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We were able to climb a nearby mountain which looked over the lakes located on the GPS in the image below. Actually, we were well above the lake at an altitude of 8766 feet. From this viewpoint the lake was clearly visible, as well as the Abraham Lake Valley, Banff National Park, and Jasper National Park.
Landslide Lake has a couple of routes to get to it. One route heads up the Cline River from Hwy11, starting where the Cline River enters Lake Abraham. The hike takes around 12 hours one way and has a gradual elevation gain. Our route of ascent was completely opposite. Starting about 1km west of Whirl Pool Point, there is a sign along Hiway 11 noting the start of Landslide Trail. The trail starts off gradual, giving a good warm up before a grueling up hill climb to the top of the pass. The bottom half of the hike takes place in pine and poplar trees, providing beautiful views to the south. About half way to the top, the trail divides in two seperate trails. Since we hiked the trail in April, we encountered about 4-6 feet of snow and chose our own path through the trees and up hard packed avalanche chutes. It's rumored that one trail heads high along the top of tree line, while another heads up the edge of the ravine.
Just after the halfway point, the trees become more like fir shrub, which really suck to walk. Tthe trail gradually becomes all fragmented rock and landslide shale. The hike continues like this all the way to the top of the pass. Once reaching the top of the pass a reqarding view awaits of the North Saskatchewan River valley.
On top of the ridge, two peaks and can easily be scrambled up. The peak to the west, which seems to loom over the hiker the entire trip up the pass, is actually around 200 feet lower than the easier to walk peak to the north east. Due to 60km/hr plus winds and the cool temperatures of April, we cut our trip short and headed to the north east, up to the top of the peak (8765ft) and not down to the lake. The trip to the top of the peak took about 3 1/2 hours, and was around 5-6 km in length. The complete hike to the lake would be around 8-9 km, and take 5 hours one way. Standing on the peak, we could see the lake and entire valley up the Cline River. The elevation gain from the trailhead is around 4000 feet to the highest point. A major advantage of climimgg a mountain covered in snow, is sliding down, just make sure you can stop or the snow will melt your clothes if you slide for too long. Summit to Base in just under 3 hours.
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