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Bertha Peak
Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta
July 9, 2004
The trip to Bertha Peak begins at Waterton townsite, up the trail to Bertha Lake. From the lake, Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies proposes two possible routes: left or right of the waterfall. The easier route is on the left, but Dinah and I took the route on the right, up a series of gullies. By avoiding the scree and sticking to solid rock, we found good scrambling. However, there was more routefinding than I expected. After reaching the ridgetop, we enjoyed the ridgewalk to the summit.
Hiking to Bertha Lake
Purple fleabane
Bertha Peak from Bertha Lake: we ascended right of the waterfall
Heading to the base of the mountain
Starting up the rocky slope
We started up in a gully to the right of the waterfall
Typical scrambling on the lower slope. You run into scree if you go left
towards the waterfalls.
We found a good diagonal to ascend
Colourful rocks everywhere
We were kept busy looking for a good route up
Routefinding becomes easier near the top
The grade eases near the ridge crest. Bertha Lake below.
We reached the ridge crest
On the ridge, it's a wide-open hike to the top
Looking back
On the summit
82 H/4 Waterton Lakes
