Honour at Hoffmann

I never take for granted how fortunate I am to be living the life I am living!  Remembrance Day is a great day to acknowledge that so I never want any November 11th to just slip on by unnoticed.  I make the effort to have something special to show for the day.   If you are a Making Waves follower then you know that for the past few years, I have chosen to spend this day doing something I am passionate about and taking the time along the way to  honour those that have given me the freedom to go and do what I love to do.  A trip up to Mount Hoffmann was our choice place to show that honour this November 11, 2012. 

We had full intentions of snowshoeing today given the snowfall amounts posted for this area.  The closer we got to the trail head, we realized that once again, we would be leaving the snowshoes in the vehicle and turning this into a hike instead.  The first portion was through the trees, and steep in parts (microspikes were needed).  As we neared the end of the forest we bundled up to face the wind and the cold in the wide open spaces that we now had ahead of us.  The snow was ankle deep, less at times, a tad more in an odd few other places. 

The first view as we escaped the forest.

As much as I don't welcome wild wind, I do love how it whips the snow making it look like meringue on a lemon meringue pie.

Most of the elevation was done by now and there was just a small amount left in the open area before we reached the summit.  We could see a cairn at the top but had to get around this short rock band first.

The Mount Hoffmann summit marker turned out being an Inukshuk.

Close up of Inukshuk.

The first order of business was to take care of our summit shots.  I do have my poppy on but it doesn't stand out very well, but remembering why we are hear really stood out and was at the forefront of my thoughts.

I took a moment!
Honour at Hoffmann!

Lest we forget!

It was very cold and windy at the summit, so we headed down the backside of the mountain and found a wonderful sheltered spot that faced the sun and spent some time here dining and enjoying the views.  Directly in front of us was the Junction Lookout.  

We admired the clouds and how they danced and burst.  

The sky was pretty amazing today!  I paid more attention to the sky then I did the surrounding mountains.  There was no way one could miss this sun dog.  I kept stopping to look back at it, and it became more defined every minute.  The sky took on quite a dramatic look.  Were we being rewarded for our effort of summitting in honour?

On the way up we discussed hitting "The Humps"on the way down if time allowed.  Well, we had loads of time so took them on.  The first Hump on the way down was the shorter one.  We reached the top and found the sandstone crags which were lightly covered in snow.  This is the view from the first Hump.

Heading up the second, bigger Hump.

View from bigger Hump of Indian Oils parking lot and road and trail head.

Now we just had a straight forward hike back to the trail head.  Today didn't seem like much effort at all in return for the gorgeous treats!  I agree this was a beautiful day to celebrate our freedom!  I am glad we discovered Purple Passion!  I too enjoy the warm sun on a winter -like day in the mountains!  These three thoughts alone were reason enough to make me feel like I was "on top of the world" today!