Tunnel Mountain – May 21, 2010

Mountain height:         1690 m
Elevation gain:            245 m
Roundtrip time:           1 hour         

Solo hike.

Another 3 week hiatus from mountain activity (not by choice, of course!) and so I set out to try Crystal Ridge, as named by Bob Spirko. Unfortunately a nagging injury to one of my calf muscles prompted me to abandon the attempt about 40 minutes into the trip – that and the pathetically dismal weather!

The weather was a little better in Banff and given the gentle grade of the Tunnel Mountain trail, I decided it would be a decent consolation objective. And that it was!

In fact, I was quite surprised at how enjoyable of a trip it was. Tunnel Mountain has most of the ingredients I like the least about ascending mountains: 1. trees from base to summit (and on the summit); 2. views of human activity everywhere (ie. Banff townsite, and a golf course); 3. millions of people on the trail (slight exaggeration, but anything more than 2 is equivalent to a million by Canadian Rockies standards!).

None of the aforementioned “peeves” detracted from the experience. It was actually very pleasant to see other people on the trail, I enjoyed the view, human intrusions and all, and the trail weaved around the summit enough that the trees didn’t entirely kill the view.  

Shocking!  

Mount Inglismaldie (left) and Mount Girouard (right)

The northwest side of Mount Rundle

The Bow River, a golf course, and Mount Charles Stewert in the background

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