Dist: 9.8km Elev: 980m Summit: 8842' Time: 5h Difficulty: 4/5
Jordy and I decided to skip church and spend some time where we both feel closest to our Creator: the great outdoors! Hearing about the scenic and diverse hike to Windtower (forests, meadows, scree slope climbing, great views of Spray Lakes and surrounding peaks), we decided to check it out. The sky was unfortunately quite smoky due to local wildfires in B.C. and southern Alberta, which limited our views but also made for some interesting photos.
Trail Description:
We parked in the SE pullout on the Smith-Dorrien Highway, about 18km from the Canmore Nordic Centre. The trail begins as a moderately steep climb through forest for the first 2 km, until arriving at West Wind Pass. We took a few minutes here to explore the pass. Returning to the trail, we traversed along the base of Windtower while gaining only modest elevation for about an hour or so until the trail began to climb more aggressively on a wide scree slope towards the summit. We stopped to take in views of the impressive Mt Lougheed along the way, and eventually reached the smoky summit. Even with limited views, however, the panorama from Windtower's summit was sufficiently impressive. I would love to return to experience the full visual impact.
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