Classic hiking trails, opportunities to get off the beaten track, and everything from old growth to alpine. Lake O’Hara is a gem of the Rockies. Come spend 5 days with us hiking and exploring pristine lakes, beautiful mountains and all during larch season!
This time of year the larch trees turn and the mountains are suddenly covered in a yellow blanket. What’s more is you’ll be staying the in one of the ACC’s oldest huts, Elizabeth Parker. The trail system around Lake O’Hara is one of the most extensive and well maintained networks in the Canadian Rookies, accessing 25 named lakes.
A variety of daily trips will be led by professional ACMG guides dedicated to your safety, enjoyment an discovery of the area.
BOOKING INFORMATION
Date:
Sept 8TH – Sept 12TH, 2023
Price: $900 + TAX
MORE INFORMATION
Please try to register online before calling. If you are having issues please try to have your emergency contact information and course questionnaire filled out before calling.
OR Call: (403)-678-3200 ext 213
Hike, hike and hike! Guides know the best lookouts to take photos and all the best trails but some classic hikes are: Odaray Grandview, Lake Oesa, Lake McArthur, Opabin Platea.
Day 1:
Meet your group at the Lake O’Hara bus parking lot (just past Lake Louise) and take the 8:30am bus into Lake O’Hara. Unload at the hut.
Days 2, 3, 4 (general itinerary):
Get up early to enjoy the best views on one of the many trails from the hut
Day 5:
Opportunity to do one last hike before packing up and catching the 1630 pm bus back to the parking lot.
This camp is designed for anyone who wants to hike in the mountains. You don’t need previous hiking experience but you should be prepared to walk 4-9 hours with a light day bag. Some trails will be rocky and uneven but no climbing is necessary. There will be the opportunity for more challenging hikes but this is not mandatory.
Food
To keep the cost of this course as low as possible for participants, food will not be provided as part of the course. Please bring 5 lunches 4 breakfasts and 4 dinners as well as your favorite snacks!
Accommodation
The Elizabeth Parker hut rests in a scenic alpine meadow and provides excellent access to a variety of hiking and climbing objective. One of the most popular huts the ACC maintains and for good reason. The Wiwaxy Cabin (smaller of the 2 buildings) was constructed in 1912 and the larger Hut was laid down in 1919. The historic log buildings are named in honor of Elizabeth Parker a founding member of the ACC
You will also be visiting the Peyto Hut, a popular destination on the Wapta providing access to a range of classic Rockies mountaineering objectives. Providing a view you may not have seen before the chance to see Peyto Lake with a birds eye view.
Guiding
Our guiding ratio will be a maximum of 8:1. This camp is guided by ACMG-certified hiking guides.
The ACC hires guides certified by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG). Visit the ACMG website to learn more about what they do!
Rentals
If you don’t have everything on the gear list and aren’t ready to invest in your own, there are many awesome local businesses that rent out all of the equipment you will need. Be sure to reserve your rentals ahead of time to make sure everything you need is available for you when you need it.
Nathalie Drotar
Nathalie came to Western Canada from her native Switzerland for the first time as a nanny when she was young and fell in love with the people here – their humor and kindness – the pace of life and what seemed to be a country with limitless opportunities. She came to visit every 3 years or so before deciding to emigrate and actually doing so in 2008.
By then besides following a career in the office world, she had always been sportively active and was finding balance in running (Nat’s ran 4 marathons) and mountain biking in the summer and skate-skiing in the Jura mountains and in ski-touring the Alps in the winter. After arriving in Western Canada she got in touch with the ACC – Alpine Club Canada – Calgary section to meet people who would help her discover the Canadian Rockies.
Fast forward to 2019 when Nathalie is now Canadian citizen (dual Swiss-Canadian citizen), an ACMG – Association of Canadian Mountain Guides – Hiking Guide with over 10 years’ experience as a volunteer leading back-country trips for the ACC Calgary section. In 2016, she was the recipient of the Eric Brooks Leader Award – alongside her husband! – and in 2019 the Silver Rope for Leadership Award. Nathalie loves giving back to the community by mentoring young women to become trip leaders and pursues her outdoorsy, multi-sports lifestyle any time of the year: in the summer you will find her mountain or road biking, hiking or backpacking, rock climbing or mountaineering. In the winter, you can find her cross-country or skate skiing, ski touring or ice climbing.. all of this with her active husband, friends or ACC members.
Lenora (Lenny) Carbonetto
ACMG Hiking Guide
CAA Active Member
Wilderness First Responder
Lenora grew up in Eastern Canada living in Montreal and Kingston where she was first exposed to the mountains on family hiking trips to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and skiing in the Laurentian’s. Her first exposure to the Canadian Rockies was a wide-eyed summer spent working as a housekeeper at the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge on the Icefields Parkway, where she spent all of her free time poking around the peaks near Bow Lake. It was a job transfer with a bank four years later that brought her back to the Rockies, this time for good
During an AST-2 course in the Kootenays, in 2012, she met her first ACMG Mountain Guide who piqued her curiosity in the guiding industry. Lenora has now been a member of the ACMG since 2015 and the CAA since 2017. For her, the Rockies continue to be a place of wonder, love, respect and exploration, as well as a place where she finds inspiration and her most genuine connections with others. Lenora is also currently working on her second undergraduate degree in Psychology.
We sell Tugo® Travel Insurance suitable for both ACC Adventures and personal trips:
INCLUDED WITH YOUR CAMP FEE
PARTICIPANTS MUST PROVIDE
ORGANIZING FANTASTIC ACC ADVENTURES FOR OVER 100 YEARS
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