Backpacking -- Canada, Canadian Rockies (B.C. and Alta.) -- Description and travel, Canada -- Rocky Mountains -- Backpacking, Backpacking, Travel, Canada, Canada -- Canadian Rockies 

Wilderness is a keyword in describing the Candian Rockies -- and it was to live in the wilderness for a long enough period to feel at home there, and to feel part of the natural world, that Chris Townsend attempted to firest ever End to End backpacking trek of this 900-mile chain of Mountains.

The Candian Rockies run from Waterton Lakes National Park on the Canadian/USA border to northern British Columbia. They are slightly less than 100 wide and elevation ranges from 10000 ft to 12,972 ft Mount Robson. They offer difficult backpacking terrain: heavy glacial erosion has given rise to typical alpine topography with many large glaciers and ice fields, while dense coniferous forests cloak the valleys and the lower mountain slopes. Animal life is abundant and grizzly bears, black bears, beavers, caribou, elk, moose, porcupines, ground squirrels and coyotes were all seen by the author.