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Fairview Mountain 11 | 2011-12-04
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This would be the biggest failed attempt in funny way since Mount Rae in 2010 when I tired to go up above clouds in snow day. Just like Rae, I successfully summitted the peak but that wasn’t the primary objective. It was to see orange colored Mount Victoria and Victoria Glacier at sunset… Since ascent of Storm Mountain in last month, I have been wanting to do more sunset trips.
So what the heck happened? Well first of all, peaks around Lake Louise are so tall, I couldn’t see pretty sun from such a short peak, Fairview (Now I understand whey it’s called “FAIRview”). The view of sun was blocked by Mount Aberdeen long before sun turned red. Almost whole day I didn’t see the sun. Second of all, sun actually set behind Victoria thus Mount Vic and the glacier was all dark and nowhere near pretty orange. So much for the images of orange Vic that I had in my head all the way up…
I learned few things from this. Fairview should be done in day time. Pick a tall peak or peak which is not surrounded by taller peaks. Make sure which way the sun will set beforehand.
Extra Info:
Actually the original plan was to see sunset from the summit of Mount Field but not knowing the condition, I have to drive there and see how it was. While driving on HWY1 from Lake Louise, I confirmed Narao SW aspect was dry as it can be in winter as expected. So did Bosworth west aspect and Paget west aspect. However something drastically changed from Ogden. Ogden west had so much snow it was pretty much no way zone. Field west aspect was better but still looked little too dicey.
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