Saint Marks Summit - solo backpacking trip. Best view, worst camping spot.

Dec 03, 2020

It was my last backpacking trip of 2020 before I gave up DIY-fixing my tent and basically felt I had enough of backpacking this season.

TL;DR

Location: Saint Marks Summit, Cypress Provincial park, BC, Canada
Elevation: 1350m
Why I wanted to go there: Saint Marks Summit offers amazing views of the ocean and the islands and I was hoping to have a campsite with a view and take photos of the sunset.
Was it my first time on the trail: yes, been to Bowen lookout before, but not to Saint Marks.
Would I recommend this trail: not for backpacking, if you want a view from your tent; there’s really little space for camping with a view and no privacy since the spots are insanely popular.
When I went: Sep 29-30, 2020, solo.
Trail length (roundtrip): 10.5 km (AllTrails)
Trail elevation gain: 587m (AllTrails)
Trail quality: the first half is pretty well maintained. The second is quite annoying - roots & rocks & mud. The trail is in the woods all the time.
My ascent time (with overnight backpack): ~2.5 hours
My descent time: ~1.5 hours
Water sources: some minor streams about half-way through the trail; a big puddle of yellow water near the top 🤢

The trail

I didn’t feel well that day and was tired physically and emotionally, for some reason. So I remember this trail being very long and annoying to me, especially the last ascent where I suddenly felt really low energy.

But if thinking subjectively, it’s not that bad of a trail. Certainly no worse than Wedgemount lake trail that is almost the same length but twice as much in elevation.

The trail to Saint Marks is a part of the Howe Sound Crest trail, and it splits right from the start, to unite somewhere after Bowen lookout. I haven’t been to the east side of this loop, but according to some folks I met hiking from there, it’s more rocky than the west side.

I chose the west side because I’ve been to Bowen lookout before and knew that at least this part is really well maintained, broad and even. I made a quick detour to eat lunch at the Bowen lookout (why not - lunch with a view) and continued on the trail.

The trail after Bowen lookout is also ok, pretty even, though not that broad. Until you hit the sign “Trail in poor condition. Improved trail ends” and a muddy puddle right next to it 😅 From that point the trail is pretty nasty - lots of roots, rocks and mud. But I would say it’s only about 1/3 of the trail.

There were a couple of small streams along the way, but I wouldn’t count on them for sure.

The camp and the struggle

There is no official camp on Saint Marks (though camping is permitted in this area) - I was aware of it. Also, btw, you don’t have to pay for camping in Cypress Provincial park. What I didn’t know is how Saint Marks summit looks in real life.

I have imagined something like Seymour peaks - with a lot of open space. But it turned out that the summit is covered with woods and there are just a couple bluffs with views and each of them can accommodate exactly one tent. This is to my knowledge, and to be honest, I was too tired to explore further around. Maybe there are more bluffs, I don’t know.

I went on a weekday and saw just one backpacker that said he’s continuing to the mount Unnecessary (love this name haha and really want to visit it one day). I decided to stay on Saint Marks. After scouting the near surroundings I have settled on the second bluff, the lower one. To get to it, from the first bluff, which you will see upon reaching the summit area, keep taking the trail that is closer to the edge each time. There’s a net of small trails.

Anyway, I took my backpack to the second bluff, boiled some water and cooked couscous and had a pretty nice time with a view and different people asking me if I’m going to stay here for the night. The spot Is very popular and was crowded with hikers even on a weekday, but I was hoping that by the sunset I’ll have the place to myself. And then 2 guys arrived and announced that they were to stay there to see the sunset.

My plan was to take a bunch of photos of myself with my tent and other gear and this didn’t involve people sitting in the middle of the frame. Now, I totally acknowledge the fact it’s a public place and everyone can sit wherever they want and enjoy the view. And at that point I realized staying there was a mistake. So I packed my things and took the trail to mt. Unnecessary. Then I thought that at my slow pace it would take me an hour to get there, but it was already past 5pm, while the sunset was at 7pm, So I would be really rushing to find a place to camp and set up camp and also take pics before it’s dark. So I turned back to the bluff.

The guys were still there. Few other people joined for the sunset and I couldn’t even pitch my tent without interfering with people walking around - so small this place is. Finally I decided to do it and realized one of my tent poles is broken. That’s a separate story, but in short - I got it broken from the wind on another trip, fixed it with attaching some hex keys around, which held up another couple of trips, and now this fix came apart.

I knew I can fix it, but the sun was starting to set and I also wanted to take some photos with a tripod. To tell the least - I wasn’t enjoying the experience. My tent wasn’t even close to ready and the sun was already setting. There was kind of a line up to take pictures with sunset backdrop - there were another 6 people on the bluff and little photo-worthy spots. I managed to take some photos (not bad photos actually), but wasn’t really enjoying myself.

The sun has set and I was finally left alone on the bluff. I fixed the tent with some plastic ties and it was fine for that night (although came apart later at home, but now I got some replacement parts so going to fix it for real before next season). I prepared my bed, brushed my teeth, hung my bear bag on some branch a bit away from the camp and watched the sky getting darker and lights starting to lit up on the surrounding islands. It is an amazing place, BC.

sunset on Saint Marks summit, BC, Canada

This night was my worst night in the backcountry. I was frightened by the thought that I’m actually here alone. Until now I only went camping in popular places and there always were more tents around me. This time it was me and this guy on the Unnecessary mountain. I doubt there were more people in the area, since I would probably see them watching the sunset. I tossed and turned and it took me a few hours to fall asleep. BTW, if you want to know more about my sleep issues in the field and how I deal with them, head to My backpacking sleeping system (sucks) post.

I woke up before the sunset to realize the sun is rising behind the mountain and since I’m not on the actual top of that mountain, there won’t be an epic sunrise. Which was fine with me.

My bear bag was untouched and no animals came visit me during the night. I changed to my hiking clothes and began my day. Which mainly consisted of preparing the breakfast and take enormous amounts of pictures of the process. To my delight, the first people I saw arriving to the high bluff were there at about 10:30am, and the first visitors to my lower bluff camp were around 11am. So I had plenty of time to take many many pics 😁

No more special adventures were on this trip. Only that I was exhausted and the way back felt like forever despite lasting only 1.5 hours.

The water

As I mentioned in the TL;DR section, the only water source near the summit is a big yellow puddle. I was really nervous to drink this water that remained a bit yellowish even after filtering with my Sawyer squeeze (and yes, I filter even water that looks clean 😊). So I decided to drink half a small cup first and see how I feel 😅. I was fine and after half an hour I drank more. And I still was fine. I guess this filter actually works!

In conclusion

If you want to camp in the woods near the summit, I would say go for it. But if you’re looking for a spot with a view to camp on - I wouldn’t recommend Saint Marks. I’m keen to try and see what’s the scenery like on the Unnecessary mountain, hopefully it’s more similar to Seymour. But on Saint Marks it’s too little space and too little privacy.

That’s it for today. It’s nice to recall of this summer’s adventures… Even if they don’t always go as planned.

If you’re thinking about starting backpacking and not sure how - check out this post with tips how to do exactly that and slowly build your confidence.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions! I really want to make this blog a place for folks to get knowledge and inspiration and would love to know what you think.

Remember to leave no trace (imagine every visitor of Saint Marks leaving behind just one banana peel 😬🍌)

