Just like last year, summer in Banff felt like it was over before it really got started.. guess that's the downside to such an excessively long ski season. This time at least we were ready for it, and we made sure to enjoy every moment of this beautiful, adrenaline filled summer.

The long awaited warm weather started with Jess's birthday. Refreshed from our weekend away in Drumheller, we were ready to celebrate in full swing. We started with a float down the Bow River, a common Banff pass-time we had yet to experience. This entails staying afloat on whatever you can find, hanging a few tinnies off the side to chill and floating from somewhere up river down into Banff. We were blessed with a bluebird day and lots of fun-loving friends to help us enjoy the ride. After a classic BBQ and ice-cream cake at our mate Haley's place, we made our way into town. We didn't actually make it past Wild Bills, a cowboy style saloon, where we spent the entire night daring how long we could stay on a mechanic bull! The day was incredible, with fond memories to keep us smiling forever.

Unfortunately, this was the last bluebird day Banff saw for a while. It poured down for the rest of June and within a week the very road we took to Drumheller was soon a foot under water. These 'June Floods' happened over night and Parks Canada will be spending years to come rebuilding the many backcountry trails and bridges that were washed away. Banff was lucky actually. The only real damage we suffered was a comical 24hrs without electricity and phone lines thanks to a misjudged dam release /flood-prevention initiative that took out the main substation and phone tower...

Neighbouring Canmore and Calgary were a lot worse off with millions of people being evacuated and entire highways swept away. For Calgary, a huge question was whether or not the million-dollar revenue making, internationally acclaimed Calgary Stampede would still go ahead. Only weeks away it wasn't looking promising...

Despite public doubt, the Stampede committee ended up paying a lot of money to pump away the floodwater and clean up the grounds in time. There was just too much money to be lost by canceling. This worked out well for us as we had planned to spend Aidan's birthday there, watching Rodeos, throwing money away at cheap carny stands and eating classic Canadian-style hotdawgs and poutine! Jess even made a birthday cake and brought it along to share with everyone - a scrumptious homemade Oreo Cheesecake! It was a stellar of a day and we even got to reuse our hilarious cowboy hats from the year before. As with last year, the highlight was watching the evening show, with people flying everywhere, dazzling bright lights and impressive music. We were truly spoilt when, his own show being cancelled due to the floods, Kiss turned up on stage! That's right - Kiss - in full costume and tongue flapping around, blew everyone away with 'Rock and Roll All Nite'!

The floods' personal blow for us was Aidan's work. He had left Abominable Sports, which was starting to focus on selling women's stilettos rather than hiking shoes, and scored an awesome outdoor job landscaping in Canmore. With the floods, his new Boss lost some contracts as priorities were reevaluated. All of a sudden work for Aidan and crew was scarce. After a frustrating month with only a few days work, Aidan cut his losses and found a job window cleaning. The crew was great and the work fun, but the boss was an adrenaline junky who fearlessly leaped from rooftop to rooftop. He also unashamedly expected his crew to cling to the frames of four-storey windows, pulling leaves out of gutters with no safety harness. Aidan lasted a week... the risks just didn't seem worth $15/hr. He stroke some luck only days later and scored a job in the kitchen of a great local tavern. The food was awesome and Aidan got to hone some culinary skills. In the end, Aidan left Banff with lots of new skills!

One thing that did remain consistent for Aidan was the volunteering opportunities that came his way with Parks Canada. Interested in joining up with Parks in Australia, Aidan signed up to be a Canadian Parks Steward for the experience. He spent a few mornings waking up at 4am, when most Banffites were going to bed, to capture, record and tag migrating birds around the area. Jess joined in one morning and we were both fascinated by the variety of little insect eaters, and some larger birds of prey, which we got to see close-up with some dedicated, experienced bird specialists. This was definitely the highlight, but he also got involved in some trail reporting, wildlife fence maintenance and an interesting Grizzly research project!

Last year, Jess juggled two jobs and hardly had time to breathe in between. This time she decided to stick to one job and, preferring the benefits and hours, went back to Chilis. Even still, Jess found herself unwillingly scheduled on for 10-12 hours a day. At least this time she got one, sometimes two, days off a week..

We tried to plan these days off around each other. Sometimes it worked, others times not so much. Irregardless, we both managed to squeeze in roughly a hike a week and smashed most of our goals for the summer!

Banff is surrounded by mountain peaks and at first we looked up to them and imagined what it would be like to stand on top... before long we were both addicted to mountain hiking. By the end of the summer, neither of us could get enough of the sense of adrenaline and victory that follows making it to the top of a mountain. Along the way, we were rewarded with unspeakable beauty - meadows filled with wildflowers, crystal blue lakes and an abundance of wildlife. We had barely finished one scramble before we were planing our next.

