Last weekend I headed to Banff National Park for my mini bachelor party camping getaway.  We didn’t do any backcountry craziness but opted for the normal car camping.  Our first night we arrived at Two Jack Lake at midnight and were left setting up our tent in the dark with two and a half flashlights and then went straight to sleep to rest for the major hike the next morning. We were unsure about our plan to hike Corys Pass so we he had to make a semi-unwanted stop in the town of Banff for some guidance at information.  We were told by the lovely lady (not a stripper) that Corys Pass was not recommended due to avalanche warnings and waist high and heavy snow.  We hummed and hawwed and decided to do the 14 km hike anyways.  The hike was basically straight up with steep switchbacks.  I don’t know how I did it!  I didn’t take many photos, but I took a few.

This is at the beginning of our hike, notably the easiest part.

A quick shot while taking a much needed break.  Here we are looking at the Banff valley. Quite breathtaking.

My buddy Tom rocks the cowboy hat better than anyone I know.

Ian, master of the map, figures out our next course of action. Unfortunately it wasn’t back to the car.

Here is the view from our next stop – our lunch break. We met up with a banff local, Felix, who was carrying his five year old daughter on his back.  Carrying my measly backpack was hard enough, but a child?
We had a nice chill lunch break with our new friends.  Felix is the head chef for the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise – I had my eye on his sandwich and wondered if I could do better.

Yes, we are as tired as we look.

Little Olivia munching on her gourmet pita sandwich.

Felix and Olivia.  We continued on with out them as Olivia had an accident and wanted nothing to do with it! Kidding of course – kinda – but I believe they were heading back anyways.
If you’re reading this Felix, hopefully we’ll see you at your restraunt soon!

Climbing down some rocks. This was actually part of the trail.

In this photo you can see our final destination. You can see Corys Pass located right above the trees – almost exactly in the center of the photo.

This is the view directly to my left. Straight down. Uncool.

At the right of this photo, you can see the peak where we were two photos ago on the peak of the mountain on your right.

Alright, so we finally made it to Corys Pass and we find out instantly why its not recommend to continue, and finish the loop. Forget that though! We see animal prints going further – why can’t we?

Tom the guinea pig going first. Looks fine!

This felt reaaallllyyy nice on the legs.

Ians turn!

Here we are trying to figure out our next course of action. Not a lot of options. Just falling rocks and steep snow. But which falling rocks and avalance prone area looks safer?

Ian made his way across some more snow to scope out the area below the cliff you see him on.

I see he pulled out the map.

Here you see the valley we want to get down to so we could continue on. After climbing down this rock face without climbing gear or safety equipment of any kind, we decided it was unsafe to go further.  After pretty much looking death right in the face, I had to climb back up.  Who needs the thrill of a stripper on their bachelor party getaway when you have the thrill of being so close to your own funeral! So we conquered the climb up, but the Pass denied us through.

Good thing is,  the three of us made it back to our campsite safe and sound and were able to put our knives and axe back on our Knife, Axe and Beer Stump.

I invented the Eco Toaster.  You only need to chop down one tree and use two small logs  to make it!

Tom on egg-duty for the morning breakfast.

The three of us. Still alive. Awesome.