Headed up Heart Mountain with an ACC Calgary Winter Mountaineering Group on Sunday March 26 to practice some rope handling skills. Despite the fact that we saw many people heading up in light summer hiking shoes, the trail was not in stellar condition. One lad was also wearing basketball shorts and running shoes. His metabolism must be a heck of a lot faster than mine! A significant proportion of the trail was snow and ice covered forcing folks to hike on the edges of the trail or scramble more difficult sections than would be required if the trail was dry.

We wore our crampons for a short but significant section on the way up. We also wore them for a significant part of the way down as it was simpler to keep them on and simply walk on the ice and snow. We noticed a number of folks sketching out and slipping around so it may be a good idea to bring Yak Traks, Icers, crampons or something similar or perhaps just wait for better conditions unless you are very good at scrambling on the more exposed terrain required to avoid the icy sections.

One of our group dropped a phone within about 20 minutes of the summit. It is navy blue and possibly just sitting on some talus off the edge of the trail. 30 minutes of searching failed to find it so it may not be entirely obvious. Please drop me a note if you recover it.