Byron Hill (second attempt)
Hiking the Historic Crowsnest Pass
March 1, 2007

We returned to climb Byron Hill only to encounter an unexpected complication. Like the previous week, we passed a house on the approach but this time the owner yelled at us. He was an older guy, perhaps retired. He said we were trespassing and if we didn’t leave he would call the RCMP. He told me the way to reach Byron Hill was farther up the road “about a mile.”

We drove up Lynx Creek Road as far as it was maintained in the winter. We set out on snowshoes for Byron Creek that we had to cross to reach Byron Hill. This turned out to be impractical because of the steep banks on both sides of the creek. After a fruitless search along the creek we gave up.

We had lost nearly three hours in changing our start point and searching for another approach. With little else to do, we decided to climb a nearby high point. It was a beautiful day and the snow was great. In fact, one reason we returned was because Castle Mountain Ski Hill, only 20 km south of Byron Hill had 108 inches of snow while Lake Louise Ski Hill had only 61 inches — a difference of nearly four feet!

I doubt if there is a trail like the old man described and I doubt if we were on private land. There were no fences and there was only one trespassing sign, for the guy’s house. We’ll go back again sometime and use the book route but next time we’ll give the old man’s house a wide berth!