September 1st, 2024. Icefields Parkway, AB.
Round Trip: 6.5 Hours, Elevation Gain: 1070m
Mostly Hiking; Easy Scramble
A short and super scenic easy peak at the southern end of the Icefields Parkway. Bri and I followed the route based on the description from Nugara’s (2017) More Scrambles with no navigational difficulties. From the access point detailed in More Scrambles we had no issues with locating the trailhead off the west side of the highway (driving past its hard to spot but on foot its quite obvious), and getting started. The trail appeared well maintained and the river crossing just south of Bow Lake was well flagged in terms of where along the opposite bank to aim for.
I had heard horror stories of hiking parties attempting this route too early in the season and encountering waist to chest deep water in strong currents, so we had purposely saved Bow Peak as a late summer option. On this particular day, the water was only knee deep, and briefly reached Bri’s lower thigh. Even at that depth the water had a decent outflow current to it, and needless to say wasn’t exactly warm. At the other side of the crossing we followed the trail up to Crowfoot Pass, stopping often for photo ops. We steadily gained elevation up towards the pass, and compared to many of our other adventures in 2024, this ascent felt pleasantly gradual.
There’s not much to write about the scramble itself. From Crowfoot Pass, we took the northern most option (looker’s left) up the boulder-rubble slope as to traverse the ridgeline longer. Not surprisingly, the rock up here is very similar to nearby Crowfoot Mountain, and a network of branching footpaths lead through the talus minimizing the amount of boulder hopping. The whole journey up the views continued to amaze us, offering a similar vista to what we had the previous year on Crowfoot Mountain. Bow Peak however is a much shorter effort.
The ridgeline southward to the summit offered light easy scrambling, and was the more enjoyable part after an hour’s slog up the western slope. Its well worth taking your time across this ridge as most of the day’s elevation is already gained, and you’ll likely lose track of time with the surrounding scenery. We strolled up to the summit around 12:45pm having left the car around 9am. After many photos descended down a wide gully back to the crowfoot pass trail. Highly recommend this outing, especially for novice scrambles. Bring a second pair of shoes for the river crossing as we did.
Steep Sheep 