Karina’s Summits 8-8-8 – Keep the Wilderness Wildernessy
July 1, 2024
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Words and photos by Lindsey Wallis
Seven year old Karina Eustace-Wallis was inspired by her love of Alberta’s wilderness to embark on a challenge and raise money for Alberta Wilderness Association. In her words, “I like to climb, hike, and ski. I love wild places because they are sacred. Because they are ancient. They make me feel special. I like spending time in wild places because they are life. I want to protect them because they are extraordinary.” So in 2023 she resolved to climb eight Alberta summits before she turned eight years old on September 8 and raise $8,000 for AWA.
Her final list of completed summits is:
Ha Ling – May 13 – 7.24 km – 748m
Sulphur Skyline Summit (Jasper) -May 21 – 7.9 km – 653m
Windtower – July 1 – 11 km – 920m
Table Mountain – July 11 – 11 km – 837m
Mount Lipsett – July 30 – 14 km – 700m
Heart Mountain via Heartline August 6 – 21 pitches of technical climbing and scrambling – 850 m
Folding Mountain – August 25 – 15 km – 1,125 m
Black Rock Mountain – September 4 – 10 km – 870 m
That’s a total distance of about 80 kilometres and almost 7,000m of elevation gain! And she raised a total of $10,346 for AWA. In addition, she was featured on CBC Radio’s “Eyeopener”, where she coined the phrase “Keep the Wilderness Wildernessy” (drop by the office to get your free sticker!) and had an article written about her on the CBC website. Karina wrote an article (with mum’s help) for the AWA Wild Lands Advocate Autumn issue. You can also see loads of video from her adventures on the A4W Instagram page.
Thank you so much to everyone who made a donation, from friends and family to complete strangers we met on the trail who listened to Karina’s story and took one of her cards, each and every one of you is an integral part of her success. Your words of encouragement and watching the dollars raised for wilderness going up steadily throughout the summer kept her motivated towards her goal. THANK YOU! It was wonderful to see her on the trail, handing out cards and telling people about her challenge and AWA. As she gets older, the skills of speaking to others and advocating for causes she believes in are sure to help her become a good citizen.
Here is the story of her summer of adventure (and at the bottom is her new goal for 2024!)!
Summit #1 Ha Ling – May 13 – 7.24 km – 748m
As soon as the snow melted in early May Karina attempted her first summit, Tunnel Mountain, by way of the technical route “The Shoe”. Unfortunately, at the top of the rock route, the final hike to the summit was blocked by a wildlife closure! But it was a good day out with our friend Auntie Shy nonetheless.
The next week she tried again and this time summited Ha Ling. Highlights included a mountain goat, glorious views and great snacks.
Summit selfie!
Summit #2 Sulphur Skyline Summit (Jasper) -May 21 – 7.9 km – 653m
Summit of Sulphur Skyline
On the May long weekend our family took a trip to Jasper with friends and, though the weather looked threatening, attempted the Suphur Skyline summit, accompanied by 5 year old Jasper and family. All was well enough…until we reached the final summit push. The clouds loomed large and the wind picked up as Karina just about sprinted the final few hundred metres of steep scree to the summit! The views were probably incredible, but just as I snapped a summit photo of Karina and her dad the storm hit! Everyone struggled to get their jackets on as the wind whipped sideways rain into our faces and then we bolted back down to treeline where it was more sheltered. Unfortunately, Jasper and family didn’t quite make it to the summit but they got to join Karina again for her final summit of the challenge. Luckily the rain didn’t last long and the decent was extra quick with the anticipation of the Miette Hot Springs at the trailhead!
Summit #3 Windtower – July 1 – 11 km – 920m
Hiking Rockbound Lake
The beginning of June was busy with other Adventures for Wilderness, including exploring the Milk River Ridge and Wainwright Dunes. This meant Karina’s next summit attempt wasn’t until the end of June. The plan was to hike Fairview Mountain at Lake Louise, but even with an early start and the hopes that since summer holidays hadn’t yet started it wouldn’t be THAT busy, we still didn’t manage a parking spot at the lake. And the shuttle was fully booked. We ended up doing a training hike to Rockbound Lake. Despite not being a summit, it was twice the distance, with only 100m less elevation gain than Fairview would have been!