Cheers,

Oless

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Aaand more photos from winter 21-22. I had this episode when I tried running a photography business and at the same time I dreamt of being an influencer and advertising outdoor gear for money... or free gear... or exposure idk. Spoiler, it didn't happen 😅 But somehow I managed to win an Arc'teryx half zip down hoodie (which I'm wearing in these pics but it's under the rain jacket). I call myself a nano-influencer, btw 😎👩🏻‍💻🙈 Anyway, I thought I can do a micro review of this gear because why not. Also I can say what I want cause I'm not trying to sell anything anyway. Okay. ↠ Hillsound Armadillo LT gaiters - they're def great for snow but I def don't feel sexy wearing them. ↠ Hillsound Trail Crampon - 🤌🏼 awesome stuff, got me on and off Hollyburn peak without me bruising my butt like the previous time. ↠ Zoleo satellite communicator which I unprofessionally forgot to turn the right side to the camera - awesome stuff. Love it, use it. ↠ Arc'teryx rain jacket Zeta SL. Great stuff, love it, use it. ↠ The said half zip hoodie from Arc'teryx - I don't use it. What's the point of half zip lol? Also it's less packable than my Cerium. ↠ Arc'teryx Rho LT leggings - love them, use them mostly as PJs when backpacking. ↠ The insulated bottle - don't even remember the brand. Aladdin? Anyway, 💩 ↠ McKinley backpack - eh, I don't like it and don't use it anymore, I don't even remember why and if it's justified. Maybe cause every time I hiked with it ppl asked me if I'm backpacking. Maybe cause its raincover wasn't waterproof one fucking bit. Idk. ↠ Salomon beanie - it's kinda ok, I feel ugly while wearing it. I'm still using it to this day. Need to find a replacement. ↠ Outdoor Research gloves - good stuff. Shameless plug - I have all of my gear listed in my blog - link in bio. Yes, it has affiliate links which kinda conflicts with me saying I'm not selling anything 😂 But well I went through the trouble of setting them up, why would I remove them 🤷🏻‍♀️ aaand a good percentage of the couple bucks I might earn goes to taxes. And yes, I'm happy to pay taxes. So in a way you're contributing to Canada. What a ramble I just wrote.
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Reminder not to feed wildlife ⚠️ I wasn't feeding the bird. I just raised my hand pretending to. The bird came but was quick to realize it was fooled lol. But I managed to take couple photos. Then later a bird tried to steal a sandwich from my hands!! Audacious little creatures 😄 That day we waited like an *hour and a half* to park in the Cypress resort, the lineup was absolutely crazy. One of the reasons I don't like hiking in the winter 😬 These photos are from Dec 2021 btw 🥴 #adventureculture #wondermore #discoverearth #awakethesoul #neverstopexploring #sheisnotlost #allaboutadventures #borntoroam #wintervibes #winterwonderland #letitsnow
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Another one from 2 years ago. Winter 21-22 was a fruitful one for snowy photos. That's also when the war in Ukraine started 💔🇺🇦 and there's still no end in sight. So I stopped posting to instagram for a while and many of these photos just lay on my hard drive. I did post a photo of this sunset and I think I got few likes and it had discouraged me from posting more from the set. The sky honestly looks absolutely photoshopped, while it's absolutely not lol. I revisited couple of the pics, dialing down my auto-applied preset - the sky is still crazy but you better believe it actually looked like that! ↟ ↟ ↟ Which reminds me - recently me and Stephan marked 5 years living in this majestic place. I am forever grateful for being able to experience what BC and Canada have to offer, on a daily basis. And also, for living in a country not torn by war 😔 A few days ago we landed back in YVR after a trip to a sunny Puerto Rico. Vancouver greeted us with both rain and thick fog to the point the airport lights were only visible when we've almost landed 😃 I felt very sad to leave San Juan and wished for the vacay to last a bit more, yet when riding a taxi through the dark and wet, but so familiar streets I felt filled with warmth - I'm back home. ↟ ↟ ↟ #beautifulbritishcolumbia #beautifulbc #bcparks #yourbcparks #pnw #pacificnorthwest #pnwonderland #mountainvibes #mountainaddict #likeamountaingirl #mtnchicks #mountainsabove
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I remember disturbing that tree branch so snow falls off it and creates an illusion of active snowfall in the photo ❄️ And also the pain of not being able to get my face in focus cause back then I didn't have wifi in my camera and couldn't see what I'm shooting lol Still, got some cute pics. From 2 years ago. Only posted couple of them since then...
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I realized I haven's done winter hiking in 2 years 😳 That makes sense though cause last year I had a hiking burnout and also got into sewing and this year - well, the sewing continues. Decided pay tribute to the winter, no matter how warm we have it this year 😁 Here's some pics from Hollyburn mountain, 2 years ago. ✅ froze my ass off ✅ got an epic sunset ✅ hiked back in the dark fearing to be eaten by some puma ✅ had to change headlamp batteries mid-sketchy steep slope 😂 Fun times as always! Couple weeks ago I've noticed a desire to see some fresh snow up on a mountain. Who knows maybe I'll hike this season 🙄 #livefolk #peoplewhoadventure #ourplanetdaily #liveadventurously #stayandwander #voyaged #earthpics #hellofrom #earthoutdoors #letitsnow #wintertime
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Throwback to the last winter. I noticed I only posted couple pics from our last year's trip to Kauai, Hawaii. This usually happens when I don't particularly like the pics 🙄 And that happens when I spend more time chilling and enjoying the moment rather than chasing the perfect frame with perfect lighting conditions. It was a fun trip and probably because it was my second time on Kauai that I wasn't so stressed about photographing everything. This place is called the Fern Grotto and is only accessible by water. We brought our paddle boards to Kauai with us (🙈) and that was the only time we used them. There aren't many places for supping in Kauai, the ocean is pretty rough mostly and rivers don't attract me that much. But I think this one time has paid off the price and effort of bringing the sups in checked baggage as we didn't need to worry about returning the rental in time, or how even to transport a rental vessel to where the paddle is supposed to start. Second photo is a monstera plant I wish I could grow at home lol. So huge and lush!! Love it. ↟ ↟ ↟ I did replace the sky of the first pic cause it was very much blown out and looked more like a sand storm then like the actual weather that day - partly sunny kinda vibe. 3rd pic is the original. It's funny, I take nature photos for years and yet I do fuck up quite often lol. In this case prob should've dialed down the exposure to capture the real sky. But more often than not I don't really have time for that while hanging out in the nature. Conditions change, Stephan loses patience 😂 I already stress too much about photos anyway. #aloha #hawaii #tropicalvacation #hangloose #naturephotography #natureshots #seeknature #travelnature #naturelover #earthfocus #chasingwaterfalls
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Sometimes I look at my photos and think "fuck me, this is real". ↟ ↟ ↟ Wanted to drop the mic and just leave the caption as is but no. I have to tell you stuff about these photos lol. They are , if you haven't guessed, from Paradise area in mt Rainier park (Washington, for my non-BC friends). I had a hard time having pics without other people in them because the area is in-sa-ne-ly busy. See third photo. The folks just stopped at this very top spot and didn't want to go away and I can't blame them at all lol. But when they left, the light has changed, so I don't have photos of this exact frame without them. Could photoshop them easily. But the point is that I want you to see the reality lol. Now, the photos were taken at mt Rainier, but there's another volcano on some photos. Forgot its name. I checked back then and it's not Hood and not Baker. You guys in the US have a bunch of cone shaped volcanos, eh? To be frank, if you're looking to get pics with a beautiful conical mountain, Paradise probably isn't the best place. Rainier is so up close that it looks like just any other mountain. It's gorgeous, nevertheless. What else to say. 5th photo, I love the vegetation foreground. You've no idea how hard I tried to get this green foreground without stepping off trail. I really wanted flowers and stuff instead of the bare trail like influencers have, but it was hard to find spots like this and honestly at that moment I was really disappointed in myself as a photographer 🤣 But no, no, we're good. I like it enough. #solohiker #solofemalehiker #solohikergirl #pnw #pacificnorthwest #pnwonderland #arcteryx
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That time I managed to get to the much hyped mt Rainier and even have the trail for myself for a minute or two here and there... and I hiked on sunrise........ 😬 The Paradise area is truly incredible. Just look at these meadows. But the amount of people is just 😳 next 😳 level 😳😳😳 I'm happy BC Parks manage access to our parks so at least when you're there, you don't feel like in a shopping mall lol. We went during the August long weekend and the line to enter the park was horrible, the parking was horrible and what made all this a bit better is that we somehow lucked out and got a room in Paradise Inn, which allowed me to roam the mountain both sunset and sunrise. Don't think I'm going to visit Paradise again any time soon... do I recommend? Aaah yes, if you're ready to be stuck in the traffic the majority of the time 🙄 #adventureawaits #exploremore #adventurevisuals #theoutbound #travelblog #travelphotography #lifeofadventure #adventuretime #girlgetoutside #mountainvibes #mountainaddict #likeamountaingirl #mtnchicks #mountainsabove
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This might be the most beautiful beach I've ever saw (now that I say it, it sound like a little bit of an exaggeration, but I try to recall beaches, not just coast lines and probably that's true) and the worst day of our Europe vacation 🤦🏻‍♀️ Getting to this breathtaking spot should have been a half an hour drive but took us 2 hours... And when we tried to catch the bus back, we simply couldn't as in the 2 hours (!!!) we waited for the bus, only 3 of them passed and none has stopped. We ended up stopping some random van which loaded 8 people for 10 euro each, to get to the Amalfi town. If you ask me, we spent way way too little time there and I deeply regret about how it went. But omg omg omg my heart skips a beat when I see these photos. #livefolk #peoplewhoadventure #ourplanetdaily #liveadventurously #stayandwander #voyaged #earthpics #hellofrom #earthoutdoors
