Home»All Photographs»2017 Hikes»Helena Ridge 09-30-17

Today was a momentous day for me...the successful summit of Helena Ridge was the 78th of 156 summits in Allan Kane's "Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies" book. Half of the book is now complete for me!
My nephew David came along for this lovely day in the mountains. The area is more larchy than I remember, and we reveled in the yellow foliage as we ascended past Tower and Rockbound Lakes.
Climbing higher, David was blown away by the scenery and landscape of the upper bench perched to the north of Rockbound Lake. As it was my fourth time back in this valley, I knew what to expect, but I must admit it's one of my favorites too.
There was only one other person ascending to these heights here today, although we saw a small crowd of larch hunters forming down by Rockbound Lake.
It seemed fitting that the summit register had been placed by Allan Kane, as his book was on my mind on the final approach to the top. I proudly signed it and took some pictures of the scenery. Nearby, we noticed a tall cairn just down the east ridge. We hiked to it and discovered that it was a memorial cairn with the ashes of a deceased man in a small aluminum box there. We admired the stonework and effort put in by his loved ones.
We then descended out of the cold wind to a grassy bench where we ate lunch and some chocolates, before striking out on the long hike back to the parking lot.