Another decent looking storm, another bit of high alpine pow to chase after! All of 12 hours before leaving Golden, I got in touch with Matt to see if he was keen for Mt. Joffre in K Country, an impressive peak and fun looking ski descent, but nothing too scary since I’m over that for a bit after an ultra-sketch descent of Bryce Center Peak and attempt on Bryce north face. Joffre’s a fair bit of slog though. At 4:30 am, we were walking away from the car to do a 1-day assault on knee cartilage and Joffre.<\/p>\n
We left from the south parking lot on Upper Kananaskis Lake and went down the very groomed trail around it. Then up the unsigned branch to Hidden Lake, finally having to step over a log. BC mountaineering, this aint! We decided to take the high route around Hidden Lake, since I knew the trail climbed steeply on the scree slopes on the left afterwards, and we didn’t want to miss the turn-off. It was pointlessly arduous though, just before starting the climb, the trail was very well-marked from the route you can take around the lake when it’s in low water. Then up a very steep rain-slick trail climbing up a side drainage before traversing scree slopes to get around Fossil Falls. A little bit more undulating terrain got us to Aster Lake four hours after leaving the car.<\/p>\n