Ha Ling Peak

On Saturday it's above 20 degrees and one gets sunburned whilst sitting on the deck drinking beer. On Sunday, when [cmh] is going hiking, it's 7 degrees and raining. Despite the grumpy weather it turned out to be a good day arranged by the Calgary Outdoor Club. The destination was Ha Ling Peak in Canmore, a peak which looks very impressive from the highway but the backside offers an easy scramble, i.e. steep hiking. On the way up it was not raining but on the other hand there was a fog that robbed us of the view. On the way down it started snowing and we got lost. After quite a bit of walking in knee deep snow some coward pulled out a GPS and got us back on the trail.

Ha Ling Peak got its present name in 1997 when it was changed from Chinamans Peak to the more politically correct Ha Ling Peak. Ha Ling was a cook in Canmore that made a bet that he could reach the summit and be back in Canmore within 10 hours. As proof that he had really reached the top he placed a flag there. We actually only had to climb 734 m to reach the top from the parking lot. Still, one gets 2407 m above sea level which actually is higher than Kebnekaise, the highest point in Sweden.

One other noteworthy thing is that our organizer was 85 years old and did the scramble in runners.