Another view of Crowsnest Mountain from Wedge Mountain with a closer look at the mustache that I hope will help to "change the face of men's health".

Thanks to all of my supporters who made this possible. And thanks to my hiking compatriots for their camaraderie and logistical support.

In commemoration of the generosity of all my Movember-2025 supporters, we closed out the month by hiking up Wedge Mountain. As may be obvious to many, it is located in the Crowsnest Pass, and offers up splendid views of Crowsnest Mountain in the background. When I woke up this morning the air temperature was -28 C at Lethbridge, but the forecast for our destination was 10 C warmer. That usually means wind, but instead we enjoyed a lovely day that was calm and warm (up to -5 C, maybe).

Here at Lethbridge we received our first bit of snow that still is lingering, and the holiday lights are starting to brighten things a little. For several years the owners of this property in my neighborhood has embraced the holiday spirit in our community.

This photo was taken Friday evening (21-Nov) in front of Lethbridge City Hall. We had arranged for it to be illuminated in "prostate cancer blue" to raise awareness about that cancer and other areas of men's health where the Movember Canada Foundation works to improve outcomes. Further, the lighting is intended to celebrate the generosity of all who support charities like Movember.

This photo from Whitney Ridge looks across the Mill Creek valley to Mount Gladstone (behind my head, alas, I'm not so good at selfies). The peak over my right shoulder is the secondary ridge just to the south of Mt. Gladstone.

A mossy tree trunk on Whitney Ridge. The scattered deadfall in the background is minor compared to what we had to pick our way through to ascend the ridge. Although there was not much snow, stepping over all the downed trees was good practice for snowshoe season.

Just over half way through Movember. On Sunday we hiked up Whitney Ridge in Castle Wildland Provincial Park. Not only did we see 5-needle pines like this one, we also encountered several Clark's nutcrackers. These birds have co-evolved with the 5-needle pines into a relationship where these special birds disperse the seeds in exchange for the food provided by the endangered pines.

This shows another "tree of renown" that we visited yesterday. It is the "Boundary Pine" that once marked the edge of the Buffalo Head Ranch, and is pictured on the cover of R.M. Patterson's book describing his adventures in that area. It is a slow-growing limber pine that is even older than the massive Douglas fir pictured earlier. Thanks so very much to my good-natured hiking compatriots for sharing my enthusiasm for these special trees.

Last week I was fortunate to participate in the Transboundary Grasslands Partnership (TGP) Workshop held at Milk River. One afternoon we took a short field excursion west of town. While the selfie shows my fledgling mustache, I had to add the background showing the river and adjacent Canadian Milk River Canal (aka Spite Ditch), excavated c. 1904 for the Canadian North-West Irrigation Company.

Here is a photo from the first day of Movember-2025 when I started out clean-shaven. Although the weather was a touch drizzly, we still made it to our favorite lunch spot under this spectacular Douglas fir tree. Any life that has endured for 400 years certainly merits our respect.

Thank-you to all who have generously contributed to this point. Your continued support is sincerely appreciated.

So far we have not seen much snow in the Lethbridge region, but as usual, we saw a bit at Waterton on Thanksgiving weekend. Here is a photo from a few weeks ago with a little snow near Grinnell Glacier (Glacier National Park, Montana). My long suffering hiking compatriots endured my enthusiasm for stromatolites (fossilized evidence for photosynthetic cyanobacteria that lived over 1.5 billion years ago).

Welcome to Movember-2025. I've been thinking about this year's campaign for over a month now. Again, I thought I'd share some photos from outdoor excursions where I try to recharge from the weekday routine. We usually try to seek out some colourful larches, and we found them on the last weekend of September, near upper Rowe Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park.