy 1), go south on Kananaskis Trail (Hwy 40). Park at O'Shaughnessy Falls. It will be on the left side of the highway.

Additional Info:
Go up the falls. There are faint trails here-and-there. This was pre-figuring out sh*t out so we thought we were on the main Mount Baldy trail. It was a surprise but we still had fun!

Mark and I on West Baldy