Day 21 ~ Friday 11th September, 2015 - Fly in Mt Assiniboine!!

A semi sleep in – to 8am. Some got up early and went out for a sunrise at 6am that once again didn't happen (we were very happy for our decision to sleep in – besides with the next couple of days up the mountain, this was what the trip was all about – sleep was very necessary!)

We still had to sort out our bags for our HUGE EPIC finale to Mt Assiniboine. The weather was forecast to be fine and even warm up the mountain. WOW after all of this rain and heavy cloud we are being blessed by fine weather!! We could only take what we needed. 40Lbs (18 kilo's or so) on the Helicopter and anything else had to be carried on our bodies.

This was it, this was the day of reckoning. This jaunt would sort out the men from the boys, the girls from the women. So Steve and I packed. I took the bare minimum, but the camera gear no matter how you pack is heavy. Steve loaded his big pack up with the bulky stuff, like sleeping bags and mats. I took all the camera gear, and Steve took a few lens's in his jacket.

Food….. WHAT – what about food? So in a frantic rush, Chris very generously took us into Canmore to get some Freeze dried camping food. (the others had already been down earlier, but due to everyone being disjointed and the communication being what it was, we weren't told or offered).

So we loaded up on 4 packaged meals, and a few “Cliff” energy bars, and then off to Safeway for some more bits n pieces and back to the hotel.

Talk about frantic…. OMG!

So we checked out and then started making our way in all of the cars (including our rental as the hotel was fully booked and we weren't allowed to leave it here) – up to the HeliPad at Swift Lakes.

We had to hike our gear from the carpark to the helipad – that was the first taste of what was to come! As we had never done this before, we assumed the helicopter was just for us, but no, they only fly in a few times a week, so it means 2 birds, and numerous trips carting many lodge guests and hikers in and out on designated days and times allotted. We were there early, and we were the last to the flown in. The helicopters can only fit 6 guests and the pilot, so our group had to be split in two.

WOW – its only a 6min flight, but what a 6mins it was! Amazing to see it all from up high. The view of Lake Magog coming into the Mt Assiniboine Lodge was amazing! I was carrying my heavy 200mm lens, so it was the wrong lens to photograph anything coming in unfortunately, but still, I will hold those memories in my mind forever!

This is a lake we saw on the flight in.

We picked up our backpacks and tents and loaded up and then started making our way to the Lodge. I think that was a 100m walk. Ha ha ha ha – hmmm…. This is NOT going to be a fun walk to the camp ground!! lol Our packs are heavy – very heavy, but still, the excitement to be here and the unknown had us all a little more energetic.

Chris lead the way to the campground via the Lake. It was the longest route as it turned out, and it was close to a 3km hike in. Ok, if you are doing day hikes, but with all our gear and food – well, it was a tough walk in. I almost gave up half way as my pack was all on my shoulders and I couldn't stand it anymore. My ankle decided to get angry and sore sauddenly after no warning, and I was well behind the group! I was saying I was taking photos! Well I did take some….

This ia one of the many cabins from the helipad down to the lodge that we past!  How beautiful is that view!!!

This is the group hiking to the camp ground.  Wayyyy off in the distance is the camp ground.  This is Steve at the back waiting for me!  :)

We might have fallen a tad behind - the group is way off in the distance!

The sun was out in all its glory beating down on me, and I was wearing as many clothes as I could to keep the weight down for the helicopter. (it has been cold and snowing for the past week and now it is blue skies and 25 degree's!) ha ha

My pack wasn't synched properly, so Steve sorted me out and it made all the difference – even my ankle wasn't sore anymore!

We made it to the campground and from there we had to find tent sites. Not signposted, it was a matter of doing some more hiking and finding one that wasn't already taken. We found one next to Chris and Sarah & Clair, which was great that we were all together. (I felt that we wouldn't be forgotten about and we'd know what was going on), plus that site was close to the only toilet in the area, and close to the food hut etc.

We had to store ALL food, including toothpaste & deodorant into these lockers at the hut due to bears. We were in true bear country and there had been a bear sighting on the 27^th August, - a mum and 2 cubs which “bluff charged” a lone hiker. We weren't allowed to even keep a boiled lolly in our tent.

So we stored our food in the communal lockers there, and went back to our site and set up our tent and had a rest. Just about Everyone had a bit of a sleep for the next couple of hours, including Steve who was really shattered. This pace has really knackered him out and he was catching sleep when we could, as he wasn't sleeping much even during the 4 hours a night we were averaging.

Tim and a few of the boys hiked back to the main lodge to drink some beers and they would do their sunset hike from there.

