On February 8, 2025, Dan and I skied Bow Summit on the Icefields Parkway.
We had a good tour up from the parking lot, along the length of the bench. Then we dropped down, getting some good turns on a run at the south end of the area.
We were staying at The Lodge at Bow Lake, formerly known as Num Ti Jah Lodge and Bow Summit was a quick drive from there.
I recorded our route on Gaia GPS. It is the gray line on the map below.
In the map above, the yellow line is Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway. The white line is the turn off for the Peyto Lake viewpoint. It is usually open in winter up to the first parking lot which has an outhouse bathroom. We started our skinning there.
Trip Report
The uptrack started on the side of the parking lot near the outhouse bathrooms. It took us up to the road to the upper parking lot.
This road is closed in winter and it makes a great place for an uptrack.
We followed it to the upper parking lot.
At the upper parking lot, we found an uptrack straight ahead. Our uptrack wound to the left and joined a wide trail.
The wide trail went uphill, steeply at times, to gain the bench above.
The trail leveled off once we reached the bench. We then turned left to traverse across the mountain.
This photo shows slopes above the bench which can be skied. You can see some tracks up there.
We decided to carry on to the left, along the bench. In past years, we have skied slopes that drop down on the left side toward the highway.
This day, we stayed high and followed the trail across the slope, over the treed knolls in the distance.
Beyond the knolls, the terrain opened up. We continued across following the tracks ahead in the photo. We entered the trees at the skyline in the photo.
I had not gone this far in previous years and I wondered just how far the trail would go.
It ended here, at these open slopes. We decided to traverse to the top of this slope and ski down. We added our tracks to the ones in the photo.
At the bottom of the run, we picked up an uptrack that took us back to the top.
We have learned from experience that when we are done making turns at Bow Summit, it is better to return to the top and ski down the uptrack to the parking lot. The trees at the bottom of the runs here are very thick and dense. The bushwhacking can be a nightmare.
This time, we decided to cut our day short. It was very cold and the wind had picked up at the top, along the bench. We knew the Lodge had a fire going in the big fire place and we gave in to the temptation to go and enjoy a cold beer by the fire.
The tiny lodge with the red roof on the edge of Bow Lake is a cozy, welcoming home base on the Icefields Parkway. Great food, friendly staff and an unbeatable location. I highly recommend it. I took the above photo the previous day, from Crystal Ridge.
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