On our final day in Banff, we did this hike: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canada/alberta/cirque-peak-via-helen-lake-trail

The nearest weather forecast for that day was thunderstorms, but we tried our luck anyways. The hike starts off nicely: heavily wooded, barely any rain, and gleaming sunlight from whenever the trees parted way. It was well trafficked, and we met some cute friends on the way up.

As we hiked up, we had a nice clear view of Bow Lake and the glaciers behind it. After a while, we loop around a mountain and our target is in sight.

This is the peak we’re attempting to summit: Cirque Peak.

As me made our way through the rolling green countryside, we had fantastic panoramic views of this lush valley.

Getting to the Helen Lake thus far was the easy part. This is when things started getting difficult. Almost as if on cue, the wind immediately picked up as the lake came into sight. It was so loud, we could barely hear each other and the windchill was enough to cut through my 5 layers of clothing. We could see big rain clouds looming off in the distance, and we knew they were headed for us. This next part was steep; we were climbing tall rocks using both hands and scrambling on scree all the while was carrying a tripod plus two cameras, along with the rest of my camera gear. The photos in the slideshow below are taken by Charlie Kerhin.

As we neared the top, the rainstorm we dreaded hit us as the hike approached a 175% grade. As a result, we decided not to summit; instead we held our position and tried to get some shots. Here’s what I got.