Jasper Skyline

(This is actually a hike I did at the end of August, and also the beginning of this post is from that time)

I was healing up so, so well!!
And then I proceeded to take my healed leg on a 9 km run on Saturday.
And that evening we began the drive to Jasper National Park. I was feeling great! Everyone was feeling great!
Got to Armstrong late. Watched a movie on a screen in a field under the stars. Had a few Jell-O shots.
Slept
Woke
Drove another 6 or 7 hours.
Arrival, at last. We stayed in Whistlers campground. Kind of dumpy actually, but we got campfires and hot showers and real toilets. Woohoo! Ran into Jasper for a looksie and then back to camp before it got too dark to actually pack our packs for the 3 day adventure awaiting us.

>>>> (I left this back in September, and it is now January and I totally don't remember as much anymore)
Day 1 was POURING at the start, sad faces, garbage bags on packs... mud... fell in mud right away, awesome!
Came to a 10ft little shale ridge, I don't do well apparently with these ridges but I had no idea what lay ahead.  I quickly scurried across. Oh Em Gee. I thought I would die. BAHAHAHA.. just wait.
The hike was beautiful, saw cool new plants and some okay views, but with the clouds it was so so.
Got to our first sleep stop and set up.  I bunked with my brother this first night.  It was windy and pouring at night, it was crazy, we were in bed at 6 because there was nothing else to do and we were exhausted.
Day 2, WAKEUP, use the john, those were awesome.  Had some omelettes I think the first night with some mashup of veg. Got locked and loaded and ventured on our merry little ways.  The weather was on and off all day.  Mom was not having the best time, her leg was starting to bother her.  And then. We. Hit. The Ridge. Area.
This is where I learned I do not like ridges, especially with 50 lb packs on that are taller and wider than I am and the wind is blowing something awefully hurricane fierce and you are leaning into the wind away from the mountain, but it was mostly not so bad, in comparison to after the next section.  We got to the Snow bowl? I can't remember the names.  We were trying to spy where our fellow hikers that were on the same 2 night journey we were had made it, we woke up early and were pretty ahead of most of them.  Then my sister pointed out, no no no, we arent going that way, we are going THIS way, and points to a straight up climb over loose rock and shale, I nearly crapped my pants.  Even writing this is bringing back anxiety.  The wind we had just endured was rough, but we made it... This looked ferocious.
We begin.  Moms leg is bad, we have to help.  We are on our hands and knees at points... How the heck can that couple ahead of us just be moseying.  We took a long time... loooong time.  We made it to the top. It was beautiful, and flipping windy as hell. Blow yourself off a mountain windy. Got some pics. Hooray look at us.  Turn. Oh shit thats a ridge.  Thats a ridge that is not 10ft, that is like 4 km of non stop on the side of your foot, if you fall you are going to fall for hundreds of feet and just roll to the bottom broken, loose shale ridge.  We begin.  Then moms leg is worse, she is trying to not even bend her leg now. The hail begins.  It is still nearly hurricane wind so it comes sideways and cuts at our faces.  There are no views on this day. Except the view I see is down the mountain, like 45degree slope of shale...... We are leaning so far into it that if for some reason that wind ever stopped we would fall, if we didn't lean we fell into the mountain, also not good, this is a small thin path.  We walk along the side of the mountain for a while and get to the TOP of a ridge, just where you can fall either side of the mountain.  This is our breaking point.  Mine anyways.  I am tired, I am scared as hell, and I cry.  We are trying to hide from the wind that is throwing us around, quite literally.  We can't hear eachother it is so loud in our hoods. Buffs covering every inch of skin, sunglasses on our eyes.  But you can still see we are all scared, or hurt, or both.  We have a few minutes of time here, because we really can't go too far it is so strong.  Theres really no choice. No one can get us, and we have no satellite call out.  The last people on our route have already passed us and are a km ahead on the next dang ridge so they are no help.  We trudge along.
Ok here I admit I pretty much took off, I was freaking scared out of my mind. I assumed my tiny granny step position and booted the F out of there until the ridge fell onto the other side of the mountain.  I felt so horrible, leaving everyone, they weren't far behind, but I just couldn't bear to go slow and fall down, I was SO SCARED.
Well we survived that part, we made it out of the wind and it took forever. I cried several times.
Mom was pretty much disabled.  My brother took her pack, and we headed out ahead of her while she and my sister made their way slowly behind us.  The switchbacks looked like they were 'right there' and you could see people getting to the bottom 'right down there'..... man that took a long time.  Finished the mountain there, and waited for mom and sis to get down.
At this point you can see we NEED to figure out where camp is, it can't be too far.  Mom and sis say go ahead, get to camp, set up a tent, preferably not a horrible pad.  There are only so many and we know almost everyone is ahead of us but not sure who is going to try for the end that day or who is coming from the other direction.  There was no admiring beauty anymore.  It was all call to action: get to camp.  We bolted, My brother took moms pack on his front and his on his back, I took a bit from her pack into mine to help but lets face it, neither of us was lucky.  Camp TOOK FOREVER to get to.  It was seemed like it was another 5km.  But we got 2 ok pads, set up the tent and I head back to mom to let her know how far it was, because I know she needed to be done for the day.  Found them, and made our way back, she went straight into the tent. We started on dinner and water.
We were quiet and tried to enjoy it all but it was rough.  That day was hard.  We laughed about how scary it was, and that it was nothing like we expected.  Still one more day to go.
Day 3 was much better, but still too long for mom.  The hike was easy and peaceful for most of us, everyone starting to feel aches and pains of course.  No major climbs, just nice alpine forest going down into coniferous forest. But for mom it was nearly unbearable.  She could no longer bend her knee and had to swing it around the small inches wide, foot deep path, or around and over rocks.  But too stubborn to let us support her too. We had no idea how long until the service road that would lead us out.  And then we heard THUNDER, and we are in the wide open space, with aluminum poles and thats it.  Perfect! But it did not amount to much.  We tried to joke and not get on eachother nerves but it was hard.
We made it to the service road, again, we had left first but had been passed by all but one group.  We get to the service road, HALLELUJAH.  We sit on a bike rack and snack.  We are tired.  only 10km more to go right? Down this wide road right?  The last group comes out, a bunch of kids, one has a stick to use for his knee is gone too.  2 Run the road to go get cars from the drop point, the rest start walking.  We think, ok cant be THAT far.
It was probably a 4 hour walk? Longest, and most boring 4 hours of our lives.  At one point a mountain bike guy comes bolting up and we have to stop and ask him how far? 5 more km.  He is super annoyed at us, but buddy we are hurt, so shove it.
Was so slow going, mom and brother are in full limp/leg swing. Not talking.  The arrival at the car was the most remarkable feeling.

