Jungle, desert and elusive spider monkeys

This season’s issue of The Gazette features an article I wrote on my solo trek up the 12,529 foot Cerro Chirripo, the highest peak in Costa Rica and second highest in Central America.

The article, Jungle, desert, and elusive spider monkeys, provides a personal account of this exciting hike and the obstacles I faced along the way, including a misleading guidebook description, a painfully heavy pack, and a lack of hot food. Interestingly enough, I felt totally at home.

Get your hands on the current issue and come and see what I learned about Costa Rica upon arriving at Crestones Base Lodge at 11,063 feet. You might be surprised, too.

Every year, the Banff Mountain Festival puts a spark in an otherwise dreary fall season here in The Rockies. Bringing together mountaineers, adventurers, filmmakers, authors and speakers, the Book and Film Festivals offer an amazing week of armchair excitement.

I decided to interview Festival Director, Shannon O’Donoghue, to get the inside scoop on the Festivals, as part of an article featured on the Travel Alberta: Holiday Ideas website.You can find the article here.

© Meghan J. Ward, 2009.

I welcomed winter up in the Moraine Lake region today with a snowy hike up to Eiffel Lake. While the views were completely obscured by snow, it was great to be outside in the fresh air and getting one of the final hikes in before the snow settles and the skis come out.

Gloomy yet Beautiful Colours of Fall in the Ten Peaks

The 5.6 km trail (one-way) takes you from the shores of Moraine Lake and up a set of fairly steep switchbacks. Once you hit the junction for Eiffel Lake and Larch Valley, the trail flattens out from there until the lake. It is pleasant, and most likely, quite scenic if visibility was good. To the left, you would see both base to peak of the Ten Peaks, a dramatic sight no matter how many times I have seen them before. Eiffel Lake is nestled at the base of these, right underneath Deltaform, I think.

Anyways, it was a gloomy fall day but a nice way to welcome the colder temperatures. Some home-made cookies made for a nice treat along the way, too.

*I forgot my memory card today, so the photo was taken around the same time of year last year. The photo of part of the Ten Peaks is taken from the Larch Valley/Sentinel Pass Trail and not Eiffel. I believe you would have an even broader perspective of them from Eiffel.

© Meghan J. Ward, 2009.