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A throwback to 2 years ago, one brutal hike to Golden Ears 🙈 (see insta highlights) Reminds me that for some time now I'm desperately trying to figure out how I can save weight in my backpack... My backpacking pack weights about 20-23 kg, depending on the length of the trip. But either I need to start making compromises, or spend enormous amount of money. Replace my tripod with a carbon one - nearly $1000 🫣😐 and this would save about 300g. Replace the tent - I already have an almost lightest one that is freestanding. Can switch to Nemo Hornet for $600 and save half a kilo. MEC sleeping bag - weirdly, I have one that's already pretty light - it wasn't super expensive at the time. Could spend $800 to save 300g. Why would I. I'm not going to compromise on safety... For example, I must have at least one extra set of clothes in case the other gets wet. My backpacking bag is nearly 2 kg. I'm actually open to try a lighter one... But am concerned that it wouldn't distribute the weight as well as my Osprey Aura. Who knows. I think I'll finally upgrade the cooking pot to a titanium one. It will save me 50g and I'll feel good about myself 🤣🤣 Also if you wonder why so heavy - just my photography gear weights 4-4.5 kg... And that's something I can't make compromises on. If I drag myself onto a mountain I better have the gear to get proper photos out of it. Oooff. Any ideas? I am open to spending some money, but it just looks silly to spend hundreds for 300g. Every time I tell about it to Stephan he's looks at me like I'm crazy counting all these grams. But damn, it's heavy 😂 #adventureculture #wondermore #backpacking #backpackingtrip #girlbackpacker #neverstopexploring #sheisnotlost #solobackpacker #nemoequipment #adventureanywhere #nemodragonfly #msrgear #arcteryx #thermaresting
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Sunsets on Saint Marks are the best, yeah. Btw, please don't go there before the snow melts - the trail goes through avalanche area and I heard avalanches are frequent. Got a bit tired of sewing. Maybe will post a few photos/reels instead, who knows. Vid by @imtravelerokay #adventureculture #wondermore #discoverearth #awakethesoul #neverstopexploring #sheisnotlost #allaboutadventures #borntoroam
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2023 is almost over and what can I say... After the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the economic crisis that followed I didn't think it can get much worse, but it did. Sorry, I continue being grim on social media. It is what it is. I was about to be more positive today, but Hamas just launched a happy new year missile attack on Israeli towns sooo it took me back to the shitty stuff. This war is horrible and way too many innocent people were killed and displaced. But there's not gonna be a "permanent sustainable" ceasefire as long as Hamas can do shit like that whenever they please. Ok. I wanted to talk about my old-new hobby - sewing - and how couple days ago I decided to made a list of all the stuff I sewed since the end of 2022 when I finally got my first grown-up sewing machine. Sooo I counted 27 items!!! And this doesn't include a dozen+ panties lol cause I lost count of them. That's crazy! On average, I sewed something new every 2 weeks! Mostly these were clothes. Actually, all, besides the camera bag. Among them, 7 wired bras! I mastered the art of making bras 🙈 I can't fucking believe it. A year and a half ago I had this dream of learning to make beautiful lace lingerie, the kind would never fit my body in stores. And I made it!! Currently I wear me-made lingerie almost 100% of the time. Then I have a bunch of tops, pants and a dress. And a skort that I made specifically for the new year's eve, but then realized it doesn't fit the top I bought 😂 but anyway. In the first photo I'm wearing a top that I made and a skirt that is the only item in my list that wasn't made from scratch - it was a dress and I cut it, added lining and a waist band. As I said before, this hobby is much harder for me than hiking and backpacking lol. But it is so damn satisfying. Looking forward to make good use of the rest of these cold months before I'm off to the mountains again. And, happy new year to us all! Wish us peace, most of all. Cheers guys 🥂 #memade #memadeclothes
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A day when one of my dreams came true - I got the epic shot on Saint Marks viewpoint. I tried setting my camera remote control app for a long timer, but it didn't work 😡 So I tried the camera's native timer functionality, which kinda worked. Then I met @imtravelerokay which expressed interest in my camera 😂 and we took pics of each other - so that one is by him! ↟ ↟ ↟ Let's talk about wellness instead of war this time... I realized I haven't shared there something I think really worth sharing. Sounds like beginning of sales pitch? 🤣 So I shared there more than once that I have weird issues with my hips. Also, I had severe pain in my neck and shoulders from sitting slouched at the computer all day + stress + age. With this, only some hardcore RMTs (massage therapists) had helped me. I would ask the RMTs to only focus on my neck and shoulders because there's where the pain was. Stretching the neck wouldn't help at all. Coming by RMTs strong enough to actually make my muscles relax was a hard task. And once found a good therapist - they were booked out a month in advance 🥴 I was very frustrated with both hips (for that issue nothing has helped at all) and neck & shoulders. Until one day I decided to trust the RMT that told me he will work on my leg muscles in addition to the traps and I realized this did help. So this is how I discovered that my pain and tension in the neck area actually has to do with stiff muscles in other parts of my body. And so I started doing full body stretches regularly and within couple of weeks of just stretching, no massages, I felt a significant relief with my neck and shoulder situation. And then when we went on a Van Isle trip on Canada day I suddenly realized I don't feel anymore discomfort in my hips 😱 But then I went to Elfin lakes and my hips got inflamed again lol. And it was pretty bad the whole season despite me stretching on average 4 times a week. Buuut I don't lose hope as I believe I'll be able to strengthen my hip flexors gradually so they are capable of long hikes again. So, this is it! No sales pitch 😂 Just wanted to share that regular stretches can make a difference in quality of life, turns out.
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Miss the days my main worry was how to get the shot while sunset time running out on mount Rainier 😐 ↟ ↟ ↟ Something I read a lot on social media is how exaggerated the perception of antisemitism in North America is. They say criticizing Israel is not antisemitism and the narrative of associating every Jew with Israel is propaganda meant to make every statement critical of Israel - antisemitism. So first of all, I can tell you, I do not feel safe these days. I do not feel safe to tell somebody that I’m from Israel. My instincts tell me I should think twice of who I’m talking to. So yes, Jews/Israelis don’t feel safe in North America. When you’re afraid to be attacked because you’re a Jew/Israeli, you’re afraid of what’s called antisemitism - of hate directed towards Jews. Now, criticizing Israel is generally fine and I would not usually assume of anyone that it comes from antisemitism. Depends of the form of the criticism, you know. But the perception of Israel by the public in this conflict, I do firmly believe, stems a lot from antisemitism. Not even of the said public, but of the news outlets, whose coverage of the conflict is very single sided. I talked about what doesn’t get media coverage in my previous post. And so why doesn’t the other side of events get covered? To this I have no other answer than the news outlets just don’t want to talk about that. That’s called bias. Then the average Joe gets the impression that overall, Israelis are not that great of a nation. Jews are all likely connected to Israel, so they aren’t really decent, either. Maybe the right thing to do is to boycott that Israeli restaurant. Or that business ran by Jewish owners. Or to tear down hostages’ posters - there are no innocent occupiers, after all. It’s a slippery slope, people. Btw, the infamous “From the river to the sea” slogan means eliminating Israel that resides between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea. You might argue that it just means Palestine free of occupation, and I would be relieved to know that that’s the meaning people put in it. But the reality is that to us it sounds very threatening. So yeah, fun times.
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Throwback to better days 🏔 ↟ ↟ ↟ On the weekend I spoke to my sister in Israel which lives in metro Tel Aviv area. As we spoke a siren went off where she lives and she and her partner had to go to a bomb shelter, waiting for the rockets to land. I am appalled at how one sided the local news coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is. Let me preface it by saying - what happens in Gaza is a huge tragedy and I am deeply saddened by the loss of life of innocent civilians who has nothing to do with Hamas. Meanwhile, my sister has to run to the bomb shelter once a day on average since October 7th (I'm very conservatively estimating here). In the recent weeks I saw one mention of Israel being shelled in a news article, and it was one sentence like 10 paragraphs into the news piece, a kinda "by the way" mention. And even then it failed to mention that the shelling mainly targets civilian areas. About 330,000 people are displaced in Israel because of Hamas heavy shelling on the Israeli towns near Gaza and Hezbollah's - near Lebanon. Zero mentions of this in the media. Over 240 Israelis are still held hostages in Gaza. Always is mentioned as a by the way, somewhere 5 paragraphs into an article. Hamas spokesmen, Mousa Abu Marzouk and Ghazi Hamad, had a series of "brilliant" statements in the past couple weeks. "The tunnels in Gaza are for protecting us (Hamas) from the airstrikes, not shelters for civilians. It's UN's responsibility to care for the civilians". "We are going to repeat October 7th again and again until there's no Israel". "We are a nation of martyrs". And Hamas leader Isamil Haniyeh said "We need the blood of women, children and elderly to awaken the revolutionary within us". 🤔 Didn't see this mentioned in our press at all as if it's completely irrelevant to the conflict or even to the number of people killed in Gaza. I have a lot of criticism towards Israeli government. A LOT. I left Israel for a reason. But I can tell you, at this moment Israel doesn't have much choice other than to do what it's doing. The price is deeply deeply saddening.
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The annual bday post is gonna be less festive this year... It's been tough tough few weeks. Every time I'm about to post something everything I try to say feels stupid. Even talking about my feelings because so many people have it so much worse now, I cannot even imagine. Didn't want to skip the tradition to post some nice pic on my birthday. Feels stupid too. At least looking for the photo to post made me forget about the awful reality for a few minutes (thanks my dear @dawnofstephan for taking it ♥️). I usually post some summary of the year but everything has faded after October 7th. Before that it was a good year. Very proud of myself for learning to sew bras. Never had bras that fit so well before. Also, the year at work was just amazing. I didn't expect to grow professionally so much. Had cool trips. Less hikes with the injured hip, but I think I found the recipe for healing it. I wish us all... a world with less wars and hatred.
