Cascade Mountain,2998m, Aug 07

By an August day of 2007 Laura Ross ask me if I was willing to do Cascade with her and some of her friends. The idea to stand on top of this outstanding, gigantic and majestic piece of rock was really tempting, but really scary for a guy that hiked many trails in Banff, but a guy that didnt do a real mountain before. But I wasnt hard to convince because just looking at Cascade mtn from banff avenue make you feel so attracted to this massif to say no to any opportunity to conquer this Rocky mountain. So, I didnt follow my brain, but my heart and hike cascade. After a long 11 hours and 30 minutes hike round trip I was proud of my self. When I did stand on top of cascade I called home to make everybody's know I was standing on the top of the world. That day, Laura made of my self a hiker and a scrambler. I was hooked! The feeling I had when I was standing on top of this rock was a revelation. I was the happiest man on earth. That day, nothing else matter! I lost track of time and I decide to honour the life of my best friend whom would of love to stand on top of this rock, making a wink to his angel Julia. Unfortunatly, he will never have that chance but his spirit shall stay at the summit of Cascade for the end of times.

Here are a few pics of this outstanding day of August 2007!

Starting point: Mount Norquay ski parking lot (10 mins of banff townsite)

Hiking time: 8-12hrs (average 10hrs).

Advise: To make sure to reach this summit start NO LATER than 10-10h30AM. Earlier you start, more breaks you will be able to allow your self. You will be able keep your energy and make sure to reach the summit and come back down before the darkness. It's not a ''cup of tea'' doing cascade mountain and If you trully want to reach this summit, then why not start at around 7h30-8 AM? If you do this mountain fast, good for you, but just in case you cannot, just start early.

Difficulty: Most peoples will only scramble one or two mountains, so I need to rate this mountain as difficult. It's challenging, it's fullfilling, it's undescribable. You need to do Cascade to understand what I mean. But, if you done many scramble before, other than endurance this mountain will be a ''piece of cake''. Route finding made Parks Canada rate this mountain as moderate and Rundle mountain as easy event more peoples found Rundle harder.

Hiking time: August/September (Too much snow still for most of July)