Blueberry Hill - SLOW Pace - Sat, Mar 12 2016

Distance: approx 10km
Elevation gain: 300m

This is an extremely challenging trip. Make sure you read this itinerary in its entirety. Please do not attend if you're feeling under the weather or have any knee issues – there will be other opportunities for you to attend in future (and actually ENJOY the trip).

Although you may be familiar with Blueberry Hill as a cross-country ski trail, that is not the route we’re taking today. We'll start off following the cut-line up the hill at the end of the parking lot. Once we reach the top of the hill we'll look for an unofficial snowshoe trail off to the right (just past the three power poles across the trail), and more directly up Blueberry Hill. We go through the Winter Wonderland forest and then begin climbing. We have a long steady climb to the top, with some quite steep sections along the way. Watch out for Spruce Traps/Tree Wells on the way up. At the top we rendezvous briefly with the x-c ski trail and use the picnic table for a lunch break. If the sky is clear, at the top of Blueberry Hill we'll have a tremendous view of Mount Fox to the south, the Elk Range to the east, and the Kananaskis Lakes and Mt. Indefatigable to the north. To finish the trip, we bushwhack and bum-oggan our way down the other side of the trail through steep sections and deadfall. Have fun but BE CAREFUL. The deadfall, and spruce wells can be particularly treacherous. At the bottom of the hill we'll find the Upper Kananaskis Lake shoreline trail and hang a right. At the first parking lot we come to, we'll head back into the trees on the connector x-c ski trail which takes us straight back to the Elk Pass parking lot.

Please attend if:
- You have plenty of experience with elevation gain and loss in steep terrain and deep snow
- You have experience navigating treacherous deadfall and uneven terrain
- You have very large, good quality snow shoes – you will need much more floatation than you do for trips which are flatter and/or have packed snow.
- You are feeling strong and healthy – at the top of your game today.
- You are willing to go with the flow, explore, and go at the posted (slow) pace.

Please do not attend if:
- You do not have any of the required items listed above
- You are feeling under the weather
- You are having any knee issues.

Ref: GemTrek's Kananaskis Lakes map.