>road trip to the rockies>one week in we're near jasper>find out that theres this trail near http://www.trailpeak.com/trail-The-Whistlers-near-Jasper-AB-2031>me and a friend say hey lets do this>other friend thinks its gonna be too hard for us and doesn't want to>hes in better shape than me>we end up trying it anyway>at the bottom of the trail it's hot, like 25-27 C at like 9h30 am>my friend who didnt want to go leads the way at a ridiculous pace>after 30 min him and my other friend is exhausted and wants to go back>i convince him to carry on because thats probably the only real hike we'll do all trip>we slow down the pace and eventually reach snow level like 2/3 of the way up>the trail is hidden by snow so we follow streams and climb very steep inclines so we're getting exhausted and wet and it's getting cold (no sun anymore and there's menacing clouds)>kind of worried we're getting lost but we can see where we want to go so it's not too bad>we get to the tram thing eventually and we're pretty happy but my friend wants to stop there instead of going to the summit like 1k>me and my other friend say fuck it, and decide to leave him at the tram>its hailing outside now, 5C and very windy>we follow the trail and eventually it seems to lead straight to a 500 m drop mfw>we leave the trail and try to be careful with crevasses and stuff>suddenly, THERE'S A FUCKING CHICKEN IN FRONT OF US>eventually reach the top and go back>take the tram down so i have to fight vertigo, scariest part of the tripso yeah my friend climbed 90% of the way but decided to stay warm instead of finishing the climb properly and missed out on the weirdest part of the trip (the summit chicken). Now he talks of that climb as the best part of the trip but leaves out that we had to coax him into doing it and that he didn't go all the way. The bird thing is a ptarmagan I think, no idea what the fuck it was doing there in the hail at 2.5 k altitude.
