Home»All Photographs»2016 Hikes»Bertha Peak 09-03-16

Clayton, his son Eric, Megan and Myself went down to Waterton Lakes National Park to ascend Bertha Peak. I had been to Bertha Lake before, but the peak has been on my radar for a while. Poor weather prevailed over much of the central Rockies, so we drove south to Waterton, coaxed by a favorable forecast there.
We hiked up the popular (Megan counted 223 people and 17 dogs on the way down later that afternoon) Bertha Lake Trail.
At the lake, we had a bite to eat while we waited out a passing rainshower. A male deer was browsing in nearby bushes and didn't seem to mind our passing by, even though our route took us quite close to him. If he had shown signs of nervousness or aggression, we would have had to find a wider route around.
The rain continued while we slowly clawed our way up slippery grass ledges (5th photo). The terrain soon steepened and we scrambled up through small gullies that we found in the successively higher rock bands. The hands on scrambling here would have been a bit nicer in fine weather - I admit, but the routefinding was fun. Just as I was getting concerned about having to downclimb this terrain if we got cliffed out, the terrain eased and we traversed left to a broad slope that eventually led to the summit.
On the descent, we took another route. A faint trail led us down through a glade of larches and continued down a very scenic spine of rock. This was my favorite part of the day.
After the rock spine, ten minutes of super-nasty bushwacking led us back to the Bertha Lake trail.