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These past few days are like a bad dream. Still can't believe what has happened in Israel the last Saturday. Seeing various conversations about this on the internet I felt the desire to chime in and share some info about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... But honestly it's hard to think straight and even harder to put together some text that would make sense. All I can think is how come there were so many people slaughtered in such a short time. My heart goes with the families of the killed and kidnapped. And it's devastating to think how much more blood will be spilled on both sides.
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I kinda try to create some small sequence of fall photos in my feed here 😂🍁 It's always been a challenge for me as usually my adventures are during the summer and then when the fall comes I'm too lazy to go chase these colors. But if we go enough years back to dig for photos, it could look like all I do in the fall is travel 🥴 Sooo that's from a Garibaldi lake hike from last year. These are spots that I don't post typically cause they're not as epic as the Garibaldi lake itself - but this time of the year the fall foliage is so picturesque. Thanks to @dawnofstephan for the first photo ♥️ I forgot to check the camera settings and this photo was shot on 1/13 sec 🥴 it is veeery slow. But this camera is a little beast and the photos turned out just a little blurred 😄 #beautifulbritishcolumbia #mountainvibes #mountainaddict #likeamountaingirl #mtnchicks #mountainsabove #naturephotography #natureshots #seeknature #travelnature #naturelover #earthfocus
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The golden larches in Banff blew my socks off 🥹🫠😵 Somehow I often get into these situations I stretch my time on a mountain to the maximum and then have to be running back down in a rush not to disappoint friends or not get my car locked behind a gate 😅😅😅 We were hiking back from the Big Beehive and I've warned my friends I have a couple shots to get near the larches. I didn't expect the area to go in a shade 🤦🏻‍♀️ but anyway. I started shooting this nice rock scene, but the ripple on the lake was coming and going. I told my friends they can continue hiking down and I'll catch up - I wanted to wait a bit and see if the conditions get better. The direction of the ripple was changing and actually the photos turned out decent. But of course as I packed up and was ready to go, the water has gone completely still 🫣 so you can guess what I did - unpacked the tripod 😂 I quickly shot the shots and ran down the hill to reach my friends. They actually had to wait for me near Louise, but just a few minutes, so no big deal. But from my side, I was in a great rush to get to them and trashed my legs and feet a little bit running all the way down 😅😅 I don't say it often about situations like that, but damn, these photos+vids were worth the pain! A reminder to myself - if you see a good shot, rather take the pic than save it for later. Now I'll have to go back get these shots while sun hits the spot 😂 ↟ ↟ ↟ Okay, I've just edited a cover photo for this reel and it was such pain in the ass 🤦🏻‍♀️ too much brightness difference between the background and the foreground so I had to apply multiple masks to make it work. So yeah, def should've shot this scene the first time I seen it!
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Pics from last year when I kinda wanted to chase autumn colors, but didn't feel like driving aaall the way to Manning park and climbing the infamous Frosty mountain 🍂 There's this nice viewpoint in Brohm forest where, as I figured from AllTrails pics, not all trees are evergreen. The day we hiked it appeared that the trees only began to change colors. Not sure how yellow the valley gets. But... it was a nice day out anyway. On the third photo, I thought this heap of moss is very cool. Love the moss of the pacific north west forests! #hellobc #travelbc #beautifulbritishcolumbia #beautifulbc #girlgetoutside #sheisnotlost #sunshineescapes #mec #valhallakingdom #vancouvertrails
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Managed to sneak in a weekend trip to Banff this September! 🏔 Omg. Just can't describe how grateful I am to live in such a close proximity to this unreal nature (just 600km air distance lol). My high school friend and her partner came to visit the Canadian Rockies and I jumped on the opportunity to join for a weekend and make sure they don't miss the main highlights hehe! We were sooo lucky with the weather. It was one of these trips where things went very smooth and we have managed to visit many picturesque spots the area has to offer in just these 2 days. After the bumpy trip to Europe earlier that month it was a real treat! There were already many larches that turned yellow and I might have been just a tad too excited 🤣 The first time I visited the Rockies it was fall, too. But I wasn't aware of the golden larches and thought the trees were sick or something 🫣 ↟ ↟ ↟ P.S. I can't look at my hair in the first pic without thinking I should try and treat it not to look so dry 🙈
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A little late to the party to post a summer highlights reel 🏝️ but I was traveling and then lazy haha. I felt a bit conflicted to post it because typically reels like that make me very jealous 😬 too high of a concentration of beautiful moments that makes you feel bad about your life. Why I post this? To say how bad these reels make me feel 😂 And to kinda show myself that I, too had many highlights this season and maybe no need to be jealous of others. What else "smart" I have to say? Not much. Just a little summary. This summer I didn't backpack at all. My hip was very annoying after I re-injured it on the Elfin lakes hike. Also by the time I started thinking about backpacking, I couldn't book anything already. That's a bad excuse cause there are a bunch of places where you don't need a booking. Guess I didn't want it that bad this year. There were more just regular trips. And despite I feel like this summer wasn't very intense, I have managed to visit quite a few places, so cannot complain. Good thing is that this year I didn't burn myself out trying to make the most of the short summer and I still have some oomph left for weekend getaways. Anyhow, to chilly weather and cozy cuddles guys! 🍂
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Last weekend I was lucky to visit mount Rainier national park and hike up close to this huge volcano. We have also lucked out to book a room at the Paradise Inn last moment. This has allowed me to hike on both sunset and sunrise and I couldn't have asked for a better way to experience a place new to me. I read about the lineups at the National Park gate if you don't arrive early, so we planned to leave Seattle at 6am to beat the traffic. But things didn't go as planned and we decided to do the opposite and arrive later in hopes that the majority of the crowds are already heading down. Well we didn't know the extent of Washington's crowds!! We have arrived at the park gate at around 3pm and waited 30-40 min to get in. Then, the parking lots in Paradise were full and we needed to painfully wait for someone to leave, competing with loads of other visitors. I. Hate. That. As much as BC Parks reservations system might not be perfect, it took so much stress out of my outdoor adventures. Anyhow, I went on a sunset hike and omg, the amount of people on the trail. I was hoping it to ease out as the sunset is approaching, but there were so many people still. Joffre lakes on steroids. When I was heading down to the inn in the darkness there were people heading up! A bustling mountain, I'll tell you. So what can I say... The place is amazingly beautiful and I feel lucky to be able to visit and stay so up close and also the weather was great. But never again on a weekend 😅 ↟ ↟ ↟ P.S. there were marmots making bird noises and chasing each other. I suck at wildlife photography, so here's couple least smudged pics of the little hooligans. #advancedselfie #selfportrait #mountainvibes #mountainaddict #likeamountaingirl #mtnchicks #mountainsabove #naturephotography #natureshots #seeknature #travelnature #naturelover #earthfocus
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🏔 My Assiniboine post is live! (🔗 link in bio) Omg I can't believe almost a year after this trek I'm finally publishing this blog post. Idk what's more surprising - the fact it took so long or that it has happened at all 😂 This trip took a toll on me, both mental and physical. I had burnt out and stopped (almost) caring about hiking until this summer. My hip pain has worsened and I actually can't hike too much now. Was it worth it? Who knows and it's a weird question to ask. But anyhow, it has taught me a lot about myself. Do I say it about every other hike?? If so I should stop making mistakes at some point lol. Ok, enough of puns. If you're thinking about hiking mt Assiniboine or like my long rambles - go read it. And feel free to leave comments and ask questions - here or under the post (where I'll never get notified of them 🤣). #mountassiniboine #mountassiniboinepark #solohiking #womenbackpackers #beautifulbritishcolumbia
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Recently I wore this skirt with another white top to a friends gathering and one of them told me it's an outfit for walking in a field 😂 Couldn't be more true haha - here's a spring photoshoot on a flower field! It was windy and freezing cold (which somehow I didn't expect), but gotta push through for the pretty pics! 🤣 #beautifulbritishcolumbia #sheisnotlost #ourportraitdays #advancedselfie
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A little spa on a mountain 💦 It was one of those day that everything has kinda come together: I was really eager to explore a new place (not burnt out), the hike was tough but short, the weather was great and there weren't too many people despite it being a Saturday. Can't believe I was ignoring this trail for so long!! I went alone and spent there a few hours - nobody would have that much patience to stick around hehe. The water? Freezing cold ❄️ but not as cold as upper Joffre lake lol. Also the photoshoot rush kept me warm 🤣📸 ↟ ↟ ↟ Trying to start using hashtags again... what's trendy today? #sheisnotlost 😂 #beautifulbritishcolumbia #valhallakingdom 🫶🏼 #womenwhohike idk what else. I used to have saved groups of hashtags in Later... whatever.
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One of the few hikes I regretted doing. And also never posted these photos from 2021 lol I don't know who are the people that enjoy hiking Evans peak... I hated every moment and unlike Golden Ears I wasn't even impressed with the view 😂 So damn spoiled. But anyway, this hike, except of the first part, is sooo steep and sketchy! and then towards the end it gets a little bit steeper and sketchier. Eeew! I also didn't like the few photos I took on the top, that's why they never saw light. But I want to have these memories too in my collection so there we go.
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Can't believe I never posted this selfie from 2021 🌷🤦🏻‍♀️ Love Chilliwack Tulip Festival. Turns out, now they've moved to Agassis. The backdrop should be equally epic, but this adds some 30 min drive, which is a bummer. #chilliwacktulipfest🌷 #beautifulbritishcolumbia
