winter camping

i guess technically it's still 'summer' here in calgary, but according to calgarian residents, summer never really arrived this year. so when i say we went 'winter' camping this past weekend, it's probably not that much different than anyone who went 'summer' camping earlier this season.

sunday morning i woke up to rain and thought, "yes! this is going to be awesome!". my friend Kris picked me up an hour later and we headed into the mountains towards mist ridge, a random hike we picked out of our brand new kananaskis hiking guide.

we arrived at the trail head in the rain, we hiked up the ridge in the rain, we then swapped rain for snow and enjoyed numerous hours following the ridge and ascending numerous passes, marvelling at the peaks around us each time the clouds parted slightly to reveal the grandiose views. we hiked above the first layer of clouds and watched as they spilled into the valleys below. and, five hours later, much to our dismay at leaving the gorgeous vistas behind, we descended back into those clouds and made our way to our camp.

it was a fantastic weekend, and as we both rolled into class smelling like campfire, having just hiked out that monday morning, we immediately started perusing our book for next weekend's adventure.