Early bird gets the worm.

Who gets up at the ridiculous hours before sunrise. This gal!!

Some of you may call us crazy (thankfully I have friends who also are nutty enough to go with me), but when you have a view like this, theres not too much to complain about.

In October alone I did 2 sunrise hikes. One thankfully with not much snow. The other as seen above, with so much snow we needed snowshoes to be able to walk.

First off Miner's Peak. Interesting name huh? Well as you can probably assume from that Canmore gets its roots as a Coal Mining town, hence the name of the peak. Ha-ling also similar, named after one of the miners (thankfully changed from a not so appropriate name). Since the weather was mild and the skies were supposedly clear, we decided to venture up,- sans coffee, at 6.30am. In Fall the sun rises and hits full potential around 7.30-8am. Prime time for the photographers and adventurers alike.

With 4 carloads ahead of us, we ventured into the very dark woods. Please note this hiking trails has had many bear sightings and only just last year a cougar actually attacked a dog (small and off-leash), but still, thats enough to make anyone on edge. I was already on edge, with no caffeine pumping through my veins and not hitting my hiking hump which usually disperses around 30-45 minutes in.

Around 2/3 of the way up we noticed the pink alpine glow trickling in. This is the first signal you sunrise is close. It is one of the more peaceful times where all the mountains look like they're backed by cotton candy and the end of a rainbow. It is my absolute favourite time of day, and thankfully I am able to look outside my window most mornings except the dead of winter and see.

Not long after the pink haze the orange comes in full force. As seen above East End of Rundle ended up a Fanta orange almost looking on fire. It was so bright, and broke our hearts a little knowing we had missed sunrise officially. Also note the snow on the ground and very much affecting the temperature.

Once past the tree line gale force winds hit us like a tonne of bricks. The ice behind the wind was the worst part. Thankfully since we chose Miner's peak it is sheltered by a small ridge, helping us not fall to our deaths.

We may have missed the official sunrise, but we damn well got good lighting and the teeniest warming from the sun. Absolutely mesmerized by the colour and the light refracting off everything we stayed at the peak for probably more than any of us had planned given the winds.

Note below the snow blowing in the wind and Kim hunched over to not take flight. Ha-ling Peak in the background.

The worst part of those winds is that it gets into your bones. It feels like it travels THROUGH your many layers and is directly hitting your skin underneath.

Even though we were cold, coffee deprived this was a morning to remember, and one where I made a new friend to go on adventures with.

Later in October, I had forgotten how cold mornings were and decided to go on another sunrise hike. This time on Halloween, also after many snow falls. Kim always goes on Halloween hikes and this year after discussing with other friends, decided this time it would be a sunrise hike. We decided on Red Ridge and it is quick, accessibly and you get good views of Spray Lakes, tip to toe.

This time I made SURE I had coffee in my veins and also waiting in the car for when we finished. This time a 5am wake up was required to make sure Andrew could drop me off at the meeting point downtown and we would make it up before sunrise. Town had a little bit of snow but only a dusting, the roads completely clear and the trail almost fully uncovered and dry, but pitch black. This trail head is also not signed and isn't a very definitive path. So of course we ended up whacking through the bush in the dark on halloween. Call me a nervous Nelly but something about Halloween in the woods in pitch black was very unnerving.

Literally half of our hike up was path finding as the snow was about 5-10cm deep and super crust and icy and not a soul had gone up prior to us that we could see. (And we were blinding the dark apart from small headlamps).

Once finding the actual path it was much more simple and faster. All in chipper moods and enjoying the slog up. Until that is we hit the tree line. With Emma powering ahead we soon realized, as she was knee deep in snow that it quickly went from packed and ankle deep to wind blown knee deep fluff. Thankfully all of us had snowshoes (which I had been VERY close to not taking up). Emma and Kim powered through the snow, me being me (Stubborn), I attempted to, but my lil legs just weren't taking it. Snowshoes on. After a few tumbles and balance issues that is.

The sky starting to turn a deep blue and the snow capped peaks starting to illuminate a bright white, we could tell the sunrise wasn't far and that we had to get a little higher first. Snowshoes are life savers. We crunched up rock, wind blown snow, snow deposits and fluffy powder to ridge summit. We probably took at least 20 minutes longer than needed as we all kept turning around and being mind blown by the view behind us and the colours starting to develop. It was a constant flow of "OMG THIS IS BEAUTIFUL", "We are so lucky to live here" "OMG This was so worth it". Perching on the ridge coffee in hand and many selfies later, we just admired the view and the serenity of the mountain alpine glow.

You probably can't see much of it but on the 3rd quarter of the photo from the left the little knob of the peak of Assiniboine poking through. It was the first to be pierced with full daylight.

As much as I love to sleep and enjoy bed, nothing beats the accomplishment of being up before sunrise with 2-3 hours of hiking already under your belt. The alpine glow just humbling you and bringing you some weird feeling of peace and warm and fuzzies. Its something I just can't explain but am always in awe of.

SO in the future if anyone wants to go hiking for sunrise and wants some average company (coffee required), I am more than happy to join!