High Tea and Old Baldy

Now, you may be wondering what high tea and Old Baldy have in common.  Actually, not a dadgum thing, but I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks and I needed to combine posts.  (So sue me). :)

Part One:  High Tea
Two weeks ago our Aussie friends, from Houston, Peter Waller and Bronwyn Kahl, were in town.  They invited us to High Tea at the beautiful Palliser Fairmont Hotel in down town Calgary.  The Palliser has a wonderful  High Tea, which Peter and Bronwyn graciously treated us to (thank you, P and B). We had a wonderful afternoon of sipping and nibbling, and that evening we met their friends Murray and Christina, (also recently relocated from Houston to Calgary) for dinner.  We may have found some skiing buddies in Murray and Christina.  They are snow enthusiasts like us.  Funny thing is...we haven't found any Calgarians who are interested in snow shoeing or skiing.  They just kind of look at us like, "Uh huh, sure thing, you must be from Texas if you want to pay good money to freeze your arse off."




Peter, Bronwyn, Christina, Murray,  yours truly, and Sugar Daddy

Part Two: Old Baldy
Our hike this week was to the summit of Mt. Baldy, unofficially named "Old Baldy" by the locals.  There were a few tricky bits, such as the four steep and narrow banks we had to traverse, before getting to the straightforward plod up to the ridge.  The distance from the trail head to the summit is 3.5 miles and the height gain is 2,830 feet.  The height gain kicked our butts.  It took us seven hours to complete including stops for lunch and pictures, but oh so worth it!  I have wanted to do a ridge hike since we arrived in Calgary, and this one was awesome!  As you ascend the ridge, the mountain tops rise up one by one until finally a 360 degree, breathtaking panorama is revealed.  My mouth must have been hanging open in the "OMG" position.  I rotated in a circle with my arms out and my head thrown back, taking in all of the peaks you could see from the ridge.  I must have looked like Julie Andrews in that opening scene of "Sound of Music" (except I wasn't wearing a "Heidi" dress with an apron).  I know, it's called a Dirndl, but I like to call it a "Heidi" dress. :)

I'm going to digress here (big surprise).  On our way up, we stopped to rest under a spruce tree so that we could reread the trail guide, which we had loaded onto Jim's phone.  The trail had kind of petered out and we weren't sure we were still headed the right way.  Anyhoo, Jim laid his phone down, and for some reason walked off and left it there......under that spruce tree..... the only one on the mountain. (Sugar Daddy speaking here....in my own defense, I was a bit excited after seeing my first black bear in the wild. Candy didn't see him....so she's not believing my story!)

At some point on the summit, Jim missed his phone.  Of course, chaos ensued.  A salesman without a phone!  Unheard of!  Preposterous!  We had to retrace our steps immediately!  Well, I wasn't having any of it.  We had worked long and hard to get there, and I was going to enjoy the views for a while.  So after we had hiked across the ridge line, and Jim took all of the fantastic pictures to follow, we headed down the mountain to try and find the lost phone.......under the only spruce tree on the mountain.  Needless to say, we never found it.  :(   Oh, well.  The day was awesome and Jim took some of his best pics yet.  I hope you like them.

Evan Thomas Creek, the climb begins!



Somewhere, in that valley, lies a perfectly good Blackberry!! 



Ridge line summit of Old Baldy looking west across the Kananaskis Range



Baldy summit looking southwest. From left to right, The Fortress, Mt Galatea, & Mt Kidd. Kananaskis Golf Course, lower right. Foreground: Sugar Daddy



What a view from 7,830 feet!

South end of summit ridge looking toward The Wedge and the Opal Range

Mt Allan and the Nakiska Ski Area

The tarn, west base of Mt. McDougall

Candy enjoying the view. Mt. McDougall top left

South end of ridge line, looking east northeast to Mt. McDougall



Crest of Mt Baldy summit, looking northeast

Jim smiling because he didn't die on the way up!

Baldy summit with west ridge line of Mt. McDougall in the background

View to the north from Mt Baldy, avalanche damage on near face

The Fisher Range

Candy at highest point of summit

View of the entire Mt Baldy summit, Kananaskis Range in the background

Glacier pond (tarn) along the col between Mt. McDougall and Peak 356417

Peak 356417

Highland plateau along the Fisher Range

Time to head back down, down, down!

Fowl play! Did this Alberta grouse take Jim's cell phone?

3.5 miles of steep grade and narrow traverses above McDougall creek



Best way to end a great hike......soaking your sore feet in the COLD water!