Plaque where trail heads into the forest.
Amid hundreds of other curious people, we too, walked up the new Ha Ling/Miners Peak Trail. The start is well marked and the sign reading “No Bicylces” is being replaced. After the first two standard zigs came a preview of what was to come: the first appearance of rock steps. Zig 4 impressed with its yeti steps gouged out of slabs with a chain on the side, and the blasting of a long line of slabs to create a walkway. I seem to remember crossing these same slabs on a bridge of flimsy branches!
Signs at the start.
Rock steps on the 3rd zig.
Yeti steps at start of 4th zig
The rock cut on the 4th zig.
More yeti steps.
The viewpoint just over halfway up the trail. Note the rock seats that occur at regular intervals all along the trail.
A great view of EEOR and Whitemans Pond from the viewpoint.
On meeting some friends two corners up they told us we hadn’t seen anything yet. So after enjoying the fabulous viewpoint just above the halfway point, we continued on the long traverse to treeline where the rock steps multiplied greatly. Gasps of awe from people in front of us signalled our arrival at the first set of wooden cable steps (sometimes called cable ladders), this one nearly 100 steps high and catering to both up and down traffic. Some call it the stairway to heaven as it leads to the scree slopes below the summit. Above are two shorter sections of cable steps. Interestingly, some larger dogs were having problems getting the hang of them. As for me, I felt like I was walking up an out of service elevator.
Looking up the first set of cable steps.
Looking down from the top.
Coming up to the second set. The three humps in the background.
Looking up the second set to the third set of cable steps.
Final section of trail to the saddle.
En route to the summit.
The summit overlooking the Bow Valley.
Starting back down.
A final section with more rock steps led to the saddle, or near enough. (En route an unsigned scree trail headed off right to the saddle proper and Miners Peak.) After the maintained trail ended at a sign, most people were carrying on to Ha Ling’s summit using a multitude of trails, some more scrambly than others, We took the trail farthest left which is always the easiest. New to the summit area was a ring of signs at every possible entry point telling people to not throw rocks over the edge onto the climbers. I found it a bit unnerving that two neophytes were sitting on the crumbling edge with their legs dangling over the precipice. Maybe we need another sign: “Do NOT sit on the edge. It’s the surest way to Heaven.”
Looking down the third set of cable steps.
Returning along the rock cut.
In conclusion the newly aligned trail is now utterly safe for all people and their dogs and, even a cat. No doubt some people will feel uncomfortable with all these man-made “improvements.” So lets get some comments, both for and against them. There are many repercussions from having a super safe trail and not just from the aesthetics point of view.. But whatever you think of it, chalk it up as another K country first.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Hi, Please could you send me an email so that I can message back. I think my father was at college in the UK, 1959, with Gillean and I have a piece of art work he made, that I would like for you to have . Kind regards
Hi Brian,
re the slab crossing, I’m pretty sure this is where the rock cut is. The top half of leg 2 has been abandoned as being too steep. You can see where it diverges from the present trail.
Something no one has mentioned yet: does the new trail lure inexperienced people into potentially dangerous terrain? We saw people who had “never climbed a mountain before” doing great going up to the summit, using their natural ability and, most importantly, their common sense. But there were also a few others who were descending all the way from the summit on their behinds. Maybe it was the footwear…And I mentioned the two guys sitting on the edge.
I haven’t been up there since the trail reopened but it looks like the powers that be have tried to make the trail safer for new hikers and provide easy access to the top for people who might not otherwise go hiking. In that regard, I think the improvements are ok. Those of us who want a more natural hiking experience can hike the many other natural trails in the area. Yeti steps and cable steps are not everywhere yet, are they?
I recently asked Matt Hadley (trail designer) about those cable ladders. Here is part of the email: His answers are in quotes.
Personally, I think it an amazing trail, one of a kind in K Country. Nevertheless I feel ambivalent about those cable ladders. They seem a little out of place. However, I can see why they were needed. Correct me if I am wrong. You couldn’t go farther right into a possible avalanche gully,
“Correct.”
And you couldn’t make small zigs up the scree because that would surely invite shortcutting.
“Exactally.”
So something that would get people up high quickly was the only answer? Questions people are asking about them: The design for a start. Are they one of a kind in Canada?
“My dad actually came up with the design based on a technique he saw used in the Sahara desert to climb the sand dunes. He then modified the design to construct cable ladders in the bay of Fundy region of NB. On the Fundy footpath there are numerous cable ladders that ascend and descent the 200m of vertical from the ocean up to the height of land. There they were built narrower as the trails are much less busy, and were out of 4×4 material. With much input from Alberta Parks staff we designed ours to be two way. The idea was that the trail is just too busy for people to be patient enough to que up or wait to pass. We also wanted to have the chain handrail so that users can hold onto the chains with both hands so that they are less likely to slip when everything up there is covered in snow and ice. ”
Does the wood age to grey? (My thinking here is that they would blend more easily with the rock.)
“It should stay mostly the color it is, that is a new type of pressure treating that is brown so it is meant to be less obtrusive than the old green stuff.”
How were they assembled?
“They were assembled in place up there, as they were too heavy to be flown up. Another time we might try and make the cable sections modular to allow them to be flown up in sections, however the 6”x6” rough sawn timbers become quite heavy if you are trying to then move an entire section around by hand. With regards to anchoring, the bottom Cable ladder is anchored at the bottom where we found bed rock, there are 3 anchors drilled and epoxy anchored into the bedrock. The top of this ladder there was not any bedrock for 10’ deep, so there we built a gabion basket full of rock and wrapped cables around that to anchor off of it. The next two cable ladders are all rock anchors.”
Thanks Matt!