You suddenly realize that yes you were so so so so so scared.  And worried about others.  And its okay.  We are at the car and it is okay.  Now lets just sit on these nice seats and let that sink in!  We have a drink right then, cheers.  And hop... er... hobble, in.

Now to decide where to sleep? Well in the end we called and visited a few places but they all were so expensive, and the cheapest place ended up being 2 minutes outside of the main tourist area.  It was a whole cottage! Big amazing bathroom with handicapp accessibility.  Yeah baby we NEEDED those hand rails! Big soft beds.  So glad we didn't choose to go back to the campground.  I mean we could have.  But once in this nice cozy cottage we really got to feel how we were really feeling.
Oh and the Elk were everywhere, it was really creepy actually, just at this place they were around the cottages and eating.  Weird.

We started home the last day.  The cell phones are tweeting and dinging.  We are back to life as we know it... oh wait, then we took the ice fields.  that only adds like 4 hours to your 8 hour drive :S FAIL.
Was pretty.  And I got really light headed at one point and needed someone else to drive.

We made it. We survived.  I don't know anything about the views because it was either cloudy, rainy, or too FREAKING WINDY to look away from my feet or I would lose my balance.
I know there were many moments that I would have given almost anything to not be worrying about if I was going to fall and never see my family again, because there were a few hours that it was a real possibility.  I cried for that alone, that I DID make it, and that they need not worry, mom was coming home.

And it made a great memory with my brother, sister and mom.  How often does a person get to do that?
Was amazing.  And I hope to get to do another one again. Just hope to heck there are not nearly so many ridges.  And no water either, open water scares the F out of me.

I made it nearly injury free too, just some shoulder impingement, which to this day in January I am still fighting off.

Another thing this trip inspired in me was the possibility of trail running something like that.... Maybe one day.