A Walking Report 07

Dear Reader (2020-07-07),

Introduction
Today is the third day of the current flurry of posts aimed at getting you caught up on the events of the past two weeks or so.  These posts are not necessarily in the order they were walked. This flurry so far is comprised of:
~ Flake from 2020-07-04 click here for A Walking Report 05
~ Flake from 2020-07-05 click here for A Walking Report 06

Thursday June 25, – Plains of the 6 Glaciers <> 15 km
This is turning out to be a dramatic week, as I try to complete 2 hikes in areas that I fear may get difficult to access, once July arrives.  Eiffel Lake was Monday and today I’m off to the lookout beyond  the Plains of Six Glaciers Teahouse. 

There are still lots of parking at Lake Louise when I arrive around 8:30.  In a Facebook comment, I mentioned that Lake Louise has held a special place in my heart for so many years I no longer know or care why.  It’s a thrill to start walking at the Chateau.  The trail follows the lake to the end, and there any number of benches along this section.  The trail then climbs to the teahouse.  There is something deliciously appealing about walking less than 6.5 km into the sub-alpine and then to find a small cafe in a building initially built by the CPR serving decent soup and lemonade.  I stop for both before walking the remaining 1.1 km or so to the lookout.  After making the 1.1 km return walk to the teahouse, I fall for the temptation of chocolate cake – it’s the best cake on the mountain.

It took me a while to figure out how to present the images from today.  In the end there are 3 sets.  The first set is of the walk from the Chateau to the teahouse and beyond with occasional look backs towards the Chateau. These are of a documentation / diary / reference point nature. The second set are photos from the day that are now part of the “Water Works” series.  The final set from the day are now part of the “Land Mass” series. There are two versions for two of the images in the last set as I was undecided on black and white, or colour. Do you have a preference?

Cheers, Sean

For the record, here is the text on the information plaque near the teahouse, which includes a picture of Charlotte the Marmot.

Life At The Top
“Teahouses are comfortably furnished buildings built for trail hikers or riders to relax for short periods while on the trail.. .they are located at vantage points of unusual interest and beauty… ” (CPR 1932)

This tea house was built in 1926 by Swiss Guides employed by the CPR. The first operator was Martha Feuz, wife of guide Edward Feuz. In the early days, she slept on the floor to keep the two cabins available for paying guests. Joy Kimball and her husband Peter bought the tea house in 1959. Joy ran it for 45 years, raising her two daughters in a mountain meadow surrounded by glaciers. Her family still runs the tea house today.

Imagine life as a tea house operator — serving guests, packing in supplies and assisting lost climbers are all in a day’s work.

Charlotte was a large pet marmot that Joy’s daughters carted around for eight summers- don’t try this yourself!

All rights for all material on any media reserved – © Sean P Drysdale 2020

3 Replies to “A Walking Report 07”

  1. Great leading lines in photo # 2208 – drawing the eye to the distant lake. Photo 2205 has powerful diagonal lines, creating a more interesting image.

  2. I had taken a look at these, and meant to come back to comment. It’s my rule that I really must look at these on the main computer and take my time.

    The walk up to the teahouse used to be one of our favourites, but it’s been many years since we’ve been there. It was getting so crowded it wasn’t any fun.

    The first set are all well done, nice lines, and, and, I don’t know how to say this. They are what they are. I think of these as well done documentary photos. There I was, this is what I saw. I do lots of these, and they’re kind of hard to do well, as you’ve done here. I’ve been finding that mountains as such are not especially interesting for me, but my eye did linger over several of the photos, especially the ones with strong leading lines.

    You know I’m a sucker for water and reflection shots, so the middle set interested me much more. The still water shots were contemplative, and the reflections quite wonderful. The little waterfall shot intrigued me, since it took a minute to sort out what I was looking at. Nicely done there.

    In the third set, the black and white images were by far the most striking for me. It does interesting things with the sky, and the textures of the rock.

    1. Thank you for visiting, commenting, and your kind words. You’re correct about that first set being purely this is what the trail looked like, and they don’t have a lot of depth to them. I don’t always share photos of that genre. In this case though I got such a kick out of the walk, I felt like sharing them. The other sets are composed of images which I hope encourage some viewers some of the time to linger. Cheers

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