Day 232: The Whistlers

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Today I finally attempted a hike that I have been wanting to do all summer. I was planning on doing this yesterday as the sky was so clear and blue but I saw one of my friends, Sammy, on the street and we decided to wait for today as we both had it off work. The idea was to climb The Whistlers, the mountain where the Jasper Tramway is situated, and ride the gondola back down (you can get away without paying).

After finishing a short breakfast shift at work (yes, I gave up my day off this week) and getting changed I caught up with Sam and we got on our way. The first part of the walk, even though I was feeling the upward slant in the road, was quite easy and we completed the roughly 7km walk to the start of the trail in an hour and 20 minutes. It didn't go unnoticed that there were a few cars in the carpark at the beginning of the trail. If only. The sign said that we had another 7.7km of trail to go with about 1000m of elevation to get through. We kept quite a pace in the first part of the hike and passed a couple of groups until we stopped for a breather at what seemed like the halfway point (in terms of elevation it was): an old rockslide directly beneath the cable for the tramcar. As the walk went on we passed a group of guys who had stopped at a rock and started cooking some soup over a camping stove. It was quite a tease as neither of us had packed food. The trail got rougher and a little more dangerous the further we went up and we started stopping more frequently, but that had more to with Sammy as I'm a machine.... The second half of the walk up the mountain was quite hard as it seemed that we just weren't getting any closer and I kept upping the pace as I was so determined to just get there. Though, that was nothing compared to the last kilometre or so that took in the alpine region (above the tree-line). The path was rocky and so, so steep that we were literally stopping every 5 minutes (it felt like 5, but was more likely 2). After four and a half hours of sweating our collective butts off (lucky I wore a white t-shirt) we finally reached the Tramway.

The Tramway, unfortunately, is not the peak of the mountain but where the gondola reaches. The peak was another 1.4km on a relatively very easy slope. We decided to eat and then decide whether to continue on. I was quite excited to get to the summit as I was told by an older couple that up there they had a book in a protective case where you could sign your name and dial that would tell you the names of the surrounding mountains if you pointed it in the corresponding direction. I got talking to the couple as they asked me if we had just came from the summit. When I told them that we had walked up the mountain all the way from town I don't think they could quite believe it. It turned out that it was a bad idea to sit down as we both agreed that we couldn't be bothered (not our exact words) to go that little bit further. Not that it mattered as the view still mesmerising. Being up that high, you can see ALL of the surrounding mountains, not just Pyramid, Whistlers, Signal, Cavell and the Maligne range that surround the town. You could see the peak of Mount Robson in British Columbia (the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies). It was also amazing to see the entire length of the trains that pass through Jasper and just how big the valley that the town lies in is.

But enough from me as my photos will tell much more of a story that I ever can. I'm off to have an ice bath.

'til next time!!

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