Summit #3 was finally completed on Canada Day, when myself, Karina, and her dad climbed the Windtower. And wow, did it ever live up to its name! While most of the hike was relatively sheltered, the summit was in a full on gale! I was a little worried that Karina would be blown right over the edge – good thing it is a fairly broad summit! The views down the Spray Valley were expansive and the trail was mostly above treeline so we could drink deeply of them.
Views of Spray Lakes
Very windy summit!
West Wind Pass on our return trip
Summit #4 Table Mountain – July 11 – 11 km – 837m
Poor weather was threatening again – it poured as we drove from Fernie through the Crowsnest pass to attempt the southernmost summit of this challenge. But as we passed Beaver Mines and turned towards Table Mountain the sky lightened and the rain stopped. As we hiked the aspen-covered slopes we passed Paintbrush as tall as Karina, Mariposa Lilies and meadows blanketed with purple Fleabane. The sky was still dark and brooding in all directions so we hurried our way up the trail, stopping occasionally to observe a butterfly or a patch of wildflowers poking from the rocky ground.
We pressed on, as the trail steepened on the scree slope, passing the bleached skeletons of white-bark pine, finally emerging on the ridgeline. From the ridge we could see out into the prairie
to the east, past wind turbines to a curtain of black cloud…that was hopefully moving further east. The last stretch to the summit pushed through stands of living whitebark pine, with their neon pink new cones, and red rock. It was blowing a gale up there so after a brief look around and a photo or two we bustled back down the trail to shelter. It never did rain on us, it seems her grandfather Cliff’s Sunshine Superman genes may have been passed down!
Summit #5 Mount Lipsett – July 30 – 14 km – 700m
Mount Lipsett was a special summit because we got to climb it with Karina’s grandpa Cliff, who has been an AWA supporter for decades, as well as a dedicated conservationist in his own right. Carpets of fireweed blanketed the slopes and there were so many gorgeous alpine wildflowers to stop and admire on the way up. The views down the Highwood from the summit were glorious, and the steep, imposing, folded limestone slopes of Mist Mountain were an epic backdrop for the day’s summit. The rocky outcrops made for excellent princess chairs and beds to lounge and relax on.
Summit snuggles with grandpa
A family affair
Summit #6 Heart Mountain via Heartline August 6 – 21 pitches of technical climbing and scrambling – 850 m
In the spring, Karina expressed interest in climbing Heart Mountain via the technical rock route Heartline. I had reservations, especially after doing a scouting trip with my friend Shy. It had taken two competent adults 10 hours car to car. The climbing was not easy (up to a grade of 5.9), there were 21 pitches and a number of logistical consideration to get Karina safely across some of the scrambling sections. But after I showed her the pictures of our outing she was adamant that it would be one of her summits. So, with a lot of pre-planning and a load of snacks Shy, myself and Karina got an early start at the trailhead, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon.
The easy part was the short walk up Heart Creek, to the base of the climb. The climbing was easy in the first third, making our way up prickly grey limestone. By lunch we had reached the midway hiking section so we had a short lunch break and pressed uphill to the next section of roped climbing, where things became more challenging, both technically and logistically. It’s always good to have a trained guide for a friend, and Shy’s rope skills made the transitions between the sections of exposed scrambling, where Karina stayed roped up to Shy, and the actual protected climbing pitches efficient and seamless.
Here we found fossils from ancient marine life embedded in the rock, and beautiful runnels — long vertical channels in the rock created by water runoff over millions of years. The climbing also became more difficult and engaging, as well as a pitch where Karina ascended the rope – a special skill that we had to practise beforehand to ensure she would be able to do it unassisted halfway up a mountain!
With only a couple pitches to go, the clouds began to amass over the nearby peaks and we could hear the ominous rumble of thunder in the distance. Luckily, we summited before the rain, and met Karina’s dad, who had hiked up the trail and surprised Karina with a special craft soda. After a few minutes enjoying the summit views and listening to the rumble of thunder we headed down as it began to drizzle. Karina’s most difficult summit of the year ended back at the trailhead just as the sun was setting — a round-trip time of 12 hours.
