Rainy Sunrise Powderface Ridge November 5 2016

a Canadian Rockies November gift

The past few days here in my part of the planet, the weather has been phenomenal.  This is so unusual having such warm temperatures at this time of the year.  I looked at it as a gift that I wanted to open and share with friends.  Who doesn't like a gift, my friends are into sharing and we are all game for adventure.  Today's gift was located all along Rainy Ridge up to Sunrise Hill (aka Rainy Ridge Summit) and for a long stretch along Powderface Ridge.

We unwrapped the gift and found this! 

It was now time to enjoy it!  We met at the Timber Harvesting Pull-Out, geared up and began our adventure aiming for these colorful foothills.  It was already windy which was what was called for today.  We made our way into the forest and found shelter from the gusts.

The Rainy Ridge is rough & rocky requiring attention to foot placement.  We reached the viewpoint and from here we could see Sunrise Hill which would be our first high point of the day.  If you click on the photo, it will enlarge and you can see the flagpole on top.

It was a steep climb to the top, along snowy icy sections.

We were happy to be here and secured our Sunrise Hill summit shot.

It was quite windy!

Our visit on Sunrise Hill was not long.  We then descended off it, crossed over the Powderface true trail then once again went for a steep climb.  This time up to the south end of Powderface Ridge.  This end of the Ridge gets you to the views much quicker.  Also this end has some boulder sections to work through but that's fun stuff.  Then the views begin.

in front of Nihahi Ridge

I sported my Hawaiian Lei in recognition of the warm winds.

It was too windy to be out in the open for dining time, so we worked our way down slope to the edge of a treed section for some shelter then settled in and fuelled up.  This was the view we had to our side and also to where we would be heading after lunch.  Our next destination would be the high point in the top center.

this is what that destination place looked like

fun, colorful, pretty

That high point was the furthest we would go in that direction today so was our turn around spot.  We savoured some time here though before turning around and heading back.  We did some more down and some more up then arrived back on Powderface Ridge.  This was the view behind me and from where we came.

the gentle section of Powderface Ridge before 

heading back into the trees and through the boulders

We safely got down the steep slippery sections off Powderface Ridge. 

We were then faced with our next up.  

We needed to get back up to the summit of Sunrise Hill.  

before beginning that climb, I collected yet another destination shot

We slowly but surely made it back to Sunrise Hill Summit.  The wind gusts were unbelievable.  The forecast had called for gusts up to 60km per hour but these gusts were much higher than that.  It was difficult to keep balanced on two feet and planting poles to help was in fact no help.  We did not linger at all and swiftly got down off that Hill.

What a relief to get down and into the sparse enough trees where there was protection.  It was time to just keep on going but I first had a look over at Forgetmenot Ridge.  Snow looks minimal over there.  It was feeling really warm, probabaly up again in the double digits.

We got off Rainy Ridge and reached the road where now we only had a few more minutes to the trail head.  The bending inward trees made it appear like an arch way exit.  This is the way hikers and job well done!

I expected our distance to be greater and our elevation gain to be less.  I got those mixed up.  Even though I was happy with our time out there and how the day played out.  How fortunate are we to have a day packaged together like we did.  It was quite a gift and thank you for it!