Rider's of Rohan (Grassi Lakes)

March 8, 2014

The stars would align for my trip out to the mountains this time! After experiencing over a week of -40C weather with occasional white outs of snow.  This Saturday would be the first day in a long while that was warm, sunny and clear.  The afternoon would climb to +6 and during the morning while doing the Grassi Lakes trail we would experience -2 to +2.

Canmore

In order to view the waterfall best I would suggest viewing it from the ground level, as going up the Grassi Lakes trail in the winter might get you closer, though it's neck wrenching when taking the difficult trail, and you won't see it at all on the easy trail.

That said I still wanted to complete a hike on this day to navigate the area with my girlfriend.  With a distance of 1.78Km the easy trail had an elevation gain was over 260 meters.  Much like constantly walking at just over medium incline on a treadmill.  We would keep to the easy trail and I did manage to get a video of the hike.

The trail was well packed and needed no snowshoes in order to complete the easy trail.  Even in the winter the trail was popular with many people from Canmore coming up for the day hike.

Grassi Lakes

I noticed the parking lot also had a second, overflow lot available.  Though it wasn't in use when we left, it seemed to me that this was needed for summer visits.  From what I've gathered this area is common for ice climbers, as well as scramblers.  The waterfall is a good sheet to climb with pick axe in hand, and just over the waterfall is Grassi lakes which is surrounded by mountain walls.  The south facing wall is set up for a scramble to access Wedge Pond just south of the dam.

Personally in the summer time I'd like to return to give my hand in scrambling up the slope to the pond above.  I'd also like to return to the area in order to complete the Rider's of Rohan bike trail.