Sunday, January 16, 2011

Hike to Egypt Lake Shelter

The Egypt Lake Shelter is located in one of the most popular backcountry areas in Banff National Park. It is located ~13km from the Sunshine Village Ski Resort Carpark. We hired snowshoes and backcountry backpacks and headed out with friends from the Blue Mountain Lodge B&B (Pascal, Sebastian, Elena and Linda).

Conditions weren't ideal, with fairly heavy snow falling all day. The aim was to hike up to Healy Pass and then snowboard the 3km down to the shelter, spend the night and then return to Banff the following day.

The hike was tough with our packs and boards on our back. When we got up out of the forest, the conditions had worsened and we were sinking up to our waist in snow, even with snowshoes on! Over 5cm of snow had fallen during the day and it was decided unsafe to continue to the pass. We turned back and ended up walking back the final part of the trail in the dark. Finally arriving back at Sunshine at 6pm, exhausted, but very glad to have made it back safe.

It was quite the adventure.

Sebastian and Elena, at the start of the day.
Still smiling after 10km uphill in the snow.

Exhausting work.

The snowshoes took a bit of getting used to.

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