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Well, it wasn't that mirror-calm all the time 😄 there was light wind from time to time. If you visit during the day chances are the lake won't be as calm - waking up early pays off 😁 I was on my way back from the Peyto lake sunrise mission (but on Peyto it was very cloudy), and decided to stop over at the Waterfowl lake. I waited for some more sun to show up, but that didn't happen. Anyhow, beautiful morning and I do appreciate every moment I could experience the Rockies' popular viewpoints without many people around 😄
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Did I actually take a relaxing bath? No 😂 I was just posing for a photo. For many photos 😅 Did I have a great time? Hell yeah!! It's hard to relax when you have so many photo ops. I'm kinda embarassed that that's how I am. But like another smart woman said on instagram, that's my way of experiencing things. I used to not take photos on my vacations/trips and I regretted it. I used not to have good photos of myself from said trips and regretted it. It's hard to take good pics of me if you're not a photographer cause I'm not too photogenic. That's why I do it myself! Why the obsession with the photos of myself? Because for many years I didn't feel beautiful enough. And through these photos I prove myself that I am. Obviously it's a very simplistic explanation that I put out there on instagram, but hopefully it makes sense.
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Happy BC Day to my fellow British Columbians! 🇨🇦🏔🏕 It's been wild 4.5 years living in this absolutely beautiful and amazing place and I still sometimes cannot believe my dream of living close to mountains has come true. BC is my home and I can even begin mentioning all the things I love about this incredible province. Seriously, couldn't ask for a better place to be. I have a bunch of photos from BC obviously, but the view of the Panorama Ridge, I feel like, is kind of a symbol of BC for me. Since 2020 I think I've been to Garibaldi lake twice every year for 3 consecutive years... Only twice total to panorama, but hopefully I'll become fit enough to visit it more often! Damn, pinch me 🙈
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Some self-portraits from Quarry Rock 🪨 Went on a Wednesday evening when there's parking available and not too many people. Can't imagine what it's like on a weekend 😅 It's a beautiful spot and was one of my first hikes since moving to Canada. Then it was closed for 3 years because of the pandemic, then because I think they were building something somewhere, not sure. It's my third time hiking from there in the dark 😅😅 mind you, when I visited with friends couple months ago we saw a bear 🐻 so be sure to make noise and don't forget your bear spray like I did that almost only time I saw a bear on the trail 🤣 There were another 3 photographers on the spot, each one with a tripod. One of them even offered to help me take pictures 🙄 it was funny. Despite the amount of photographers I got the angles I wanted and happy with how the shots turned out. The first time I visited Quarry Rock I also tried taking pics of myself, but I didn't bring a proper tripod, or a tripod at all. But this time I did and I feel like I've closed a loop now having some nice pics from a sunset on this spot. Although I still struggle with posing, especially when with my face to the camera. But ok, who cares 😂 Recommended as an after work hike. On a weekend, I wouldn't bother 😆 or take public transit.
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Def a cliché, but mornings in the alpine are so magical. Even better, most of people don't bother to wake up that early, let alone get out of the tent (the grass in the vid is whitish because of frost!), so usually I get the whole place to myself 🥹 As a bonus, that morning I even saw a deer family! 🦌 #valhallakingdom @cathedrallakeslodge
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Sunrise over mountains 🌄 Tried hard but couldn't think of a more original title 😂 Also, didn't feel like adding music to this reel. This hike was so much struggle, pain and bugs. Not a la-la-la I pulled my car to an amzing view. Nothing wrong with music in reels, but this memory, it doesn't go along with music. It goes along with quiet. Crisp cold of an alpine morning. I managed to get out of tent before the sky has changed color and now I'm hurriedly trying to figure how to best capture this beauty on camera. It's not a sense of calmness. It's the fear to miss the shot and end up again with a bunch of photos I don't like. Oh, and bugs are trying to eat me in the process.
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I was debating with myself whether to post these at all cause the quality is so outrageously crap lol. These pics are cuts from a video shot on my GoPro4 🙈 I figured out a way to export frames from a video without loosing on quality (so around 16mb files), but the base quality is garbage, so 🤷🏻‍♀️ But thought I'll put them there anyway. Maybe it's not that bad if you don't zoom in 😂 And after all, at the time I ordered this camera dome from Ali Express hoping it will fit GoPro4 (cause they don't make stuff for this old camera anymore) so I can produce footage like that - half underwater 😂 I'm thinking maybe invest in a better action camera? Do any of you have experience with them? On the other hand, the situations when it makes sense to use them are so rare. I mean, you need to have really clear water for it to turn out beautifully! Anyhow, from about half an hour total of footage I've been able to get these 2 half-decent pics, please enjoy 🤣
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Haven't posted anything from this year's Chilliwack tulip festival. Although these are not tulips 😄 - they also had daffodils if I'm not mistaken. Thanks to @dawnofstephan for the portraits 😍 Love, love, love fields of flowers! Especially when there's mountain backdrop.
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The reality of trying to film reels while paddle boarding 💦🤣 I might look stupid in the moment but it is sooo nice to go back and see these vids! This one is from a year ago and I'm here 9-to-5-ing cause I have no vacation days left 🫠 so at least I have these memories.
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Chasing waterfalls in Kauai 💦 The hike to Waipo'o falls, like other hikes we did on Kauai, isn't hard, and the scenery is very nice. You go through a jungle, then have great views of the Waimea canyon, then arrive at this cute waterfall. And of course, there are chickens!
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Finally visited Joffre lakes when it was sunny ✨ although the lakes are totally amazing color even on a gloomy day. We spent a couple hours on the third lake and some more time at the second one. And I still felt like I don't want to leave. The crowds are insane though. A day pass needed - and they do check them. Can't wait to visit again.
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First night at mount Assiniboine core area. Oh, dear! Second night it became smoky, so very lucky to catch this sunset at this epic spot. For pics 2&3 a huge thanks to @tomas_matata ✨ if not for you and @myskakr I would be hiking down to the camp already, missing out on this stunning light! I got back to writing the blog post about my trip to Assiniboine. Who knows when I'll finish 😅 Writing blog posts is a bunch of work, let alone a long one like that. This trek has also made my hips situation significantly worse. I have pain in my hips from standing and walking, nobody knows why. Hiking used to be fine for these few years for some reason, but during the trip to Assiniboine the hips got worse. This weekend I did a non-technical 20km hike first time since October and they got inflamed again 😒 I really hope I'll be able to build up strength again... Not taking my ability to hike for granted anymore.
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A few days ago I scrolled to the bottom of my insta profile... It's cool to look back at the memories I was capturing 5 years ago. And cringe from how I framed some shots and the excessive editing 😂 This photo is from 2019, Jug island beach. I hiked in a dress 😂 Can't remember if I brought a proper tripod even. The hair desperately needed trimming 🤣 But it's such a cute photo. Sometimes the "quality" of the photos in my feed degrades, I feel like. I'm always having an internal conflict whether or not to post a photo that is not "absolutely amazing". I try to have some standards, but at the end of the day, this instagram account is some sort of a diary of my memories and thoughts. So it's a balance I guess.
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Saw this little creature on the way back from Elfin lakes last weekend. It kept running around this log and squeak, so I thought maybe I'll try to take some pics. Wildlife is usually not my main subject of interest when it comes to photography, but when I get the chance 😁 A reminder not to feed any wildlife, even if it begs 🙄 These creatures should remain wild and not rely on humans to feed them. And the food from humans is not always healthy for them.
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An epic spot for a sunset, for sure. One of these "pinch me" moments when you can't believe you actually live in a place that beautiful. It's not a very hard hike, but somehow to me it felt never ending. It was September and I was tired of the many backpacking trips I already did. And also the viewpoint is small and oh, sooo crowded. So maybe these are the reasons I've only been there once. Still plan to scout mount Unnecessary one day. But it's a much longer hike 🥴 Swipe to the end for a reality check. I don't even know how I managed to take all these epic pics with noone else in the frame.
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The day I made my family go on a sunrise hike 😂 Well, except my mom, she had politely declined 🤣 Ah, Israel. There's a serious fight for democracy happening right now. Hopefully the democracy wins, although I'm a bit pessimistic... Fun fact, in Israel, I'm not considered officially a Jew. I even couldn't get married there because you can't mix jews with no jews. The starting point for human rights has already been not great 😂🤦🏻‍♀️ 🇮🇱🪬
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Alpine beach day 🏖️ Rest assured this water was freezing cold 🥶 Mount Assiniboine area is really beautiful. And this lake is a short hike from the camp. I had 2 full days to spend there and both of them looked like "morning in camp", "beach in afternoon" and "evening hike". And I hiked to the same place. I did want to do the Wonder pass hike, but was very afraid to push my body too much and get blisters as well. I had 22k to hike out in the last 2 days. Which might not sound a lot, but for a tired body with heavy pack it is a lot. Should have booked an helicopter. But then I would need to rent a car 🫠 So, chilling on a beach and hiking Niblet. Can't complain about this. The lakes are absolutely beautiful and so is the view from Niblet and Nublet.
