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Jasper Activities
Backpacking
You have chosen a very special place to enjoy a wilderness experience. Jasper National Park is the largest and most northerly of Canada's mountain national parks. It protects more than 10,000 square kilometres of the Rocky Mountains, a beautiful and dramatic landscape supporting a rich variety of plants and animals. The human history is interesting too. Many of the park's backcountry trails were established by early travellers including First Nations people, fur traders, explorers and adventurers.
There are more than 1,200 kilometres of trails and 100 backcountry campsites in the park. Licensed commercial services include three backcountry lodges, a number of horse outfitters, and many hiking/interpretive guides. The Alpine Club of Canada manages four alpine huts.
This section will help you plan a hike that is safe, exciting and low impact.
Have a wonderful trip!
Mountain Biking
Jasper National Park supports the use of bikes as a means of appreciating and enjoying the tremendous natural values preserved within the park. With hundreds of kilometres of mountain bike trails and numerous road riding options, biking is an excellent way to explore this special place.
Trails range from easy to difficult and the biking season typically extends from May to October.
Mountain biking in a national park comes with stewardship responsibilities. Riding non-designated or closed trails, building new trails, or riding off-trail displaces wildlife and destroys soil and vegetation.
Mountain biking is allowed only on designated bike trails. It is your responsibity to know where you can and cannot legally ride.
Avoid riding during extreme conditions; wet, muddy or very dry trails are more likely to be damaged.
Help preserve the quality of our trails. Ride, don't slide - avoid skidding your tires by hard braking. Ride over obstacles, not around them. If obstacles are above your skill level walk your bike.
Climbing and Mountaineering
The Lay of the Land
Four national parks; Jasper, Banff, Yoho and Kootenay, as well as several provincial parks contain a vast portion of the central Canadian Rockies. Jasper National Park includes a huge section of the range from the crest of the Continental Divide along the British Columbia - Alberta border on the west, to almost the edge of the prairies on the east.
Local climbers distinguish between the higher, often glaciated alpine ranges along the continental divide, and the slightly lower, drier ranges to the east. The Yellowhead Highway provides the main east-west route through the park and access to the town and services of Jasper. The Icefields Parkway is an excellent highway that parallels the main Divide Range from Jasper in the North to Lake Louise in the south. Along the way are some of the most spectacular alpine peaks and glaciers on the continent.
How's the Rock?
Climbers coming here for the first time may not be familiar with the type of climbing and the varying rock quality in particular. The Rockies are made up almost entirely of sedimentary rock including limestones and dolomites, shales, and silicas (including quartzite - metamorphic rock). The characteristics vary widely from the very worst to some fine rock, depending on the formations (the layers) encountered. The best rockclimbing is found on the some of the thickly bedded limestones (such as Roche Miette) and the beautiful quartzites located along the main continental divide ranges.
Sportrock sites are limited to accesible areas of high quality quartzite, and waterworn limestone. Alpine climbs inevitably involve climbing through multiple formations, and highly variable rock some of which is extremely loose, as evidenced by the huge talus and scree slopes around the bases of most peaks. Terms used to describe some of these more interesting layers include: shattered, tottering, chipshale, briquettes, and occasionally even simply "dirt!" (to use some of the polite terms). Locals understand that contending with these sometimes horrific conditions, is 'part of the game', and considerable skill can be required to manage the risks. Most routes do involve at least some climbing on loose rock and for climbers not accustomed to this, this can slow progress down considerably. In addition, route finding can be difficult as routes are often convoluted and indeed, routefinding is often the key to successful execution of a route. Consequently it is sound advice to approach difficulty, length grades and time estimates conservatively. Hardware for most multipitch routes and all technical alpine routes should include at least a few pitons as well as the usual assortment of nuts and camming devices.
What To Do And When
The rock climbing season can begin as early as May, as the cliffs at the lower elevations along the east side of the park begin to dry off. As well, a number of 8000' peaks near Jasper town, in the Colin Range, can come into shape early in the season. However snow on approach trails and in some of the gullies can remain until June.
The higher alpine peaks (9000'+) only begin to come into reasonable summer condition in late June and early July as the spring avalanches taper off. The window for difficult alpine climbs is very limited. North faces rock pitches are usually only dry for several weeks in August, however, the season for alpine ice, climbs on steep ice faces and gullies extends into the cooler temperatures of September or even early October. Avalanche hazard can be a major consideration any month of the year in alpine environments.
What's Popular? or Where To Start
There are several popular moderate scrambling peaks in the Park with non maintained climber worn trails to their summits. These include Mount Wilcox and Sunwapta Peak, both at the South end of the Park, and Hawk or Pyramid Mountain near the Jasper townsite. The Rock Gardens and Lost Boys are two sport climbing areas with numerous high quality routes consisting of limestone and quartzite respectively. Access trails to these sport climbing areas are not maintained, there may be overhead and underfoot dangers encountered along the way. Parking for Lost Boys is available at the Leach Lake Picnic Area, 100m south of the trail head, where garbage and outhouse facilities are available. Meisner Ridge, in the Colin Range near the Jasper townsite or Ashlar Ridge to the East provide challenging multipitch limestone rock climbs with spectacular views from their summits.
The Columbia Icefields is a spectacular glaciated plateau, which boasts several of the highest peaks in the Canadian Rockies. Alpinists, from the novice to the extreme, will be challenged by routes such as the Normal Route on Mt. Athabasca (II) or the Grand Central Couloir on Mt. Kitchener (V 5.9 A2/W5). The quality of the routes combined with roadside access make the Icefields an excellent area in which to focus a climbing trip to the Canadian Rockies. The North Face Mt. Edith Cavell and the Japanese Route on Mt. Alberta are two additional alpine climbs that are among of the 50 Classic Climbs in North America.
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