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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.

KML and GPX Tracks


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

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