Editor:
History is often forgotten or misrepresented, and I fear that this will be the case with respect to the genesis of the Ha Ling/Miners Peak trail.
In the mountains it is rare to have trails carved into a steep hillside. They usually follow ridges or valleys because these were the obvious and easiest routes for animals and the indigenous populations.
So it occurred to me that the users of this trail, and the local community, would like to know how it got there before I, the pioneer, could no longer relate the story of its birth.
In the summer of 1996, as I was descending into the woods at the foot of one of the open, rocky slabs of the back side of the mountain, then known as Chinaman’s Peak, I slipped on a wet root and hurt my tailbone. Once into the trees, I noticed that the mossy carpet of the forest was being severely damaged by the boots of folks who descended vertically, ignoring the many zig-zagging animal trails which they had probably used for the ascent.
I decided that a suitably-graded hiking trail was needed. In her book Kananaskis Country Trail Guide, Third Edition, Volume 1, 1966, Gillean Daffern had noted the same conclusion, suggesting that the local Alpine Club Section do something - since they had improved the excessively steep trail above the ACC Clubhouse that led to the summit of Grotto Mountain (there is now a fourth edition of this guide, volume three, 2013 which now includes the completed Ha Ling/Miners Peak trail).
But time was the essence of the situation, so in the fall of that year I made a move, making many solo visits to survey on foot the back side woods and noting the locations of the steep, open (treeless) rocky slabs. The treed slope was very steep and I often slipped and slid.
But I was a seventy-year-old mountaineer, so was cautious and concious about safety. By the end of the year I had marked a route which was later improved by friends with improvised tools (including the ice axe that had accompanied me over the summit of the Matterhorn).
Subsequently, the Trailminders of the Bow Valley made it possible, with the use of proper Pulaski trail axes, to make it available for public use by the end of summer 1997.
Now, 16 years later, I can no longer help with maintenance repairs that are needed because of the wear of many hundreds of boots each year. Instead, I have approached the management of Kananaskis Country with the hope that they will ensure that this trail will continue to enable the future thousands of visitors to enjoy the hike to the summits.
Brian Carter,
Canmore
