Ha Ling Peak
Completed in winter conditions. This is an all year around hike, although be mindful of avalanches in the late winter season. The staircases are usually very slippery in the winter, so microspikes are an asset, but not 100% necessary. The crux of the route is probably the crowds at any given point in the year.
Ha Ling Peak is the northernmost peak of the Ehagay Nakoda massif, which is the prominent mountain situated to the southwest of Canmore. It presents itself to Canmore and the entire Bow Valley corridor, including Highway 1, with a large and recognizable cliff face. Although it is the smallest peak on the massif, Ha Ling may be the busiest mountain in all of the Canadian Rockies, and that is not an understatement. Ha Ling Peak was once named Chinaman’s Peak, before the name was changed in 1997 to honor the true name of the person who has its first recorded summit (earlier summits may have been completed by members of the Stoney Nakoda First Nations, but unrecorded). There is much lore around the name of the peak and the story behind it, most of which is debated, but the peak was likely originally named because they did not know the name of the man who had climbed to its summit. Fortunately, the peak’s name has returned to honor the rightful first recorded ascent, a happy ending to a sad story of the old Chinese mining community in Canmore.
The parking lot is the Goat Creek Parking Lot, which is situated about ten minutes up the Spray Lake Road (Highway 742) from the start of the gravel and the total driving time from the Calgary city limits is about 1:10 hours. The Spray Lakes Road is gravel, but does not require a high clearance vehicle at any point in the year, although the bumps can get quite big, so personally I wouldn’t take anything smaller than an SUV up there. The Spray Lakes Road also passes through the EEOR Intermittent Avalanche Closure Zone, so make sure to check for closures.
Having a relatively gentle slope on the backside, a maintained trail switches back to the summit, making the top achievable for any hiker (or regular person) that puts their mind to it. From the parking lot, begin by crossing the rad and hiking up the trail, which ascends a short, steep slope to the canal, before crossing on a bridge and entering the forest. From there, the trail continues up to a viewpoint at around the halfway point of the hike, and then continues further up to the staircases. After the stairs, the col invites some magnificent views into the Bow Valley. Then, turn left and head to the summit, which is a short walk up steep but well traveled scree trails. In total there are six large lengths of switchbacks to get to the summit (five turns). Descend the same way. From the col there is an optional add-on of Miner’s Peak for a “double summit” and slightly longer day. Note that the Gaia GPS route is very inaccurate and is just for visual reference. Navigation shouldn't be required for this hike.
Ha Ling had always been one of those ones that we knew we had to do, but never got around to it because we were always looking for more exciting ideas. Since we don’t ski, and April is pretty much the snowiest time of the year in the Rockies, we had to find something with low avalanche risk and Ha Ling came to mind. Over 60 summits in, I’d finally get to see what all the crowds come for.
We had a brutally late start of 11:15am, but it was going to be a short day, so that was okay. It had been quite a while since I had last gotten out to the mountains, so I was excited to bag a peak with my dad. We packed spikes and ripped up the trail. I started to remember why I liked coming out to the mountains so much. The air was so crisp, the snow was crunchy, the contrast of snow and rock on the surrounding peaks was perfect.
The trail was honestly underwhelming and not steep at all for quite a ways. We ended up throwing our spikes on once we got to a somewhat icy section (before the viewpoint), which made our pace so much faster, since we weren’t sliding around anymore at all.
The first good views from the trail were of EEOR (this is from the viewpoint).
From the viewpoint, the grind actually felt quite a bit harder and longer than I’d expected, but we made it up to the stairs, which we avoided mostly to the side, since they were so slippery. The section up the last staircase was kind of scary too because it was just so icy on this day, but we made it up, although we did notice a fair few people were struggling in this section with these icy conditions. There's your fair warning of what it could look in the winter if you choose to do it.
Just above the col, looking over at Miner’s Peak(s) and Mount Lawrence Grassi behind. We wanted to go over to the Miners on this day, but opted against it, since it looked quite far (it isn’t actually) and we were a little worried about that snow slope/cornice just left of center.
We’d be going up Ha Ling only on this day. Also, I don’t know why people do it, but later on, we saw people standing on this cornice for who knows what reason. This is how people die in the Rockies, and it's so avoidable. Just make sure that there is rock under your snow and you should be good, otherwise, don’t step there (so simple and easy!).
The col itself has nice views.
We had our snack at the col since it was quite windy and we didn’t want to freeze at the summit. Afterwards, we set off and hit the summit after about fifteen minutes.
Looking at Canmore from the summit of Ha Ling Peak. Grotto Mountain at right. The tallest one in the sun and on the horizon should be Mount Townsend (super obscure peak). And then from center to left are Lady Mac, Charles Stewart South, and Mount Charles Stewart. You can also see Bald Eagle Peak just below and in front of Charles Stewart South.
EEOR and Mount Rundle.
Miner’s Peak and Mount Lawrence Grassi. I’d be bagging all of them eventually.
My dad on the summit of Ha Ling. Our first one for 2023.
Unfortunately, my summit pano from this one is severely messed up so I won’t put that on here, there were good views (as you can see from the other pictures). We then quickly retreated from the summit since the winds were unbearable, and we dropped to lower elevations to try to warm up. We got back down to the parking lot quite quickly, other than the slippery staircases, where we once again opted to avoid them to the sides. Other than that small section, it was a quick and enjoyable trip.
I can finally say that I’ve been to the summit of the "infamou"s Ha Ling Peak and honestly, for how busy it is, I’d say it’s slightly underwhelming. It’s a bit of a grind and very busy to the point where you kind of just want everyone to leave and hike on a different trail. For these reasons, I’d say the best time to do it would actually be winter and the shoulder seasons, because if it was busy like that in April, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like in a few months time. I think the main reason why people come up here isn’t really because of the summit, but mostly just because it’s just easy and popular, although I’m not entirely sure… Anyways, I’m glad to have gotten it checked off for a quick and easy day out in the mountains.
PS, if you’re looking for similar trips to Ha Ling that are less busy, we’ve done so many trips that are similar in difficulty, so make sure to check them out in the "Hike" category.