It had snowed overnight, but it looked like the sky was going to clear a little bit during the day so we drove to Moraine Lake, hoping to find 4 other people who would hike with us to Larch Valley. There is a law in Canada that during increased bear encounter risk, you have to be in groups of 6 or more.

Before we got to the trailhead, we just had to take a proper look at Moraine Lake again. Just fantastic with the fresh snow!We didn’t have to wait for long until two couples showed up, heading towards Larch Valley. So we took off on the 465 metre ascent and kept a good pace, as some of the group appeared to be the athletic variety. I was grateful for the bicycling I did this summer… When we reached the valley, we got sun on the mountains surrounding us but the valley itself was in the shade. The trees were covered in snow anyway, and the colours hadn’t reached their peak, so the photographic opportunities weren’t quite as plentiful as I would’ve hoped for. But, the scenery was just simply fabulous so I’m not complaining by any means!

While we were up there, we saw some people going up and coming down on the Sentinel Pass (2611 metres) so we thought that we’d try it as well. The snow was deep but there was a fairly good trail, however my hiking boots are not good on snow (as I’ve commented on some other occasions) and suddenly I also felt my legs turn to lead. Hard as I tried, I couldn’t go any faster and finally I had to make the decision of not going all the way up. I hated being the weakling of the group, but honestly… I really didn’t have it in me go any further. It sucks, but with hindsight, it was absolutely the right decision. My GPS told me that I turned back at 2519 metres, so about a hundred metres of ascent short of the goal. The view was great from where I was though and apparently I didn’t miss all that much for not going up on the pass.