My Top-10 Backpack Essentials

By Tiffany Schebesch

As a hiker, your backpack can be your best friend or your worst enemy. This is often determined by the fit of the backpack as well as what you’ve stuffed inside.

I recently hiked (almost) the full Kindersley-Sinclair 20 km loop, just outside of Radium and was very thankful for what I had stashed in my pack.

The hike starts just a few kilometres outside of the small town and is marked by a sign on the right hand side of the road, although the trail starts on the left.

If you’ve ever been to Radium, you’ll know it’s almost always dry and warm however only a few minutes outside of town the temperature can change drastically. So, when we planned this hike, we had no idea what to expect once we started climbing.

With a total elevation gain of 1055 m, it’s not extremely high in altitude but what it lacks in climbing, it makes up for in distance.

The hike started as an easy, meandering walk with a slight ascent – and about a centimetre of snow on the ground. And then the real switchback climb starts. 

Up, up, up until you reach a large avalanche chute valley, with the Brisco mountain range to your left. 

It’s important to stay to the right here as we learned by almost getting lost and heading left - it turns out switchbacks can be hard to see in the snow. This is when the snow reached about ankle deep. 

We were ill prepared for snow, with only our hiking boots on. However, we made a joint decision to keep trekking upwards.

​We headed back into forested switchbacks before entering the same valley opening, and then traversing back into the forest. The hike continued climbing through dense, forested areas until coming out into another break in the trees. 

At this point, we were trudging through mid-thigh deep snow. Not only was this no easy venture, but also our legs started to feel like icicles stuck on our body. It was at this point we decided daylight was fading and accepted that safety always come first – it was time to turn around. 

Before heading back, we swapped for dry socks, had a snack and added a layer as the temperature had dropped.

The hike back was much quicker with the trail we had previously dug through. 

The round trip was about 16 kilometres, however we did take a slight detour in the valley when we misplaced the trail. 

We didn’t reach the summit, however it’s important not to get arrogant in the mountains. It’s always better to play it safe and head back early. Being forced to spend the night in the mountains can have severe consequences. 

We’ll definitely be back in the summer to try again, and start earlier!

​My top 10-backpack essentials:

1. Bear spray/bear screamer
2. Lightweight plastic water bottle
3. Energy bites, trail mix, piece of fruit, etc.
4. Lightweight sweater
5. Socks
6. Plastic zip lock bag (ie. emergency waterproof phone case)
7. Chapstick
8. Portable phone charger
9. Head lamp
10. A beer (it really does taste better on a mountain!)


What do you keep in your backpack?