Step One
Park in the Goat Creek carpark, up above Canmore along the Spray Lakes Road. Walk up the hill opposite the carpark, over the bridge, past the trail up to Ha Ling, then along the road next to the canal for twenty minutes. Walk past rock cuts. See inukshuk and flagging in trees and follow faint path with more flagging up into the forest.
Step Two
Reach drainage, do not cross it (unless you wish to try failing to hike up South Lawrence Grassi). Follow along it for a hundred metres of so then head back up left into the trees, steeply. And more steeply. Hit a few snow patches.
Step Three
Reach the tree line. Start scrambling up the scree slope. Notice increasing presence of snow.
Step Four
Keep going up the ridge as it narrows, and narrows and narrows. Scramble over some dragon’s back ridge formations. Slide around on the snow a bit. Spot the summit cairn off in the distance.
Step Five
Get scared when the ridge starts getting steeper and narrower, and the cliff-type drop-offs get closer and closer, and amounts of scree and snow surface underfoot remain consistently high, and the weather is closing in and looking cloudy, and it starts to snow on you a bit, and you realise you didn’t tell anyone where you were going because it was just an afternoon hike.
Step Six
Turn around and go back down. Justify your decision as thoroughly sensible all the way down. Glare at the sky that turns nice and blue and sunny.
