Lake O'Hara with Jon

Jon lacing up his climbing shoes after doing pitch 1 in our hiking shoes. It was a little more technical than we thought!

Lake O'Hara and the L.O. Lodge and Cabins below. One of the MANY incredible vistas from the route.

Pretty happy to finally have the chance to climb Grassi Ridge after about ten years being on my hit list!

One of the typical steps we climbed along the route.

Jon, all smiles on one of the fantastic 'lunch' ledges.

The Cochrane climbers who climbed ahead of us. These two fellas did the 11km hike in from the O'Hara parking lot before even getting up to, and then on to the route. Pretty ambitious!!

Jon and Kimmer selfie with Lake O'Hara below. Mount Shaffer Ridge (8830') in the foreground, and Park Mountain (9758') in the back.

Yep, still smiling! Mount Biddle (10,886') towering in the back, top center of the photo.

Subalpine Buttercups

The Cochrane team climbing on one of the many quartzite pitches. What fantastic climbing in an incredible setting!

Odaray Mountain (10,362') with Linda Lake down in the valley to the right.

What a backdrop with Lake O'Hara below and Mount Biddle (10,886') towering above at the east end of Schaffer Ridge. Mary Lake sits just above Lake O'Hara, and the 'All Souls Alpine Route' can be visualized running left to right at the snowline below the ridge headwall.

Schaffer Lake barely visible in the trees just below Schaffer Ridge. The McArthur Valley extends beyond below Park Mountain (9758') which is up to left in the back.

Shaun Fluker from the Cochrane party leading the crux pitch.

Jon at the 4th belay with Mount Odary (10,362') and Linda Lake in the background.

Morning Glory Lake, a glacial tarn, sitting below the NE face of Mount Odaray. This glacial tarn (lake) remained after the Odary Glacier receded many thousands of years ago.

Mount Huber (11,047') and the Huber Glacier tower above Wiwaxy Peaks (8866'), the peak that we are climbing via the Grassi Ridge route. Mount Victoria and the famous 'Lake Louise' are just behind these mountains.

Another amazing view of Lake O'Hara and Mary Lake from the ridge.

The eastern most Wiwaxy Peak showing our decent route which crossed the snow covered lower ledges over to the small notch with Lake O'Hara peeking through just behind.

Close up of the notch we descended through between 2 of the 3 Wiwaxy Peaks.

Jon rappelling the backside of Wiwaxy Peak to gain the snowy saddle below on our decent of the mountain.

Jon just about to start the traverse across the ledges over to the 'notch'.

Jon about to encounter one of a few snow patches along the decent.

Soft snow so the feet penetrated quite well.

Looking back up at the rappel route off the backside of Wiwaxy Peak. You sure wouldn't want to have to downclimb this terrain especially after a long day climbing up! The rappels were nice.

Jon well into the decent after the 'notch'. It's always amazing to me how safely you can travel through this terrain when it looks virtually impassible from the valley floor below!

Quite a collage of colourful flowers. Moss Campion on the left, Alpine Buttercups center, and Sweet Rock Jasmine in behind.

The rock bluff just behind Lake O'Hara called Opabin Prospect separates the two approaches to Opabin Lake and the Opabin Plateau. West Opabin ascends to the right of the bluff and east Opabin to the left. If makes for a really nice circuit with changing vistas in each direction.

This photo needs a little story because there is a lot going on in this photo! The small lake at bottom left is called Yukness Lake. Water flows out of Yukness Lake through the rock rib to the right of the lake and cascades into Seven Veil Falls (just visible at the right edge of the rock rib) which flows into Lake O'Hara. Incredible how that takes place! So the pointed peak above is Yukness Mountain (9338') which has a scramble route to the summit on its west side. In behind Yukness is Glacier Peak (10,768') to the left, Ringrose Peak (10762') in the center, and Hungabee Mountain (11,457') to the right. Mount Biddle (10,886') as mentioned before is on the right of the photo. Just out of sight below the col between Mount Biddle and Hungabee Mountain (which is called Opabin pass), is Opabin Lake. Jon and I did the west Opabin trail to the lake, then we came across the Yukness Ledges Alpine Route which traverses the mid way rock band on Yukness Mountain over to Lake Oesa, the partially ice covered lake you see in the left side of the photo directly below Glacier Peak. In later photos you'll see Jon and I taking a dip the lake!

Mountain Arnica

Common Butterwort

Yellow Columbine

Brook Saxifage

Merten's Moss Heather

These mountain goats were just descending through a rock band above the Wiwaxy Gap trail that we were descending to Lake O'Hara. Another 2 minutes and we'd have likely met this herd of about 15 goats. There were about 3-5 tiny kid goats so they immediately went into protection mode and climbed back up to a safe perch from the cliffs above us. I managed to get a few photos anyway. They adults were molting and looking pretty scruffy losing their woolly winter coats.

The goat on the right kinda looks like a Pegasus with sun shining lighting her up like she just descended from the sky!

Wiwaxy Peak looking straight on at Grassi Ridge the route we climbed.

Side profile of Grassi Ridge on Wiwaxy Peak taken from the west Opabin trail. The second gully on the right is where we descended from the peak.

Mountain Arnica

Yellow Columbine

A little closer look of the rock rock we climbed with the descent gully coming out of the 'notch' and down the second dirt gully.

Grouse Huckleberry

Opabin Pass is the saddle/notch in the back, and the water seen here is outflowing from Opabin Lake down to Lake O'Hara.

Jon relieved to be at Opabin Lake.

The formation of a cone on a Larch tree.

Hungabee Lake with east Opabin trail heading down to Lake O'Hara. The Yukness Ledge Alpine Route climbs up through the boulders to the right and then left around Yukness Mountain. Wiwaxy Peak with Grassi Ridge can be seen in the background. Grassi Ridge rock route was actually named after Lorenzo (Lawrence) Grassi an Italian miner from Canmore who immigrated to Canada in 1912 and had a life devoting passion for the Lake O'Hara area and was instrumental back in the fifties in creating many of the now time withstanding trails still protecting the fragile environment up at Lake O'Hara. He is also responsible for building the Grassi Lakes trail near Canmore which might be more relatable to most. The peak above Canmore was also named after him after passing in 1980.

Seven gals on their ACMG (Association of Canadian Mountain Guides) Alpine training. These could be your future guides if you so choose to hire one in the future!

Schaffer Ridge showing the scale of the mountains where the girls were located on the ridge. Jon and I were on the Yukness Ledge trail when we spotted the seven dots against the snow.