A Few Days in the Rockies

This past week was supposed to be the annual Saskatchewan Section Moutaineering Camp - Little Yoho Valley, Yoho National Park. Unfortunately, just as we were hitching up the packs to hike in last Sunday, the Park Warden comes along to tell us that there's a fire up that way and the whole valley is closed. No idea how long it will be closed.

We hang around all day to get what information there is, which isn't much. A helicopter piolet thinks we won't be getting in Sunday OR Monday. The wardens are tight lipped - you'd think they were protecting evidence from a crime scene.

By late afternoon on Sunday, we had finally come to the conclusion that we probably wouldn't be getting in Sunday OR Monday and who knew after that. With regret, we told all the participants that the camp would be cancelled. People started to go their separate ways. I headed back to Roger's Pass where there was a renovation of the Wheeler Hut under way. I spent a couple of days there.

What actually transpired is the Little Yoho Valley was opened at noon on Monday. What this seems to indicate to me is that 1) it was a pretty small fire, 2) Parks probably believed that it would be controlled soon, and 3) the upper part of the valley where the Hut is, and especially the glaciers and snowfields where we would be most of the time, was probably in no real danger at all from this fire. Pity the Parks people we talked to couldn't have been just a wee bit more forthcoming with some real information - we might have decided to hang around until Monday to see what happened. As it is now, no camp this year :-(