Fossils on the climb
Last pitch
Summit!
A well-deserved treat
Summit #7 Folding Mountain – August 25 – 15 km – 1,125 m
There’s nothing like the promise of a cold drink at the trailhead to motivate you, and since we were camping in Jasper with friends for a week at the end of August, Folding Mountain seemed like the perfect objective. All you need is a photo of yourself at the summit and the eponymous brewery at the base will provide you with a free beverage!
By late summer most of the mountain wildflowers had packed up and gone to seed, but we were treated to a myriad of fun fungus along the trail as it wove its way steeply upward through the forest.
The trail broke out of the forest with sweeping views of the Athabasca River, the Rocky Mountains to the west and rolling foothills to the east. The trail continued its gradual ascent and became more rocky – eventually we had to navigate over a small rock band and up a loose scree slope to the final few hundred metres to the true summit. Here, on the sunny slopes we found a few colourful wildflowers hanging on into the late summer.
I was a glorious, sunny day with almost no wind (for a change!) so we dallied on the summit for a long while before making our way back down. At the trailhead we celebrated a fun mother-daughter day with our free drinks from Folding Mountain Brewery.
Giant fungi!
Last few steps to the summit
Summit selfie
View from the summit ridge
Rewarded!
Summit #8 Black Rock Mountain – September 4 – 10 km – 870 m
The final summit! It was getting awfully close to September 8 and the Labour Day long weekend looked like our only chance to tick the final summit before Karina’s birthday rolled around. Unfortunately, as often happens on Labour Day, the weather was not looking promising. We drove to the Black Rock Mountain trailhead in a gray drizzle, where we met our fellow adventure family with their 5 year old kiddo.
As we started out through the skeleton-like, burned forest it wasn’t raining and we thought the clouds might be lifting. Just kidding, no they weren’t, though the rain did stay away. I could barely see Karina’s pink pompoms bouncing down the trail in front of me through the thick fog. The eerie black trees and thick fog really made you believe in forest monsters and Baba Yaga! It was a bit hard to find motivation to keep going as the trail seemed never-ending, kept getting steeper and was perpetually cloaked in a thick blanket of fog. To be honest the only reason we knew we were at the summit is because the old fire-lookout emerged from the gloom as we crested the last short scrambling section! “Wow, just look at those views down the valley and into Banff!” is not what we said. However Karina was very excited to discover that the summit register was PINK. And covered in unicorn stickers.
Very misty climb
Summit!
Friends always make the day more fun!
Hiking down through an old burn
Despite the lack of views the final summit was certainly a memorable one! Both of the kids thought it was pretty neat to be hiking through a cloud. Karina did a celebratory dance at the base and took her hiking boots off for the final time of her challenge. They covered an awful lot of kilometres this year and were a little worse for wear! Time to retire these trusty old friends. 
As we were sitting at the restaurant for our celebratory dinner our friend Kat asked her how she was feeling now that it was all finished. I think it just sunk in that this multi-month adventure was at an end, and she got quite emotional. It always leaves a void when you have something you have been working towards for so long and then, just like that, it’s over!
She did get to have a couple more victory laps before it was all over though. We realized that, since they have changed the criteria for the Triple Crown of Canmore, her summits of Ha Ling, Windtower and Heart Mountain made her eligible to claim another free drink and a glass from the Georgetown in Canmore. And then she got to go on CBC radio’s the Eyeopener to talk about all her climbs and her hard work fundraising. She said it was pretty scary being on the radio, imagining so many people out there listening to her. But she did a great job and coined the phrase “Keep the wilderness wildernessy”. You can get your sticker by stopping by the office! Thanks to everyone who donated and showed Karina so much support.
Our new stickers!
Enjoying the fruits of her labour
What’s next for 2024!
Pretty much as soon as she finished her last summit Karina started scheming about a new goal for her 9th birthday. She finally landed on hiking 9,000m of elevation before she turns 9! You can follow along and make a donation to her new Adventure for Wilderness here.
