The World’s Greatest Hikes Photo Tour: Snowman Pass
Posted by Topher Donahue on Wed, Jun 29, 2011
The places we go during CMH Summer Adventures would be among the world’s most visited adventure travel destinations – if they were easier to get to. Instead of roads, visitor centres, hotels, restaurants, campgrounds and picnic areas, the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia, the mountains CMH Summer Adventures calls home, is surrounded by a vast expanse of wilderness.
Among the countless wilderness adventures possibilities in the Purcells, a few stand out as exceptional. One of the most visually stunning can be found at a place called Snowman Pass in a hanging valley at the top of Crystalline Creek in the CMH Bobbie Burns area. A lake is perched almost on top of the pass, an unusual place for a lake to have formed, allowing for postcard views in nearly every direction. Here is a photographic tour of the Snowman Pass experience.
Getting moving after a hearty breakfast is easy with the help of a twin-engine Bell 212 helicopter, a machine that’s been called the safest helicopter ever made:
The view out the window of the helicopter towards the Bugaboos with the ridgelines receding into the distance is alone worth the price of admission:
Within minutes after landing the helicopter, you’re picking your way through fields of waist-deep flowers in some of the least explored and most spectacular of our planet’s wildflower displays: 
The first view of the lake at Snowman Pass and the glaciers of Mt. Deluge in the distance sucks the very breath from your lungs:
Taking the time to soak your feet in a cold alpine stream during a long hike on a warm summer day is like a new lease on life:
After a half-day hike to Snowman Pass you can call it a day and catch a ride back to the Bobbie Burns Lodge, or if you're looking for an all-day adventure you can traverse into Valley of the Lakes for a heart-pumping workout and another valley of alpine magic:
July 8 is the first day of CMH Summer Adventures 2011. Come see for yourself!