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Last summer I went on 3 backpacking trips. And the 3 of them were pretty brutal 🥴 Why I did this to myself, idk. Not like I regret, but the burn out that came after, ahem... Look at this serene scene. Actually I felt surprizingly good while and after hiking for a few hours to get to this spot. Electrolytes 😉 One caveat - there were unreal amounts of bugs. Like, dense clouds. You couldn't really even stand at one spot - they were starting to bite regardless of all the deet I slammed on myself. You know what, attaching a photo of my thigh after this trip 🤣🪰 Then, the hike back was a nightmare. Maybe because I didn't eat a proper supper. Maybe because in the morning instead of hiking back I decided to hike up a mountain... The trails in this are after a certain point aren't really marked. And it's basically one huge boulder field. Also there's 2 ways up, I took the other one back, thinking it would be easier - nope! The first was bad, but this was even worse. Gigantic boulders to navigate, steep terrain at times... 🤦🏻‍♀️ At least, I was so hot and sweaty that I decided to go on my first ever alpine lake dip once I got to the bottom lake you see in the first pic. So, achievement unlocked 😂💦
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Recognize the mountain? 🧐 For these pics I'm so forever grateful to the amazing @springvibes.photo 🫶🏼🤩 they turned out so vibey and authentic and it's not something I can achieve with a tripod! This hike was before I discovered electrolytes and at this point I was ooooh so finished already. See third pic, eh. It illustrates this very well. Also, as usual, I look super over prepared 🥴 Want to do this hike as a day trip again... but need to wake up really early for this 🥱 I'm lazy this year.
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The Banff Photo 🏔 Stopped in Banff the town on my way to the Assiniboine trek last September and while running around figuring out where I get bear spray and propane thought I need to take a classic Banff photo. Brings up memories from that morning - I didn't check the bus schedule at the motel I stayed (a bit far from downtown), then I was relying on an outdated schedule of Sunshine Village shuttle to get to the Sunshine mountain 🤦🏻‍♀️ I lost so much time you guys and I was so nervous cause I had 22k to hike on that day too. And can you imagine, I'm as an organized person as it gets probably 😂 I had to hike the last half an hour in the dark with nobody around 🫣 it wasn't fun. Check out my Assiniboine highlights for the full story... Gosh, I had the patience to film the whole trip.
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No chance it's gonna rain today - I thought to myself leaving home. It sure did 🌧🌧 I tried to post these a week ago by scheduling with Meta Business Suite, but the post failed and somehow when I tried to repost it, the post got deleted 🤦🏻‍♀️ Thanks Meta... Previously I was using Later for scheduling posts, but since I don't use Instagram for business anymore, I don't want to pay for it, and the free version only allows to auto post a single photo. Meta Business suite is free and you can post whatever. But when you don't pay for the service, whoever provides you the service doesn't care about you 😏 I wrote to customer support that my post got lost, but no answer. Oh well... In general for some time now I get a lot of thoughts about how much power corporations got over our lives... It's important to support small(er) businesses. Meta built this business suite you can use for free and I hope that didn't kill Later... Although they also integrate with a bunch of other platforms, so hopefully not. Anyhow... Clear water = addiction 🫠🥹
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Yes, I brought the tripod to the pool. I'm so used to do self portraits at public at this point that I think I have no shame left 😂 There were very few people in the pool, which surprised me because the view is top notch and the pool is heated.
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When you hope for an epic sunset, but get only one small cloud lit up 😂😂 That's photographer's life.
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This one was one of the toughest hikes of last summer. Me and @springvibes.photo went camping on Taylor meadows in Garibaldi park. We set up camp, continued to panorama ridge for sunset and shoot some starry skies on the way back to camp. So grateful for doing this with a hiking body! On my own not sure I would dare to hike 8km back to the camp in the dark in bear territory. Let alone stop for night photography. Jee, the hike back to the camp was loooong. Also, most of the final ascent to the ridge was covered in snow which made the hike even more difficult. But the pics 🤩
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Spirit island 2022. Paid about $80 to spend 15 min there, again 🫠 This time more luck with the light and even the random stranger that took the photo of me did a good job. So double luck. Seeing this smile makes me recall the happiness and excitement I felt... This place is magical.
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Quiet evenings at Port Alberni 🌅 On this trip it was first time I tried kombucha. No deep thoughts at this time.
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You might think the grass' color is kinda off. That's because it's covered with frost! It was beginning of August last year, we went on a trip to Cathedral Provincial Park. Of course I had to wake up for sunrise and hike up to the Glacier lake to take photos. Looks like there's no glaciers btw. I got up a bit late tbh and missed the pink skies. But anyway. I went alone cause noone cares to wake up this early. But a great feature of this park is that there's no bears. So I was only a little bit scared. I think I've never regretted waking up for sunrise. But yeah, it's hard to get out of tent. Especially when it's freezing cold. Like every morning in the alpine 🤷🏻‍♀️. Miss that.
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Haven't posted this one because... reasons 🫠 I shot it in September 2020. Ok, to be precise, some stranger pushed the shutter button. I mounted the camera on a tripod and was very disappointed with the short timer available in my old Nikon D610 that wasn't allowing me to run to this other viewpoint. Some ppl showed up and I asked for help. Here we go. My camera wasn't stolen haha. I didn't like the shots much cause my poses were weird and frankly the light is kinda ok. You know, being picky in British Columbia. Well okay 😂 Looking back, of course I love this photo. It's epic. Reminds me of this awkward overnight at Saint Mark's summit where we were a bunch of people on this tiny viewpoint and I couldn't pitch my tent because people were constantly walking around. You can see my tent is peeking between the trees. I drank this very gross water from a small yellow tarn and was very scared because I realized I'm the only one camping on this mountain. Also, I was burnt out from that summer's trips cause again FOMO made me do many of them. Would love to get this shot during sunset... But this hike feels soooo long despite it's shorter than Garibaldi lake hike and less elevation. Anyhow. ✅ shot. ✅ memories. That's what this insta account is for.
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Almost like the New Zealand lupin fields (not) 😂🪻 It was windy and very cold btw. Don't let the nice song decieve you. Really want to try and grow lupins on my balcony. It has sun... sometimes. Do you think they'll survive? 🤔
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The first to pics were taken 15 mins apart. What a difference in conditions 😁 the water was no longer mirror-like and the light hit the large rock. But I do like the shadows on the water. ↟ ↟ ↟ They were taken last October, btw. And I didn't do any serious hiking since then. But I do have loooaaads of photos from past adventures. Which makes you think I'm traveling all the time. While I'm just casually 9-to-5-ing here. Effects of social media 🥴 ↟ ↟ ↟ Last summer I had a bunch of FOMO. I wrote about it. It made me feel sick and eventually stop hiking (almost) and getting off instagram to give my mental health a break. I didn't want to do photography or edit photos from summer adventures. Or book campings for next summer when they became available early spring. Funny enough that the next hobby I have devoted myself to started sucking my soul too 🙈 Clearly the problem is me haha. I'm trying to moderate the amount of time I put in sewing projects now. It is a very hard and frustrating hobby... Now the summer has rolled in and the mountains are calling again. I miss alpine meadows, lakes and glaciers. I don't feel it that strong like last year though. That's a good sign I think?! Too late to book any campings... And idk if I'll do any serious mountain trips this year. We'll see. The most important is that I don't slide down this FOMO hill again.
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Assiniboine... My last crazy adventure of summer 2022. 70km hiked in 5 days. I was very burnt out afterwards 🥲 This one hike to the Niblet is not a hard one in particular. But I wanted to shoot the sunset and that involved hiking back alone in the dark afterwards... There's a limit how much you can hike alone in the dark... It's a bit nerve wrecking when you're in bear country. Anyhow, I decided I won't wait till the actual sunset so I still have some light to get to the camp and to shoot the golden hour. Luckily, when I was about to go back I met a very sweet couple and we hiked together. But yeah, sometimes you just wish you had a like-minded partner to do it with.
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Imagine visiting one of the most beautiful places in the Canadian Rockies and take a bunch of photos only to discover later that in most of them either have the water droplets on camera lens, or the polarizer filter is in incorrect position, or both 😑 That's what has happened to me on our trip to lake O'Hara a year ago. I now see I haven't even posted any photos from there yet, haha. I must've been pissed off with myself very much 😆 The pic with the boots was taken among the last on this spot. That's when I recalled to wipe the lens and adjust the polarizer. In the last photo you can see haze near my butt - that's because the lens was wet, not because my butt is holy 🥴 ooof In the second photo it's pouring rain, and basically the reason for the wet lens. So last summer was really slow to start here and when we arrived at O'Hara beginning of July, the weather was really messy. It was raining on and off throughout our hike and there was no sun whatsoever. But when we arrived at the top, by some miracle, we started getting glimpses of sun. Never a dull moment when you're trying to take beautiful pics in the mountains lol.
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This swole back though 🤣🤣💪🏼 A few months ago I got back to poledancing after about a year break. The muscles show off 😂 and some of my clothes started being a bit tight in the shoulders. Actually, this month is my 10th poleaversary! Forgot the exact date, but in May 2013 I went into my first ever pole class and it was love from the first bruise 😂 Like about all of my hobbies, pole is hard and frustrating 🙄 but there's something about spinning, swinging and being upside down that makes it so fun. After all, it stuck with me for 10 years which I can't say about any other sport. Speaking of challenging hobbies, here's a recent photoshoot featuring a dreamy summer sunset, but guess what, I was actually freezing. And if course, with the warm weather stretch we had here in Van, I didn't bring anything warm with me. No dull moment guys.
