Day 27/28 - The infamous Toe Shot and the Northern Lights

DAY 19 - WE HIKED A MOTHA FUCKIN' MOUNTAIN!!!! 

View from the Skytram on our ride up.

Skytram #1, before we boarded.

 Enjoying a green tea in the mountains, before the hike of a lifetime.

 Couldn't turn down the free breakfast with the Skytram ride.

Whistlers Summit trail splitting towards the different lookouts.

Indian Ridge (what we hiked) from the top of Whistlers Mountain.

So it begins! Descend down from Whistlers Mountain towards Indian Ridge.

But now the real hike begins...

Peak 1, just before we tackled it.

Just a little snippet of Peak 2, continuing right around to the other side of the peak.

Melinda making her way up the 2nd peak, nearly dying but looking like a champ.

Peak 3 ... Just keeps getting steeper.

Finally at the 4th peak, so close!

WE JUST SUMMITED A MOUNTAIN!!!!

Zack making that mountain his bitch!

Breathtaking views from the top. It was a 360 view of mountains surrounding us! 

Time for our descent, almost as tough as they way up ugh.

A little more daunting looking down when on the edge of a mountain...

The full view of the Indian Ridge, we made it up to just below the highest peak!

Celebratory selfie 😉

Final product with some rewarding ice cold beers and a Halifax Donair!!!!!

And back down the Skytram we went.

Today was the day. Let me rephrase that, Today was the ULTIMATE FREAKIN hiking day up a freakin mountain not once, not twice but basically four times. We woke up this morning at 6am well rested and not hurting from our hike yesterday. We somehow managed to crawl out in the freezing cold Jasper morning, pour ourselves a bowl of cereal, and ran into the truck to crank the heat. But we were ready, because today was hiking day.

 Now before I begin anything, I just told Melinda that on this whole trip we haven't actually hiked a mountain yet. They were merely just hikes to the glaciers or just normal hikes with mountains in the background. I wanted to BE ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN... So she delivered. As we did our laundry yesterday, Melinda looked up the best mountain hikes you can do in Jasper. While researching she came across 'Indian Ridge' which was apparently the best hike in terms of difficulty and payoff. The best part about the start of this hike is the first 1600m summit rise is on a Skytram which basically puts you on-top of Whistler's mountain already. Bonus - Melinda heard my plea and we were almost there before we've even started. This was also perfect because we were unsure of where we were going to take a gondola ride whether it be in Banff, B.C, or Jasper. 

