Outside Magazine, July 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012

The Best Canadian Adventures: Northern Exposure

The most innovative new outfitted adventures on the up side of the border

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Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National
Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park via Shutterstock Photo: Bradley L. Grant

Raft, hike, and canoe through Yoho, Jasper, and Banff national parks on an eight-day trip with ecotourism outfitter Greenloons. Highlights: a crampon-assisted trek over the 1,200-foot-thick Columbia Icefields in Banff, a 6.5-mile hike to 1,250-foot Takakkaw Falls in Yoho, and a 14-mile float down the Class IV Kicking Horse River, framed by Yoho’s 9,000-foot snowcapped peaks. US$1,649

Northwest Territories-based Canoe North Adventures launches a series of paddling-and-fly-fishing trips this year. Try the nine-day journey down the Northwest Territory’s Great Bear River. As many as 10 guests (two per boat) start by fishing for monster trout on Great Bear Lake, then crash in the aboriginal village of Deline before paddling 90 miles downriver to the confluence with the mighty Mackenzie. Campsites are grassy points on the grayling-clogged river. US$3,964

This summer, Canadian Mountain Holidays introduces heli-assisted via ferrata (roped-in, Italian-style mountaineering) trips. The four-day Conrad Glacier Experience takes guests zip-lining over glacial waterfalls and scrambling up giant orange rock slabs to the toe of the Conrad Glacier in B.C.’s Purcell Range. Each evening there’s a heli ride back to the spectacular, lakeside Bobbie Burns Lodge for salmon or steak dinners and a massage. US$2,607

Fernie, B.C., mountain-bike outfitter Sacred Rides has been ginning up smart trips in the land of singletrack since 1996. Its latest: an eight-day yoga-and-biking tour based out of the secluded Nipika Mountain Resort, three hours west of Calgary. You’ll need the yoga to stay limber after bombing trails like Dem Bones, a two-mile intermediate route that drops 1,200 vertical feet. US$2,028

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