One of the first Mountains, and the most scary day-scramble, was Rundle. This was a priority peak not because it was a good hike, but because it was the second tallest mountain visible from the Banff townsite, at 2 948 meters high. Not to brag, but we had already climbed Cascade, the highest, last summer. Hiking Rundle was as brutal as it looks - starting with an uninteresting steep slog through the tree line, and finishing with a scramble straight up what they call the 'dragons back', a steep, loose and very narrow cliff face. The victory was not just in the impressive view overlooking Banff, but in being able to look back up that mountain everyday and say, 'I've been there!'

Probably the most exciting mountain we climbed was Temple Mountain in Lake Louise, which is taller than even Cascade, sitting proudly at 3 544 meters. This was the one we were most anxious about because we had heard mixed reviews ranging from horror stories to shouts of praise. For us, Temple is one we would do again and again. It was a really diverse hike, starting at the stunning Moraine Lake and heading through meadows towards Sentinel Pass, with stunning views of the surrounding valleys. The final scramble was, in a word, fun. With a little rock climbing and some interesting detours, by the time we reached the summit we barely noticed our aching joints!

It probably helped that we had only recently accomplished a night in Abbot Pass Hut, after which everything seemed a little easier.. Lake O'Hara was a gem of a place and despite a hellish scramble through loose scree to get to the hut, this was the most beautiful hike we did. Abbot Pass Hut sits within the Lake O'Hara area, a place with such tourism restrictions that only 200 people are allowed in each day. The only way in is a long, boring hike along an old fire road, or by bus. The secret is, the hut is owned by the Alpine Club of Canada who reserve tickets on this bus daily. By booking the hut for the night, we automatically get on the bus. The catch is that the hut, being the second highest elevated building in all of Canada, is situated at just under three thousand meters high and the only way up, is up!

We did procrastinate a little by detouring around the Lake O'Hara area first. Our photos describe it better than we ever could, and still do the place no justice! Honestly, if you are going to go anywhere in the Rocky's, go here!

The scramble up to the Hut itself was magnificent yet horrifying. The scenery was spectacular, with breathtaking views and intimidating cliff bands, yet it was definitely our most challenging scramble. In some sections we were practically taking two steps, and sliding back one. It sure made for a fun scree slide back down the next morning though!

It was worth the effort, and the sense of accomplishment we felt as we opened the Huts warm and welcoming doors was nothing like we had felt so far! This feeling didn't last all too long, as we found the hut completely empty, when we knew there were half a dozen others booked in. Although it was late, buckets of snow collected for melt water were evidence that people had been there less than a few hours ago. As the hut is predominately used as a base for real mountain climbers, we thought they might still be out for the day. As nightfall crept in, we decided to read the guest book and see if anyone else had actually signed in. It turned out that the party booked into the hut the same night as us were apart of the Manitoba Alpine Club. Unfortunately one of their members, a highly experienced 71 year old climber, had fallen off a nearby ledge that morning and passed away.. There were lots of fond comments left in the book in his memory and he sounded like an inspirational guy who probably died exactly the way he hoped to go. At least this is what we kept telling ourselves to shake off the eery feeling of this shocking news. After paying our own respects in the guest book, we tried not to dwell it. It did however, make the risks of outdoor climbing more real and we're glad we had taken a few precautions of our own, starting with a hard hat. We enjoyed the rest of our stay in this fiercely majestic and powerful environment in which we are only just beginning to touch the surface.

The arrival of Aidan's sister Emily and her boyfriend Matt was a nice distraction from our growing mountain fanaticism and it was great to see some homely faces again. Em was about to do a semester abroad at the University of Calgary and used our place as a base while they searched for somewhere to stay in the city. Meanwhile, we dragged them around to some of Banff's nicest spots, and did our best to tire them out!

Jess and her friend Grace had been wanting to go to Edmonton for a while a visit one of the largest shopping malls in the northern hemisphere. Kind of lame right, but inside this commercial metropolis is an aquarium, a pirate ship, an ice skating rink, an amusement park, a water park and it's very own New Orleans imitation Bourbon Street. Jess was excited by Em's unquestioning enthusiasm and so Grace, Jess, Em and Matt drove away and out of the mountains for a weekend. Not being a huge fan of shopping, Aidan was conveniently working. The Mall was expectedly overwhelming but what we didn't anticipate was just how amazing the water slides were. We spent most of our time sliding down some of the worlds tallest and longest water slides, screaming our heads off. For one of them, you literally stand in an upright coffin and wait for the floor to drop underneath you, before falling straight down through a dark tube. Another one we dubbed the 'toilet bowl', where, as you can imagine, you get flushed down and around a huge bowl. It was a great weekend away, and Aidan was secretly a little bummed that he missed it.

We managed a couple more good scrambles before the snow started settling on the peaks, and are now more than ready to leave Banff and start our next adventure. Our van has been turned into a makeshift RV and we are all packed and ready to go, again.. For our first stop, we thought a fitting goodbye to the Canadian Rocky's would be to hike the much talked of, 46 km Jasper Skyline Trail!