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Throwback to this magical evening last September. The same noon I've finished my mount Assiniboine track, hiking ~70km in 5 days. My body was absolutely trashed. I was staying in the Sunshine Mountain Lodge for the night and there's a lift to this beautiful viewing deck. I was really keen to shoot sunset there. The problem is, the lift was working until about 5pm and the sunset was around 7:30 🥴 You can hike to the spot, but I was so finished I decided to catch the last lift and just hang out there for couple hours. The other problem was - as I arrived at the top I realized it's really windy and cold and I'm underdressed. So what I did? I decided to stay there anyway just to avoid hiking up again 🙈 The things I'm ready to do for a beautiful shot... don't recommend. It's dangerous... While waiting I went down to the lakes. Btw it's a fairytale-like strolling area. Absolutely beautiful. So down there it was indeed a tad less windy. And I met a couple Parks Canada workers, they were measuring path widths 😳 to see if it has became wider as a result of human activity. That's crazy how Canada takes care of the parks. I survived the couple hours (second guessing my decision many times) and the sunset was truly magical. I hiked back in the dusk and saw a deer. Even though I was calling "hey bear!" 🤭 It's really strange not to want to hike, I'll tell you. Yet that's what I feel. Life is weird. But that's so cool to go back to these pics and videos.
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Got a spring photoshoot. Yay! 🌸 Actually first cherry blossom photoshoot of myself I'm happy with 🤔 Bouncing around in this short dress in 15 degrees was easier than I thought... (15°C and almost no sun). I did colder photoshoots haha. Hope I don't wake up sick tomorrow. Love these pics. I edited them very lightly and didn't retouch at all. Idk if it's me being less picky or the concealer did a good job. Also very happy with my makeup. Except I probably should have blended the contouring on the cheeks more? It was a really spontaneous decision to go shoot - the forecast looked like 🌧️🌧️🌧️ so I didn't plan for it. But then a glimpse of sun came through and I was very rushed to make this happen before the weather changes its mind. So rush makeup 😄
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Annual bday post! 😂🎉🎈🍰⁠ ⁠ Sooo I felt really lazy to post anything, but thought I would regret not following my tradition of annual bday posts. This small act of saying happy bday to myself will stay on my feed and whenever I scroll down and see it, it will warm my heart. Just some self love ♥️⁠ ⁠ Love this photo (cut the FOMO, it's from March 😂) - living my best life, surrounded by turquoise water, wearing minimal clothes, not giving a fuck. Not forgetting the sun protection 🤣⁠ ⁠ Of course, in real life I was running around looking for good angles on this nature gem rather than just enjoying it - so wishing myself to go back and spend a few days there.⁠ ⁠ Anything wise to say as I'm turning 33 - nothing new... Listen to yourself, the worst you can do is to live by somebody else's desires. Be financially responsible while doing so, otherwise 🤷🏻‍♀️⁠ ⁠ ↟ ↟ ↟⁠ ⁠ Funny that I feel I need to explain why I'm off instagram, I'm sure nobody noticed or gives a damn 😂⁠ Anyway, idk what it is this year, but I got a burnout from hiking, backpacking and even photography. And too much FOMO.⁠ ⁠ So I got off insta and quickly found other stuff that lights me up. I am... 🥁 sewing bras 👙🤷🏻‍♀️🤣 a whole new world.⁠ No, not a business, screw that. Just for myself cause I've never been able to find ones that are both beautiful and fit well.⁠ ⁠ Don't you worry (cause why would you 😂), in couple months I'll probably be back with all the gazillion photos I took during summer. Ciao ✌🏼
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How glad I am to not run a business 😅 and not to use instagram to promote it.⁠ ⁠ So 2 years ago I decided to go full time with photography business, thinking investing in it full time will get me faster where I want to be in terms of clients and income. That didn't happen, instead I got all sorts of mental health problems.⁠ ⁠ Also, I didn't post on this instagram account as much as I wanted to because I was busy working on my business account which had different types of photography. And even when posting on this account, I was always worried does what I post promote my business in any way or no.⁠ ⁠ I'm really thankful this "business" episode is behind me and actually am very embarrassed to talk about it. Because it was such a source of insecurity and pain and I feel such a loser I went after this illusion of "having my own business is so cool". ⁠ ⁠ After being back to a day job, I came to appreciate how great it is - to post just whatever you like and say whatever you like on social media. That is really my creative outlet and not being dependent on it for having an income made my relationship with photography and writing and in general, expressing myself, so much healthier.⁠ ⁠ Have you ever had the desire to start your own business?
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Feel like I need to post a Milky Way photo to prove I'm capable of night photography 😂🌌⁠ ⁠ Neither this, not wildlife photography isn't my biggest passion (it's actually easy to see what I am obsessed about), so I wouldn't go out of my way for an astro shot.⁠ ⁠ So here, I just sat near my tent, after hiking 21km while stressing out about not getting to the camp before dark and getting blisters, absolutely finished, thinking - Well, the stars are out, I can try and shoot them for couple minutes. So I took a few shots and went to sleep.⁠ ⁠ Cool to see mt Assiniboine peeking out from the distance, showing the way I'll be headed the next day.
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Cathedral Provincial park is really underrated 🦌⁠ Even in Jasper, I never saw so much wildlife so close to me.⁠ And a bonus - bears are extremely rare in the core area, near the Cathedral lakes (the shuttle driver confirmed that!).⁠ ⁠ I made my way back to the camp after shooting sunrise on Glacier lake, when I came across these deer literally on the trail. I gave them space, and they moved away so slow that I had time to hesitate, then take out my camera and even switch the lens to zoom.⁠ ⁠ None of the pics turned out really sharp because of how talented of a wildlife photographer am I 😂 but certainly good enough.⁠ ⁠ ↟ ↟ ↟ ⁠ ⁠ Following up on my previous FOMO post - it turns out that there are golden larches in Cathedral park, too, not only Manning. So when I came across this info I got a FOMO that I'm not in Cathedral park this fall 🤦🏻‍♀️⁠ ⁠ My goodness 🙈🙈🦌
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FOMO is an annoying thing.⁠ ⁠ I feel like it took over me in the past months. I really wanted to make the most of summer, and I did. Between the adventures, I would scroll the instagram and be jealous of somebody else's amazing photos.⁠ ⁠ Telling myself that my photos are almost as amazing, and experiences - surely the most amazing, doesn't help. I still feel like not traveling enough, not taking enough pics and the ones I do - aren't epic enough. And also I'm not creative enough.⁠ ⁠ What the actual hell.⁠ Thanks, mother nature, for a brain that is never satisfied. And for the periods 🩸🤦🏻‍♀️⁠ ⁠ I tried to google this and seems like many people get depressed scrolling the social media. And the only solution is to get off the social media. Which I don't want to do... It's the weird desire to still see these photos that I'm so jealous of.⁠ ⁠ Besides, I want to keep posting my ̶s̶e̶l̶f̶i̶e̶s̶ art and my thoughts. It is my creative outlet and requires much less effort than creating another blog post. And it's far easier to get people to actually see it. And get jealous and depressed 😂⁠ ⁠ ↟ ↟ ↟ ⁠ ⁠ Here's some pics from an overnight at Marriott basin. I couldn't really sit and enjoy like in the pic because of the gazillion of bugs trying to bite me regardless of the bug lotion amounts I put.⁠ ⁠ Weirdly though, I could ignore them to some extent (had to keep moving, but still) and I have really positive memories from this trip. I guess that's a win for my inner zen - at some point I acquired the ability to hike for hours and not get bored, and now - to enjoy regardless of really, really bad bug situation.
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This past summer I have visited Peyto lake 3 times. In less than 24 hours 🤣⁠ You can say I'm a maniac and I'll agree.⁠ ⁠ So first time we dropped in with friends, it was very cloudy, but nice.⁠ ⁠ Then we stayed for a night at the Saskatchewan Crossing Resort which is half an hour drive from Peyto lake, which got me thinking I should try and shoot sunset there.⁠ ⁠ As you can tell, no epic sunset has happened that day and at some point it started raining on us - you can see the rain in the valley on the photo and it was actually approaching 😄 ⁠ ⁠ Stephan swore that's the last time he comes with me for a sunset shoot since I refused to leave for the tiny chance the light would change 😂 It only changed for the worse 🤣⁠ ⁠ Then I decided to drive there again for the sunrise - that story I've already told a few posts ago.⁠ ⁠ So in case you wonder how I get some epic photos... I just keep trying and sometimes get lucky. But more often than not, it ends up something like that. Which I'm still very grateful for - mountains are amazing in any weather!
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You're alone on a mountain, it gets dark and you see an UFO 🛸👽 What do you do? 😅⁠ ⁠ Not an astrophotography masterpiece, but a photo with a story.⁠ On my (solo) trip to Marriott basin, after setting camp and shooting sunset, the dark fell and I sat next to my tent playing with camera settings, trying to get some astro images.⁠ ⁠ And suddenly I saw a dashed line of light rapidly moving through the sky. It took me a few seconds to stare at it and wonder what the f*ck it is before I tried to actually point my camera on it and shoot.⁠ ⁠ I was too slow to realize I should have changed the settings to a shorter shutter speed for the line to appear actually dashed in the photo - so I missed the shot. At least I got this smudged line 😁 And if you look well, you'll find another line in the same shot.⁠ ⁠ It was a mix of excitement and fear, not every day you see something weird like that. After the hike, @paula_luna.lifestyle (with which we planned to meet in the backcountry, but things went sideways), asked me if I saw the Starlink passing and so I knew that was it.⁠ ⁠ Then I read about the astronomers community being pissed off with Musk since the satellites are too bright and this interferes with night sky observations 😒⁠ ⁠ Swipe for a "panorama" of the same night sky where you can see the clouds are lit up from below. The sunset was in the opposite side - behind me. I suspect the light was from wildfires. I checked the map once got home - the bigger one was probably the Lytton fire 😢 and the other one I can't remember, but there was a fire on the map in that direction, too.⁠ ⁠ Definitely a trip full of experiences.
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Caught some epic sunrise while visited the Rockies at the beginning of summer!⁠ ⁠ We stayed at the Saskatchewan Crossing Resort, which is, btw, one of my least favorite stays of this trip 🙄 but it has a pretty good location.⁠ ⁠ So I made an attempt to shoot sunset on Peyto lake which is only half an hour away, and after lack of success (and Stephan being pissed off cause I refused to leave 😂), I have decided to try and come for the sunrise.⁠ ⁠ So I woke up, forced myself to get ready and go out. Arrived at Peyto lake only to find cloudy skies. So decided to go to the Bow lake drive in viewpoint so that at least I'll have some view without the need to get out of the car.⁠ ⁠ While there I saw clouds started getting pink. So I took couple shots and then it stroke me that I should go to the trail near the Bow lake to get a proper sunrise shot - the lit clouds would be behind the lake.⁠ ⁠ So I quickly drove there and ran to the shore - and there you have it! One of my best shots during the trip.⁠ ⁠ Was hoping my tripod would dry out a bit after yesterday's rain at Peyto, but then it started raining on me again 😂
