Maligne Canyon & Old Fort Point, Jasper, AB

I nearly missed out on the trip to the ice cavern... At some point in the night, gnomes infiltrated my phone and switched my clock back to Pacific standard, rather than Mountain standard time so I was muddled the morning of. Luckily the tour guide came and found me (and that I was packed and ready an hour "early"). The tour was filled with 5 foot tall women that were basically locals — naturally I stood out and they gave me the moniker "long legs"... It was a very strange outing. The trip through the ice cavern was incredible, there were some difficult sections (particularly for the "short legs") but the cleats we had made them manageable. The river we trailed is both the coldest river in the area in summer, and the warmest in winter as the glacial water source is located only a short distance away. As we descended 50 metres into the canyon floor, it was spooky seeing the water line left in the summer. We had to stop briefly as there were ice climbers above and then we had to turn around and trek back. Beyond a point the ice had become brittle with the warming temperatures and the water had drained beneath leaving a 12 foot cavity that would certainly ruin someones day. On the way back I got the chance to get some more squirrel shots, so I've uploaded those too at popular request.

In the afternoon I made my way up to Old fort point, which is a steep hike up to an area overlooking the town of Jasper. The first half was a leisurely hike on compacted snow to a smaller point which didn't sport much of a view, thereon the footprints essentially stopped, and what followed was a couple kilometres of knee deep powder. There was a section with a steep bank, which I thought might hold a neat view ontop, so I made the trek up off trail. Luckily I did, there was a small plateau that seemed virtually untouched, however there were two large red chairs, just sitting there, looking off into the distance. The weather had become a lot less friendly by this point — it was even raining (for the first time in a month) so I had a quick pit stop, grabbed a few photos and continued onward. By the time I made it to the lookout, cloud had blanketed the town and entire mountainscape, so there wasn't much worth photographing. There were however a few bighorn sheep, sitting next to a sheer cliff face a hundred or so metres down the other side of the mountaintop. So, of course I went and said hello. I couldn't believe how close they let me get — these were wild animals. Up close I realised that I presented absolutely no threat, these things are massive brutes, weighing up to 140 Kg, with 15 Kg horns — I have no idea how cougars hunt these things so successfully. I did get too close at one point, which had me quickly rethink the sensibility of my curiosity, but they soon relaxed again and I spent a good part of the afternoon having a chat, with sheep, on a mountain, in the middle of nowhere. The hike back was then ridiculous... the rain had frozen, leaving the steep decline in pretty poor condition. The journey back was worthy of Go-Pro footage, and I even invented new swear words as I inched my way down, sodden and demoralised. An awesome day hike though, and I'm now fit as a fiddle.