Cussing out Maze Peak

Just in case you thought summer was around the corner, I thought I'd remind you how silly that notion is. It's only May long weekend, so of course there's still wintery conditions out there in the mountains. :\

Anita and I took a drive up towards the Ya Ha Tinda area on Sunday, and barely made it without busting an axle or blowing a tire on the dumptruck sized potholes along the dirt roads leading in. We scrambled up Maze Peak, which involved hiking up a steep face with some of the most rotten rock I've ever encountered. Every step you took, the brittle shale scree underneath would shatter. The going was of the annoying 'take one step up, slide half a step down' variety, which was rather irritating. I caught faint echoes of F-bombs raining down and for a second, thought it was me unconsciously expressing my dismay with the terrain. But I turned around and quickly realized it was Anita in the distance cussing out the ground. LOL. A short while later, we would gain the ridge to discover full blown winter, wind, and cold, which would make Anita even that much more pleased with life. Needless to say, we didn't summit because I didn't want to get pushed off a mountain. #pickyourbattles




The day started out promising... with warm sun, and snow free slopes.




Tree drool!


Slobberific!


And then it started to get a little bit wintery.








Hard to believe this is the same hike as the above photos.














Anita looks across the Red Deer River, over towards Labyrinth Mountain.






Summit Brew: Tooth and Nail Brewing's Sucker Punch Double IPA. It was so cold up top, I waited until we descended back down towards the warm and dry front side before cracking this bad boy.