Cirque Peak

Finally got around to checking this one off my list. My day started by getting up and leaving by 7am to go get a needed coffee only to realize I left my hiking boots at home. It was also post-storm and a smoky apocalypse of a town, so my excitement hadn't peaked yet.

En-route to Lake Louise the smoke cleared so you could make out mountains along the high-way and by the time we reached Bow Lake and the Helen Lake carpark there was not a cloud in the sky or a plume of smoke to be seen.

This trail is well trecked and the hike to Helen Lake especially is a popular day hike among visitors. Trailing through the rooted forest winding slowly up the hillside, wandering through small trickling streams and old rock-falls and avalanche shoots you quickly come to clearings overlooking the skirts of Bow lake with Crowfoot Glacier looming above. You come around the hillside into a large open valley with waterfalls pounding in the distance under Dolomite, while you wind through the open trees scattered with wildflowers and large boulders. This continues through a series of inclines and descends in line with small streams and meadows of flowers until opening up to a large plain in the middle of the valley. From here it is very level hike until reaching Helen Lake. By now you've done 6km and gained 420m. From it being so popular there are multiple little paths due to people not wanting to trudge through mud, but I would recommend following already made trails so theres no more disruption to the surrounding fauna.

To be honest we were a little confused if we had actually reached Helen Lake as there are no signs or anything, but it was cool to see all the Brook Trout popping up and snapping up bugs. With Cirque Peak looming up above I was a little disheartened knowing how much more I had to go.

From here there is another 100m climb along switchbacks to over-look Helen Lake with amazing views of both sides of the valley and Katherine Lake (which is much larger and what we ended up thinking was Helen Lake). Came across some large Marmots (which i had never seen before) following them around for a little photoshoot.

Cirque Peak above Helen Lake

From the lookout above Helen Lake we wandered over glacier flattened rocks searching out baby marmots on the way- might I add they are adorable- up the the rock faces seen in the photo between the Lake and Peak. This is one route that can be taken to get to the ridge line. It adds another element to the hike where your mind is more engaged having to focus on not falling off the rocks that you cling on to for dear life. There is a decent elevation gain here but because my mind was so focused on which rock I could grab or use for footing, I didn't even realize how high I was going. If you are uncomfortable with heights or rock clambering do not take this route. There are no well defined paths up and there are cairns everywhere so wherever you can find a path and it looks safe enough to take, follow that.

Popping out of the rocks you come onto the ridge where there is a well defined path to take up. Which literally goes straight up. Slog would be the best word to define it. At this point Elena and myself trailed well behind the boys stopping every 30 metres (if not less) to give the glutes and calves a rest. I am more of a slow and steady stop for two seconds and continue kind of hiker. The first half of the ridge is compacted rock with zero slip but once reaching the second half where the incline is a lot steeper the rocks become larger and scree. We decided to spread out for safety cautions and take parallel make your own way up routes. I went on the larger rocks to the side which were more stable than the scree. When we finally reached the top of the scree, I let out a very loud and relieved sigh. Here you can clamber up through a large crevice or around to the right. If you go to the right you come out between two peaks in a small pass which is exposed to the large glacier on the other side of Cirque Peak. We clambered up onto the first peak before making our way over to the summit on the second.

Panorama views from the peak

You literally get 360 degree views of the entire surrounding areas. Bow Lake is the most prominent landmark as it's bright blue glacial waters just glow. Iceberg lake perched under the Bow Glacier seems to trickle down Bow Glacier Falls ( I say trickle as it looked tiny from where we were). The wolfs head of Peyto Lake peers behind the mountains as well a Mount Temple in the far off distance. We could only somewhat make out Temple due to the smoke out in the southern Bow Valley.

Photo taken post lose of balance- smiling as I didn't die

We made friends with an awesome duo (she was from Colorado), comparing hikes and how this one stood in the rankings. We could have sat here for hours in awe of the view except the wind was so strong and almost blowing us off. I must note that when taking a photo I nearly lost all balance and nearly plummeted to my death (well exaggerated but I did nearly lose all balance). Another Marmot decided to come make friends with us. He was super bold and almost looked as though he was trying to charge us. Here you've gained a total of around 1,100m elevation gain and around 8km in.

Descending down was a little tricky at the very top as the rocks were larger and not lose so were unable to slide down. Once finding the smaller scree sliding down is easy but don't forget to look up now and again to just take in the views once again. Rather than going down to the rock faces to clamber along we decided to go down to the other side of the ridge which was lined with a train of snow. Little to Elena and I's knowledge it was SUPER slippery and out butts got a nice refreshing sprits of snow. Of course us all being childish a snowball fight broke out as well as skating down the strip of snow to reach a more defined descending trail. This ridge side is more like lose rock/dirt so running down was a breeze but super dusty so be prepared to have plumes of dirt spray up into your face.

Once down it is an easy wander through the rock piles back seeing our baby marmot friends back down the wall to Helen Lake. The walk back is still full of breath taking views of Dolomite Peak and the valley south. We decided to hang out at a small waterfall just after the large plain soaking up the sun and admiring Dolomite Peak.

Mid Hike, Post summit sun soak

From that waterfall winding back through the forest and wildflower meadows back around the hillside down into the rooted forest, it felt like forever before we reached the truck. At this point we had hiked around 5 1/2 hours and close to 16km return. So the fact I was done, cranky and hungry doesn't surprise me one bit.

If you're looking for a hike with beyond amazing views and many different terrains you would love this. The last section is more of a scramble than a hike so could be difficult to those who are not comfortable with this or never done before. ( I am by no means an expert but and comfortable with this terrain).