The Plain of Six Glaciers Hike

The first 2.3 kilometres are the lakeshore trail, flat and busy. The crowd thins the moment the ground starts to rise at the head of the lake.

From there the trail climbs onto the lateral moraine, a long ridge of rock left by the glacier, with the valley dropping away on one side. The last stretch to the tea house is the steepest.

The Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse opens 9 am to 5 pm from early June to early October, and it is cash only, like the one at Lake Agnes. It sits at the top of the moraine with the glacier ahead of it.

It is a little further and a little quieter than Lake Agnes, so the queue is usually shorter.

From the tea house the trail carries on another 1.5 kilometres to a viewpoint below Abbot Pass, gaining about 50 metres, and takes roughly an hour there and back.

The ground is loose and the valley walls above are active. Go only if the weather is settled and you are comfortable turning around.

The Highline trail links this valley across to Lake Agnes, making a loop of 14.3 kilometres that takes about five hours and takes in both tea houses.

Done anticlockwise, you climb the steeper Lake Agnes side first and come down the long lakeshore at the end, which is easier on the knees.

This is a glacier valley and the slopes above the moraine shed rock. Stay on the trail, do not stop under the steep ground, and do not walk onto the glacier.

Parks Canada advises avoiding high elevation trails from November to June because of avalanche risk. That advice applies to the upper part of this trail directly.

The lakeshore section clears first, usually in May. The moraine and the ground near the tea house hold snow into late June, and the viewpoint above can hold it into July.

By early October the first lasting snow is normally back and the tea house closes.