On June 20, my new mountaineering and backcountry partner Haimish and I attempted the summit of Snow Dome in Jasper National Park. Long ago, we knew it wasn't enough to begin this expedition putting our canoe in the water. We wanted to climb up the true source of the Athabasca River where snow and ice collect, which meant ascending to the icefield.

The time had come. We began our trip to snow dome — the hydrological apex of North America. The ascent would be is 1499 m (4,810 feet).

Bad weather had us calling off the summit attempt the day before. So one day later, at 4:00 am, Haimish and I were at the parking lot at the toe of the Athabasca Glacier. It was a beautiful morning. Haimish and I skinned up (skins allow you to ski uphill and not slide backward) and headed off under the early morning sky onto the ice.

The Columbia Icefields are something that few get a chance to witness. I always find it remarkable that one can hike/ski for an hour from the road in the Rockies and feel as though you are in one of the most remote places in the world. The Athabasca glacier is seen by many, but the true grandeur is up over the headwall and that is where we were headed.

Expeditions can be unpredictable. One of the biggest hazards on this particular climb was seracs (glacial ice spilling over a cliff) that we had to traverse under. As we got to this section, one small Volkswagen Beetle sized chunk broke off and crashed in front of us as a reminder that the ice is in charge. We traveled fast under the seracs to minimize our exposure time to any other potentially falling ice.

But the challenges for this trip did not rest with the seracs. It began with a blister. For this trip, I borrowed my ski gear. And not long into our trip, I felt a blister forming on the inside of my left heel. I thought it was minor and we continued up the headwall onto the vast Columbia Icefield.

Owww... two hours from the summit, the blister on my left heel broke with a new one forming on the same place on my opposite heel. Dumb move — I should have treated this long ago! I was suddenly reminded of another hike several years ago where a minor cut on my toe became infected over the course of three days hiking in wet conditions. I was limping by day two and in the hospital at the end of day three. Blisters can't be ignored.

By this time we had climbed high enough to get a glimpse of Mountain Columbia — the highest mountain in Alberta. Reluctantly, we decided it would be best to turn back, and save my feet for the next leg of our journey: a 90 kilometre backpacking trip to to the toe of the Columbia Glacier (which creates the headwaters for the Athabasca River).

The ski out was getting soft in the sun also adding more danger as ice bridges over crevasses become less stable as do those seracs. We were safely back at the parking lot just as tourists started arriving. We had already had a full day. We traveled far enough to get a glimpse of this remarkable area — the source of water for three different oceans and this was just day one...