Bow Peak is a lovely easy scramble on the West side of the Icefields Parkway near Bow Lake. The "Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies" guidebook has very good instructions for the ascent route of this peak. However, I would like to recommend that you do not believe there estimation of the time required for this ascent. They say it will take 6 hours, but I would say it would take more like 8 or 9 for most hikers. By myself it would take me 6 hours to do this ascent and I am generally much faster than your average hiker. It actually took me 7½ hours for the whole trip since I also went to Balfour Lookout which added another hour to the outing.
I chose this destination since it was supposed to be a short ascent and I wanted to get back to Edmonton earlier. The clear blue skies made this a perfect day for ascending Bow Peak. I started at 7am and crossed the Bow River easily. It was only half calf deep. My sandals made this crossing much easier than it wold have been on bare feet as the rocks are very slippery. The ascent to Bow Pass was pleasant. Since, I started early it was quite cool and I was able to hike pretty fast without overheating. On the way up I found someones sunglasses. If you are the owner send me an email and I will find a way of returning them to you. I reached the pass by 10:30. Ascending up the slopes of Bow Peak would have been straight forward except for one boulder that I stepped on started sliding on another boulder. I slide for only half a meter but it was enough to knock me down and gash up my knee and my shin. This made me stop for a good 15 minutes to regain my wits and clam down. I continued up the slope a little slower and much more carefully than before. There was easy scrambling along the ridge to the summit which was well worth the ascent and the gashing.
I took many photos before heading down. I descended a scree slope that was much nicer than the boulders on the way down. Once at the pass, I decided to head to the Mount Balfour Lookout to finish all the sidetrips from Crowfoot Pass. Unfortunately, it had become quite hot out and I sweated a lot on the way up. After taking some nice photos of Mount Balfour and Hector Lake, I returned to Crowfoot Pass. The descent back to the car was pretty quick. it took me 1½ hours for a total time of 7½ hours. A very nice ascent that I would recommend to any hiker
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