"Mt James Walker - Apr 3 2021. Described by Chic Scott as "for those who have skied everything else in Kananaskis Country" which is kind-of funny and I somewhat agree. It's a lot of touring for some likely wind-blasted alpine turns... but it's a very fine summit and if you time the conditions well it could be an excellent corn snow ski! The book says it's 12km return and 1100m gain, it's 19km and 1300m gain. At least the book is consistent in sandbagging! We started the day with a great refreeze, -4c and clear sky. The temp/solar crusts were thinner than I expected, about 1-2cm below treeline and disappearing around treeline in this area. The alpine is absolutely wind hammered and made for tricky skinning at times. We ended up bootpacking the face instead of bothering with trying to skin up it. We didn't find any reactive windslabs. The ski down was a mix of terrible and bearable, improving as we got lower. We ended up skinning the entire way out once we hit the valley since it's so undulating. It was a great day but I'd only recommend this one for peak-baggers or folks looking for a bit of adventure. Crampons were an asset but not mandatory." — jakefinnan • Apr 3, 2021

"A great day out on a stunning, very underrated mountain. Very beautiful approach valley. Long scree slog, with a fun glissade on the way down. The summit register placed by the first ascent team of 1969 was still there. Ascended in 6 hours, descended in 4 hours. " — yuri • Jul 18, 2020

"The weather was cool and breezy. The trail was well marked and I didn't have any trouble getting up there. Upon coming up to the final summit slopes I was a bit concerned about snow, but as it turned out, it wasn't a problem at all." — BertB • Jul 15, 2020