Getting High and Dirty!

There is that saying "getting down and dirty", well we put our own twist on it today "getting high and dirty"! A couple of weeks ago I did a hike and along the way I snapped this shot of Mount Yamnuska and stated it was on my to-do list. Today was the day to get that dirty deed done!

I was advised before hand to gear up in older duds because the conditions of this trail could take a toll. I didn't listen! There were lots of places to play along the way where evidence of taking a toll were pretty much non existent, so I didn't know what all the talk was about. These were truly places to play though! We had to smoke a chimney, hang on to chains for dear life and we even got to live on the edge!

We were so fortunate to have a clear blue sky while we played! The peaks looked so prominent as they pointed skyward. These peaks were pretty....

....but these peaks had to be the prettiest!

After roughly 900 meters of elevation, we reached the summit which was at 2239 meters. We stopped for a short period of time to take summit shots and have lunch. Now the real fun begins!

We are high here (and still clean) but now its time to get high and dirty! We have to go down for this and this is what we have to go down. First, we have to traverse and you can see the faint trail we worked our way out to the middle off.

Once we reached the middle, then we faced down the gigantic scree slope and went for it! This is what Mt. Yamnuska is known for, the opportunity to slip and slide and scream in the scree all the way down the steep slope! You can see a couple of my buddies in the bottom photo halfway down the slope.

At the bottom, we checked to see the toll that was taken! I knew there would be dust accumulation, but never imagined it would be to this degree. Scrambled Legs even had damage done to his boots. You can see the sole separating from the body of his boot.

Mt Yamnuska is the very prominent and distinctly looking mountain on your right hand side as you are heading west and you can't miss it as you pass the turn off to Highway 40. It forever comes up in conversation, many have done it multiple times, its known for the chain section and the scree section and in my books there should be special recognition for conquering it! "Yammie"! That's it, those that have scrambled Mt Yamnuska are Yammies! Some definitions of this name that I came across are: scattered and emotional nature, responsible expressive personality, rarely at a loss for words, do not often experience loneliness! Fits me!

The stats for today are that we covered approximately 10km in 5:20 and total elevation reached up to 918 meters. After the deed was done, I felt high and mighty and dirty! I'm very happy to check this one off my to-do list. It has been on my list for so long and was very worthy of being there because as it turned out, it gave me that feeling of being "on top of the world!"