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This year I got to visit Maligne lake for the second time - and already can't wait to go back again!⁠ ⁠ These turquoise waters surrounded by rugged mountains got my heart back in 2019. The thing is, you can't see it from the shore and have to take a cruise in order to experience this scenery.⁠ ⁠ The cruise is a bit pricey and you only have 15 mins to take photos of the Spirit Island and the surroundings once the boat is docked, which is ridiculous. But still, I found myself willing to pay again for this tourist trap 😂 gosh.⁠ ⁠ My dream is to do a canoe backpacking trip on Maligne lake to experience this beauty for a longer time. I think I say this every time I post photos from Maligne lake 😂⁠ ⁠ This time I dropped in to the canoe rentals place at the lake and figured it would cost me $1000 to rent a canoe for 5 days 🥴 before tax 🥲⁠ The tax in Alberta is lower though 🤔⁠ ⁠ For about the same price I could get a quality inflatable watercraft... And then keep using it for other adventures.⁠ ⁠ Experience backpacking in a packraft or similar, anyone?
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I occasionally see the "get to know me" kind of posts in accounts I follow and figured I have never introduced myself here 🤷🏻‍♀️⁠ So why not.⁠ ⁠ Hey, I'm Olessia 😂 some random facts about me:⁠ ⁠ ↠ I'm 32 years old, was born in Russia, but spent most of my life in Israel. So I speak Russian and Hebrew.⁠ ⁠ ↠ I work full time as a software developer 👩🏻‍💻 and have a degree in electrical engineering and computer science.⁠ ⁠ ↠ I have tried being a full time photographer, but that didn't go well 🙄⁠ ⁠ ↠ I find self portraits therapeutic for body image and general self confidence and do them a lot.⁠ ⁠ ↠ I rarely watch movies or tv series. To unwind I research hiking gear, travel destinations, edit photos or drink beer with friends.⁠ ⁠ ↠ I have 2 rag doll cats which I adore and they cover my place in loads of fine cat hair which is impossible to get rid of 😅⁠ ⁠ ↠ I am childfree by choice - that is, I'm not planning to have any children. I do plan to stay wild and free forever instead 🤪⁠ ⁠ ↠ I'm not a fan of natural remedies, but swear by using baking soda instead of deodorant.⁠ ⁠ I'm curious if you are surprised by any of these 😅
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Clearest water and one of my favorite lakes 💧⁠ ⁠ Checked hike & paddle kind of adventure off my bucket list this summer! The hardest part was hauling my Osprey backpack to the other shore since I didn't want to leave it with the crowds. And also the typical congestion on the trans Canada highway on the way back 😑⁠ ⁠ Spent the whole day on the lake, till it got kinda chill. One of the most amazing experiences I had. Will def do again next summer!
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BTS of how I film my reels while hiking solo 🤪🎥 Good my @peakdesign tripod has this built in phone clip 😁 not an ad, I just want attention 🤣 And yes, I carry this full size tripod on every single hike, including my mt Assiniboine trek where weight was a great concern. The tripod weights about 1.5 kg, which is a bunch, but for me go on a hard hike and not take the photos I want feel totally pointless 🤷🏻‍♀️ Here you can see me in a great mood the day after I finished the trek, when the night before I have managed to execute on my ambitious plan to shoot sunset, be in time for @sunshinevillage s'mores 🍡🤤 and even squeeze half an hour in the hot tub! I sometimes surprize myself 🤣🤣🤣
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Mountains are my happy place.⁠ In case you haven't noticed 😂⁠ ⁠ It was such a crazy summer. Full of adventures and FOMO.⁠ I spent more weekends overnighting away from home than at home in July-August 😳.⁠ ⁠ I think I got a burn out again this year.⁠ The first rule of burn out - if you think you have a burn out, you have a burn out 😂⁠ ⁠ I acknowledge how lucky I am to be able to travel and spent time in the most amazing places. But it's just how I felt mid August already - drained.⁠ ⁠ I think it all started when the summer wouldn't start and we had such a cold and rainy June. So by the time it got warmer I was already loaded with FOMO about the short summer we have.⁠ I need to work on starting mountain adventures earlier in the year.⁠ ⁠ Anyhow, these pics are from an overnight at Taylor Meadows when me and @paula_luna.lifestile went to shoot sunset at Panorama Ridge. Simply. Epic.⁠ ⁠ Love mountains. And complaining.
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First sunrise on the way to mount Assiniboine ⛰⁠ ⁠ My biggest this summer's adventure has actually started on September 1st. It was a hell of a trek from Sunshine village to Magog lake campground and back over 5 days.⁠ ⁠ 28km one way might sound funny to through hikers, but for me it was a real challenge and to be honest, I kinda regretted not taking a heli flight in or out 😅⁠ ⁠ But anyway, 56k hiked with the huge pack and I'm proud of myself. I was very nervous about this trip and it's kinda cool to know you've passed the test and proved your body is capable of some serious stuff.⁠ ⁠ I have documented my struggles and there's Assiniboine I and II highlights in my profile if you're interested.
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When you hike 70km in 5 days, but see the most spectacular sunset from the flight back home 😂 Just got back from my trip to mt Assiniboine. That's my longest backcountry trip to date - 5 days, 4 nights, 28km each way (I hiked in and out) and some additional hiking when there. What can I say, this was tough 😬 and honestly, I should have taken a heli one way. The views were amazing and the pics will eventually follow, but in the meantime you're welcome to check out my Assiniboine highlights where I documented my struggles, not only the highlights 😄 And make sure to let me know any questions you have!
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Morning in the alpine 🏔 One of the coolest backpacking trips I did. Minus the bugs hell 😅🦟🪰 I started getting blisters from hiking though 😕 didn't have this problem before. I think it's because my new hiking boots aren't breathable enough. Such a bummer, why can't I find a good pair of hiking boots 😫 Tips to reduce blisters?
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Little paradise of mine I can look at this crystal clear water forever. This summer has been hectic - in a good way - I'm trying to pack every weekend with adventure while the weekdays are pretty intense at work. That's tiring... but I really want to make the most of summer before it's gone. Also, I have loads and loads of new photos but no time to go through them so hold on for the fall 😆 Had an amazing trip to Lindeman lake this past weekend. It is a 40 min uphill hike and I brought my paddleboard in my backpacking bag. Was so so worth it!! On a side note, people, please, please make sure you leave no garbage behind. Lindeman lake is a very popular place and it just starts looking gross. No "organic" garbage either! Banana peels don't belong there. I even found a bunch of beer cans (looks like couple years old...) in this beautiful cove in the video - which is only accessible by water. So infuriating! It broke my heart to see garbage in such a pristine place, so I tied the cans to my "docking" rope and hiked them out. I just cannot comprehend why will anybody do something like this 😒
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Dreams that are made of pain and sweat... quite literally. Panorama ridge is one of the most beautiful spots here in BC, but the hike is pretty brutal if done in one day. And if you carry a lot of stuff... We brought food and warm clothes. And photography gear, of course. I don't remember myself in such pain while hiking since Golden Ears... 😅 Anyway, I already want to do it again.
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The most touristy spot in Banff National Park. For a reason 🥰
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POV: first summery sunny and actually warm day and I'm running to Belcarra park after work to take some shots 🏃🏽‍♀️⁠ (throwback to June and me craving summer so bad) ⁠ Also found a picnic blanket of my dream recently. This one is made of polyester so should hold onto less moisture and dry faster.
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Sunny moments at Joffre lakes 🌞⁠ ⁠ If you hike there, make sure to pack proper warm layers. This pic is from August 2021, shortly after the heat wave 😬⁠ It's usually pretty cold and windy at the upper lake even when it's warm at the trailhead.
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So many colorful lakes here in BC.⁠ The color of many of them comes from rock powder created by the glaciers like the one in pics, moving downstream, grinding the rock bed. In case you needed a motivation to stop global warming.
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Throwback to last year's rainy overnighter at Joffre lakes. So wet. So beautiful.⁠ 😂
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From my feed you can clearly see I'm more into lakes than waterfalls haha. But I was going through some older photos and as often happens, I realized that I went on to edit the lakes pics and skipped the other stuff 🙈⁠ ⁠ This pic is from the first day of our summer 2020's BC roadtrip. Of course, it was raining.
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Visiting the Lindeman lake for the first time while it's sunny 🌞 I think it was my 4th time there...⁠ ⁠ This pic is from beginning of May 2021. Great thing about this trail is that it's snow free pretty early in the season. But this late spring was so rainy and gloomy I didn't even visit Lindeman 🙄 ⁠ I miss it tho.⁠ ⁠ Thanks to @dawnofstepahn for the pics of me 🥰
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Follow my journey on the instagram!

Sunset over Sunburst and Cerulean lakes In mount Assiniboine park British Columbia

The Fear of the Bears & Blisters aka solo trip to mount Assiniboine

By Olessia Bourgart • 16 Aug, 2023

The tale about my biggest solo adventure of the summer 2022, full of anxiety and epic views.

Chaotic gear reviews

By Olessia Bourgart • 25 Nov, 2021

It’s almost winter and that means - driving conclusions regarding our current gear and planning what improvements we want to make before the next season. I wanted to publish there reviews for a while, but didn't know how to organize them. So here they just are.

Female backpacker in a tent watching cloud inversion in the alpine of Golden Ears mountain

My sleeping system doesn’t suck anymore

By Olessia Bourgart • 04 Oct, 2021

Getting good night’s sleep is an important part of an enjoyable adventure, especially where physical challenges are involved. My sleeping system was a bit off last year, and after testing my upgrades for 10 nights on different trips this season I’m happy to report it’s much better!

Burnaby, BC, Canada

Olessia BOURGART