Climbing Mountains in Alberta

It's amazing the promises one makes when they find themselves on a narrow goat path at 7500 feet.

I flew to Calgary Alberta over the long weekend to visit with my brother Matt and his family. My family are all outdoors types and for my brother, nothing beats climbing a mountain for stress relief. Since both of us live rather stressful lives and we couldn't get tickets to the Calgray / Edmonton game, climbing a mountain seemed the natural thing to do for the long weekend.


We set out early Sunday morning with Black Rock Mountain as our destination. Rising 2462m (8078") above the boundaries of Banff National Park, Black Rock is a large plateau on the eastern edge of the Rockies. A steep hike to the tree-line base camp took us 3 hours. We stopped at the camp to have lunch and prepare for the struggle to the summit, a grueling two hours and 1200ft above us.

Somewhere around 7500 ft, what was once a horse trail became a goat-path, at points turning into a curb-sized ledge most goats would fear to tread. That's around the point some pointed promises get made. It was a great hike and climb, even if I do have to be a better person for it.