This is the first day of four days of heaven North of the Wapta Icefield. The top trip on my wish list finally accomplished. The plan was too hike in to Caldron Lake via the Caldron Lake Trail and ascend whatever we could ascend. The only gear we had with us were ice axes, crampons and helmets. This limited our options to scramble routes only. The plan was to ascend Caldron Peak on the day in or on the day out, Mistaya Mountain on day 2 and Mount Patterson on day 3. We were very successful in that we found scramble routes up 2 out of 3 of our objectives not too mention the many terrific views we enjoyed throughout the adventure.

I first thought about this trip in 2007 when I was curious about the possibility of scrambling Caldron Peak from Caldron Lake and decided to scout out the area by hiking in to Caldron Lake for a day. While I was there I noticed that there was a good possibility that Mistaya Mountain and Mount Patterson could be scrambled as well. The sheer beauty of this location made this my number one priority on my trip wish list. I lucked out and found myself with a four day weekend in August of 2008 and my brother Karl coming in from Ontario looking for adventure. I did not disappoint.

On the first day of this trek. We parked at Bow Summit and hiked in through the Peyto Glacier valley. The valley itself is definitely worth a day trip with Peyto Lake at the start and many waterfalls en route. Not too mention the breathtaking view of the Peyto Glacier and Caldron Lake at the end. After hiking up the steep moraine we diverged from the Peyto Glacier Trail to head over a precipitous drop just before arriving at Caldron Lake.

Once we had put up our tent I decided that I would ascend Caldron Peak. It was 5 O'clock and I figured that I would be back in less than 5 hours. My brother wanting to save his strength for Mistaya Mountain and Mount Patterson stayed behind. After hiking over some interesting rock bands in the area I came to the West slopes of Caldron Peak. The scree was not fun to walk up but thankfully I had some snow slopes that I could hike up instead in many places. There really was no scrambling on this peak period unless you were one of the unfortunate people who ascended the false peak by accident and had to scramble down from it. The view down to Peyto lake was awesome as well as the many other surrounding mountains. Some of the mountains on the Freshfield Icefield could be seen in the distance to the West as well. At the top I found a summit register placed in 1993 by Rick Collier. Since then it had been signed by less than 15 parties. After taking many photos and enjoying the view I decided to head back to camp. The scree was much more pleasant for downhill and I was back in no time

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