Lineham, Mount — explor8ion

It’s been over 20 years since I stood on top of Mount Lineham, but that’s not why I stood there again this past weekend. Originally I was planning to take the family hiking to Upper Rowe Lake and possibly to the summit of Mount Rowe sitting above. Due to copious amounts of snow on north facing slopes to the upper lake, we made a last minute adjustment to tag Mount Lineham instead. It was a good choice in hindsight.

It’s a straight forward hike starting from the Rowe / Tamarack trailhead along the Akamina Parkway.

After the long drive from YYC, we left a bright, sunny parking lot up the popular Rowe / Tamarack Trail with wildflowers exploding to either side.

Mount Rowe towers over the approach trail that starts in a burn. Note all the wildflowers.

Wildflowers are in full bloom in early summer.

The trail starts in the remains of the Kinow Wildfire that destroyed a huge swathe of Waterton Lakes National Park in 2017 but quickly transitioned to a deep green forest.

A telephoto of the waterfall from Middle to Lower Rowe Lake.

It finally felt like summer as we continued through cool forest with the odd break at large avalanche slopes. After roughly 5km of hiking through forest we finally broke through to a large scenic meadow sitting between Mount Rowe and Mount Lineham. It was here that we finalized our destination. I figured that any lingering snow on Mount Lineham’s approach would be soft (south facing) rather than hardpack as the north facing snow for Rowe Lakes might be.

Gorgeous views as we break into alpine meadows under an outlier of Mount Rowe. In hindsight I’m not sure how much snow would have been on the Rowe Lake Trail but at this point we didn’t want to gamble on it.

We crossed a small stream before coming to the junction of the Rowe Lakes / Lineham Ridge / Tamarack Trail and went right - towards Lineham Ridge. Views over our approach valley and towards Mount Lineham were sublime.

The meadow is already far below with our approach at right and destination peak rising at c-r in the distance.

We crossed several easy snow slopes before hiking under an active Grizzly who was pawing away at the rubble and eating from whatever it was uncovering there. We didn’t linger too long watching, I was worried about rocks falling down on us from all the digging going on!

Slowly the greens faded to Waterton purples and greys as we continued on a good trail to the Lineham Ridge / Mountain col. I figured there would continue to be an obvious trail up Mount Lineham from here, despite the maintained parks trail / GDT continuing up towards the ridge and I was right.

Views back down our approach trail (R) towards Mount Rowe (C). In this shot, Mount Lineham is out of sight at left.

We followed a faint trail from the col up the lower west ridge of Mount Lineham, noting the incredible views over the Lineham Lakes to the north sitting between our vantage and Waterton’s highest peak - Mount Blakiston

Hiking up the lower west ridge of Mount Lineham with Lineham Lakes below at left and Mount Hawkins and Mount Blakiston also at left. In 2005 I did the so-called “Hawkins Horseshoe” route from Mount Blakiston to Hawkins and over Lineham Ridge to Mount Lineham.

As we hiked the west ridge we noted all the wildflowers that continued to bloom along the way despite the elevation. At one point I wondered if the ridge ahead might get a little trickier than we wanted but there was an obvious trail in rubble on climber’s right - avoiding the little bit of exposure and technical bits that were on the ridge direct. I hiked on the ridge to enjoy the views over Lineham Lakes and back over the Rowe Lakes a little more.

Enjoying the west ridge of Mount Lineham.

Incredible views opening up behind us as we ascend. All the Rowe Lakes and Cameron Lake visible.

As we continued to the fairly lofty summit (it’s 300 meters higher than Gaia currently lists it 🙂), I was blown away by the views over the Rowe Lakes to Cameron Lake. The final scree grunt to the summit took its toll on some of the hikers in our group but we all made it in the end!

Incredible views down the Lineham Creek drainage to Mount Blakiston. Mount Hawkins to its left and a smattering of Waterton and Glacier peaks to the far right.

More views south and west over the Rowe Lakes to a distant Cameron Lake. Peaks such as Rowe, Akamina Ridge, Custer, Long Knife, Kintla, Kinnerly and many others are visible here.

Other views included Lineham Falls, sitting far below our vantage in the Lineham Creek drainage.

A family huddle at the rapidly cooling summit.

All three Rowe Lakes are visible here with gorgeous falls to the lower one.

In no surprise whatsoever, the breezes at the summit cooled us off way too quickly and soon it was time for descent. We took our time and enjoyed the views, the wildflowers and the much easier effort.

Incredible views down the west ridge of Mount Lineham over the Lineham Lakes to Mount Hawkins and Lineham Ridge.

Descending along the trail from the summit.

Flowers on the west ridge with views to Mount Hawkins.

Dramatic views as we near the Lineham Ridge Col.

Despite taking extra caution where the Grizzly had been active a few hours previous, they were no longer there and we didn’t see them again.

Descending back through a carpet of Glacier Lilies to the valley below. Mount Lineham rising at left here.

We had no issues descending back to the parking lot - other than KC hearing 4 new birds (she’s an avid birder) that she couldn’t actually see in the thick forest. We finished off a perfect family day in Waterton with a supper along the windy lake. A highly recommended hike with stupendous views.