WEBCAMS - Mountains

3 sisters:
http://www.canmorealberta.com/webcams/three-sisters



Canmore Nordic Centre:
http://www.canmorealberta.com/webcams/canmore-nordic-centre

Yamnuska:
http://www.tpr.alberta.ca/parks/kananaskis/trailreport.aspx

Moose Mountain:
http://www.braggcreek.ca/weather/index.htm

Alberta (by U of Manitoba):
http://umanitoba.ca/environment/envirogeog/weather/remotevidall.html

AMA road cameras:
http://www.ama.ab.ca/road-reports/highway-cameras

Hailstone Butte - Sentinel Peak - Unnamed Ridge

We parked along the highway 532 parking lot for Hailstone Butte and started hiking at 9:30 am. There was enough snow melted on the actual trail that we could follow it for about a km. When we reached the area where the steep scree slope begins some of us put on our microspikes as the scree was frozen and a slip would be difficult to arrest. I lead this part on the way up and stuck to the connecting patches of snow as it was much easier to ascend this way then on the steep frozen scree. When we finally reached the ridge Shaun led the way up to the summit on the very hard packed snow. We probably should've had our ice axe out at this point as it would've been very difficult to stop a fall here. Once at the summit we took some group shots and rested for approximately 15 minutes. We then continued on the ridge down towards Sentinel Peak and just walked straight down the north end of the ridge instead of taking the trail that heads East (and then circles back around.) We saved approximately 1 km this way. It was a couple of km to the col of Sentinel and the unnamed ridge (that lies between Sentinel and Hailstone). We decided enroute that it would be nice to do the unnamed ridge on the way back instead of going through snow. Once at the peak on Sentinel we took a number of group shots. There were no technical parts, mainly just hiking to the summit. On our way back there was a very little amount of scrambling up to the summit of the ridge and then downclimbing. Once off the ridge we found the trail again and then headed back towards Hailstone. However when we got the area where we thought it would be easy connect to our initial path, we realized there were 2 options. Descend into the valley and then reascend the other side (crossing a potential avalanche gully) or continue east and head down a gulley with very little amounts of snow patches that lead to the 532 highway about a couple of km from where we had parked. We decided on the latter and descended down the gulley attempting to glisade but the snow was too slushy it was too difficult to move. We were back at the car by 5:30 pm.

Burnt Timber Lookout

This trip was with the COC and was coordinated by Barbara. I had never been on any of her trips before or any of the trip partners that registered. We met at the Edworthy Park at 7:30 am and then headed to the Burnt Timber Lookout together; 7 participants total and 2 vehicles. We finally got to the trailhead by 10:30 am and started hiking up a dirt path. It lead to an area in the trees where there was orange flagging tape. We followed this for a couple of km at which point it ended and intersected with the main atv trail. The snow was deep and we had to break trail until about a hundred meters from the ridge. Once on the ridge it was easy going and we made the summit quite easily. It was extremely windy at the top of the lookout (there was no physical structure up at this location. Curious if there ever was one in the past). There was a metal stake with some writing on it and that was about it. We took quite a lot of photos at the summit and was happy that my portable pocket tripod actually stayed stable in the fierce winds. On the way down, we traversed along the steeper part of the hill to avoid going through the deep snow and it saved us about 1.75 km which made the descent much quicker. We were back at the car by 5:30 pm. Was approximately 8.5 km with elevation gain of about 600 m.