We arrived at 7:20am and the tickets said be there at 7:30am. It was amazing, not for the view or the fact we were about to do something insane, it's that we were ON TIME. Not Beghetto time, where you show up 15 minutes late or so and say that's pretty good, on time AND ahead of schedule. So without feeling rushed, Melinda made some sandwiches while I got our Camelbacks and snacks ready and headed towards the Skytram. We grabbed our tickets and sat eagerly while we awaited the first tram of the day to take us to our challenge. I remember looking up at the 1600m slope with sleep still in my eyes, while this 600lbs cart filled with another 2000lbs worth of people was being pulled on two tiny cables and thinking "yeah that safe, beats hiking it". We made it to the top with minimal casualties thankfully, and looked over the incredible landscape. The infinite amount of trees and the numerous peaks of mountains were indescribable. We sat at the lookout for a couple minutes before trying to figure out our next plan of attack. We had a free breakfast voucher with our tram ride but it was currently 8:05am and the restaurant didn't open until 8:30am. After debating for about ten minutes, we figured there may only be one time in your life where you get to eat breakfast on a mountain and decided to wait and try it out. We were seated right at the front window overlooking Jasper and all of its surrounding landscape. After a bit of convincing, Melinda went to the left window moved all the condiments and took a picture of my tea 😂 I was too embarrassed to do it myself, but after she took the picture more followed suit to take pictures of their hot chocolates or lattes so I'm kind of a trend setter haha. We had our second breakfast (which was definitely a mistake) and consisted of an egg sandwich with bacon and cheese on an English muffin, and delicious hash browns. Completely stuffed we started the hike. The first hike (which is pretty much the only hike people do there) was Whistlers Summit. Now it may only be a 45 minute climb to the top, but it was by far the steepest incline we've done so far. We took a couple breaks up to the top and all I could think of was that there was no facking way we were gonna do that for the next 2 hours... Now I will give Whistler's summit this.. you are indeed on top of a mountain and that was pretty cool in itself, but considering we only hiked the last KM or so, we wanted more. Looking at the daunting path going up the side of a mountain with no end in sight, we began. We followed the path straight until we reached a cliff where could look out over the entire vallva. It was strange because you could definitely see the trail going up the mountain, but the trail just stopped and didn't go anywhere near where we were. So down the hill we went over the mossy terrain with Melinda telling me the whole time 'I think we should find the trail are we going the right way"? Lol I had no idea but I could see a start to the trail so we headed that direction and I just told her we were going the right way. Once we arrived at the trail to began our accent to the first mountain peak, we looked back and there was indeed no trail all the way through. I'm assuming they just wanted to weed out the weak early on. Starting our treck up the first peak we could only see about 6 people between us and the fourth peak just reaffirming how hard this was about to be. The first peak was tough due to the incline but there wasn't any scree lining the path which made it the easiest compared to the next 3. Starting up the second peak, it was still a near vertical slope but this time it was all lose stones and scree. Slipping and sliding the whole way up we managed to make it to the top, only to realize there were 2 more peaks to go... from Whistlers Summit you can see 4 humps, which we assumed to be the 4 peaks. So when we completed peak 2, thinking we were done all 4, we came to realize there was ANOTHER peak behind peak 2... Are yea followin?! Little did we know there was even 1 more peak awaiting us after that one. Jeez I'm getting worked up writing this just thinking about what we did today lol Soooo pushing Melinda to complete exhaustion and beyond, we made it up peak 3 which you guessed it, was a near vertical slope with scree everywhere. Here we decided to sit down and let our legs which felt like cinderblocks have a little rest. I dropped a fizz or fuzz tablet (it's a carbonated electrolyte tablet used in water to give you an energy boost and prevent you from getting dehydrated) in my water bottle and Melinda and I tried to gut it down. The three things we learned at this high altitude is 1. you don't get as thirsty for some reason, 2. it's harder to catch your breath, and 3. the bugs are sooo bad. It doesn't matter how much bug spray or how much clothing you have on, they'll get ya. So, rehydrated I gave a classic rocky speech, sang coming around the mountain and Melinda and I started our final accent up the fourth and final peak. Climbing over boulders, sliding down paths and moving our lactic acid ridden legs we made it to the top and it was all worth it! Looking over the north west side of the mountain and seeing all the mountains now at eye level, it was almost as if all our pains both mentally and physically completely disappeared. We sat down in complete silence trying to take it all in and try and fully grasp what we just did. Finally Melinda just screamed out at the top of her lungs WOOOO in which I followed in right behind.. WE JUST HIKED A FUCKIN MOUNTAIN!!! And holy shit was it ever worth it. To just reflect on what we just conquered was incredible. For me the hardest part of the hike..over the bumps and bruises and strains, was the mental aspect of the hike. Just hiking up this insane slope and then saying we can do it, we're almost there, and then getting to the top to see another peak. We had to dig down really deep and push eachother to make it to the top. We ate lunch at peak 4 (well I did Melinda wasn't too sure she could eat just yet lol) hungout for about an hour and then headed back down. Seeing couples desending from peak 4 while we were on our way up, whether they were more or less fit, every single one said it was an extremely difficult hike which made us feel even better about completing it. The descent didn't take nearly as long but Melinda and I both agreed it's much harder on the body but nicer that it's half the time.  Down 4,3,2,1 we got to the bottom, only to stare at the mossy path that we hiked down to get to the base of peak 1.. shit.. giving it literally all we had left, we made it back up to whistlers summit. From there we headed down to the upper tram station where we had the most well deserved, cold, crisp beer we've ever had. After the first one went down so smoothly for myself I opted for a second, then a third and accompanied it with a real Halifax Donair. Melinda had the chicken club wrap that wasn't so good but it was nice to get some food in our bellies. We hungout here for another hour before taking the upper tram down to the lower tram. Finally we can say this about Indian Ridge.. we came, we saw, we conquered. Looking up nearby lakes we decided to go to Annette Lake where it was crystal clear right to the very bottom. We hopped right in and washed the sweat off ourselves, absolutely thrilled to be in glacial water to reduce all the swelling going on. After drying off we decided to call it a day around 730pm, headed back to camp, ate some dinner and crawled into bed. Definitely a well deserved rest tonight and looking forward to a relaxing day kayaking tomorrow and cruising through Jasper.

OH OH ANNDDD THERE WAS DEBIT AND FREE WIFI AT THE UPPER TRAM ON A MOUNTAIN. So maybe a shouldn't make too much fun of my future wife 😂😂😂