I decided to stay and not go with them, and take walk down to Lake Magog and get a good look at it and this magnificent Mt Assiniboine. So off I went …. not supposed to walk alone, but eh, its 3pm and what the heck. I walked down down down the little paths and down down I continued to go. You know what – what goes down, must come back up. And after the hike in I was already knackered and we had a big hike tonight for sunset, so I went back to the hut and just sat quietly and admired the view.

By 5pm everyone was up and ready for the hike up to The Nub, which is a large rock face opposite Mt Assiniboine – so great photos were promised!

No clouds, lovely cold winds made for a refreshing walk up. Chris took our group slow, which was a wonderful refreshing change from the extremely fast pace that Tim sets. Slow and steady wins the race, so up we climbed… 4.5km and a 500m elevation. Didn't sound too bad. Thats like walking from the Round-a-about at Montrose up to home! Yeah, do it with no sleep for days and when you're already shattered and carry 15kgs – it was tough, but we made it! I was so thankful for Chris's pace – he was awesome! :)

So we made it to The Nublette. A rocky mountain which had the most magnificent views to Mt Assiniboine and Lake Mogog and Lake Elizabeth.

Tim and most of the other boys decided to continue on and up to The Nub. They were much higher up and they would have had the better view, but we had already seen images that Chris had taken from this exact spot and were happy with them, so we stayed!!

It was windy as hell up there! The minute the sun hid behind a mountain, OMG our big down jackets came out and were swiftly put on – that wind was ICY cold!

The view was OUT OF THIS WORLD AMAZING!! No words I could articulate could accurately describe the majesty and beauty of this view.

This is a very rough ugly edit of a selfie I did whilst on my own.  There will be many many images of this view to come - all will be much much better!  

We all scrambled up and down rocks and out onto ledges trying to find the “perfect” location to shoot. On the LHS was a huge rock face and unfortunately it dominates the majority of the images, but eh – its either that or hike another kilometer or two up the very steep mountain!! You soon learn to just love the big rock face! Lol

We were all separated – a few of us down low and middle and me, up as high as I could go. The sun went down and we got a few lovely images of the tip of Mt Assiniboine lit up. No clouds in the sky unfortunately, so alas we had to just deal with the changing blue of the sky.

The stars finally came out (they take a lot longer to appear here than in Australia. We get to see them a good 20-30mins after sunset, whereas here its a good hour if not longer). We couldn't believe our luck, the milk-way was directly overhead and was right on Mt Assiniboine! OMG – how lucky are we!!!

So many many more photos were taken of the milky-way and of the night sky. We had a new moon, which meant it was as dark as it could be so the milky-way was very bright.

Steve and I have only shot astro a couple of times now, so we were crossing our fingers that we could get it right to process down the track. Steve came up from his ledge and we sat together staring at the magnificence before us. Was all very romantic (except the gale force wind and the razor sharp rocks we were sitting on). We then decided to have a little play around with light painting and a few selfies for old times sakes!

Finally the others made their way up to where I was and they said VERY excitedly…. LOOK BEHIND YOU – do you know what that glow in the sky is???? Umm, no, what is that – Canmore or Calgary?? NOOOO – its a FRICKEN AURORA!!! Northern Lights People!!!

You've never seen 2 sleep deprived shattered exhausted people scramble up rocks carrying camera gear so fast in all your life….. we were unpacked and set up taking photos in seconds!!

OMG – an AURORA!! How the heck so I shoot this?? lol So there we were, Steve, Sarah, Will, Clair and me, all standing in a row, all pointing our cameras towards the back to where we we shooting, looking at this amazing glow in the sky.

We had a huge green “bow” - much like the shape of a rainbow. Then in a little valley we were getting yellows and pinks coming out. And vertically up out of the mountain there were these amazing beams of light. They looked like someone had one of those huge movie “batman” spotlights pointing to the sky.

The Aurora ebbed and flowed and came and went and came back again. We got a really good 15-20 min session in. We were “whooping” it up on the mountain, trying to get the message to others higher up that it was happening, but with the wind etc, no one heard us – we just hoped they got to see it!

So after a while it started to disappear. It was huge the night before apparently and we hoped we might have seen one, but weren't too hopeful due to the level (6) and the hight of the mountains. Normally you need to be able to see the horizon, and a level of 9 + would be the best. So we were all very thankful that the heavens were good to us, so we got a magnificent view, great milky-way images and placement AND an aurora! WOW, what a night!!

hmm, now we have to hike down this steep mountain in the dark – this will be fun!! lol

We all stayed together and did it at a moderate pace. We were down within an hour and sleeping in our tents by midnight! Great day!!