Most of people just hike 6km to the Helen Lake, spend some time there and return back to the cozy parking lot at HW93, right across the Crowfoot Glacier viewpoint. The lake usually provides a nice reflection and definitely worth a trip.
But if you have extra 1.5-2 hours, the views from the nearby Cirque Peak are fascinating. And it’s a hike most of the time, with easy scramble in like only 3 places on the way up and 2 on the way down, if you appreciate quick scree descent. It gets steeper closer to the summit but totally doable, just keep right there, go around the summit block, and you can avoid scrambling and pretty much just walk up to the top. The first (false) summit provides much better views of the Wapta Icefield, Iceberg and Bow lakes, The Onion and surroundings, but if you take another 3 minutes and hike to the 2nd (true) peak, you’ll get incredible views of the glacier down the cirque, Observation Peak, Marmot and Bobac mountains, Watermelon Peak and off course clear view of the Dolomite Peak which looks like some huge weird submarine.
Helen Lake with Cirque Peak on the backgroundPanorama from Cirque Peak to Dolomite Peak sidePanorama from Cirque Peak to Observation Peak side
More photos from Cirque Peak via Helen Lake are here:
Last year we did not get to the summit because took a wrong ascend route on the climber’s right from the small tarn (you’ll see what I mean once you get there – cannot miss it). It’s very tempting because you can see it all going up to the ridge, but it’s losing scree, and by the time we reached the big rock on the ridge where everybody takes a rest stop before the final push, we were completely exhausted. Apparently the big rock is only 200m from the summit block and 83m of elevation gain, but last year it was enough for us to make a U-turn. This time we took an easy scramble entrance to the ridge and the rest was piece of cake. But we descended this time via the scree route, and it was fun (need gaiters)!
YouTube channels: Annie Quellet – these guys did it in exactly opposite to the easiest way, but still a very good watch. Harlan Fox – another (“climber’s left”) way of getting to the ridge but traditional (“climber’s right”) to the summit, avoiding scrambling to the top. Hiking Chariots – scramble to the ridge (avoiding exhausting scree), and final scramble to the summit (avoiding exposure on the right side of the summit block) George Chan – gives a very good impression of the scrambling section to the ridge, but very sketchy of the one at the summit.
