r/HikingCanada

1850m Gain, 20km round trip, 2460m max elevation.

5:20 Moving Time, 7:00 Car-Car.

Trailhead is at the Manning Park West Gate Lot just past Sunshine Valley on the Crowsnest Highway. Tons of space in the lot, a couple of outhouses, and the lot is open and visible from the highway.

I arrived at 7:30 to start just after sunrise and immediately started up. This is possibly the best built trail that I've been on for a mountain of this size making for a very gradual climb that, although long, felt quite easy. Most downed trees had been dealt with leaving just a few trees across the trail at higher altitude that were easily bypassed. From about 600m gained to 1000m the forest is dense and quite uninteresting but opens up soon after giving some great views.

You hit the sub-alpine meadow proper at around 1950m (around 1300m gained). The colours were amazing and the clear skies made for awesome views already. The meadow alone would be a decent objective and would keep the hiking to all of the easy stuff.

Continuing up, the trail steepens for the last 500m of elevation gain and after about 100m it turns to a large talus field broken by occasional short sections of dusty trail. The angle remains quite steep but the talus was generally relatively stable to walk on with some care (although my pace slowed significantly). The summit isn't seen from the meadow and is further than it appears from below. The summit ridge is relatively low angle talus to the South, and steep rock to the north making for very comfortable walking. The only required exposure in order to make the summit is a very short narrower section between two gulleys that should be very comfortable for most.

The talus felt easier to navigate on the descent, but was perhaps a little harder to descend than it was to climb. After clearing the loose rock though, the remainder of the trail is straightforward to descend. There was running water in the creek and both tarns also had plenty of water.

Overall I'm glad I went and I may return to camp here with friends.