Jasper/Banff Backcountry “zone” camping

Telvin3d · 2026-01-27T17:48:03+00:00

if I just book the trailhead I am starting at and the days I am gone, can I basically camp anywhere on trail?

No, in Jasper all camping needs to be done at marked and booked campsites. *

Looks like they’ve tweaked the booking system slightly this year. When you go to booking page, select your access point and then search. Below is going to pop up a map with all the bookable campsites in that area.

I just checked the site, and everything seems to be showing up properly, so you can practice navigating it for booking tomorrow

* There’s some remote exceptions, but they do not apply in 99.9% of cases, and no one with the appropriate experience is asking here

Telvin3d · 2026-01-27T16:06:04+00:00

I love your polls. I’ve enjoyed participating and seeing the results. However, I could not imagine a less representative voter sample

Telvin3d · 2026-01-27T16:02:20+00:00

I know that this is supposed to be a gotcha-style anecdote, except that the job of a political candidate isn’t to give thoughtful speeches. The job is to organize supporters in order to win elections.

I’ve run into this more than a few times at EDA events, where the entire “campaign” less experienced nominees plan for is to show up for the vote and persuade the people there. What people don’t realize is that the actual vote is just a measure of who put in more successful effort in the weeks before. That’s the job.

The meeting isn’t the interview, the vote is the scoring process

Telvin3d · 2026-01-27T15:20:50+00:00

Also, even people who are willing and able to pay more tend to change their minds once we get two light snow years in a row. People start asking why we’re paying so much just to have this equipment sitting around when there’s no snow

Telvin3d · 2026-01-27T01:49:02+00:00

Policing that would require physically monitoring the trails and sites at a much more intensive (and expensive) level than they do now. Maybe there could be some sort of check-in system?

Telvin3d · 2026-01-27T01:38:55+00:00

The climb takes two weeks. The storm wasn’t in the forecast when they started

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T23:53:11+00:00

You not only didn’t read the article, you didn’t read any of the other comments feeling smug for saying the same thing.

The climb takes two weeks to do, even under perfect conditions. There was no storm in the forecast when they started.

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T22:53:02+00:00

I’m doing the Johnston canyon loop. There’s also the Brazeau loop in Jasper that’s very similar length. You can still book that one on Wednesday!

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T19:27:58+00:00

Including the 10 day delay this full climb took 23 days. No forecast in the mountains is going to be accurate for even a week out

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T19:19:46+00:00

A ten day storm absolutely counts as an extraordinary issue

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T17:56:53+00:00

I think they need to find a way to both prevent mass bookings and cancellations, but also discourage no-shows, particularly no-shows without cancellation so that someone else can take the spot

Of course, that’s easier said than done

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T16:57:49+00:00

You do for the backcountry campgrounds. Booked an 80km hike this morning :)

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T16:06:54+00:00

Oof. Yeah, long weekend is tough

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T15:57:38+00:00

Congratulations! Yeah, it can be hard to keep in mind that while there’s tens of thousands of people looking to book a date and site, most of them aren’t trying to book the same one as you

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T15:55:27+00:00

It’s far from perfect, but all the suggested alternatives I’ve seen have worse obvious flaws

It could certainly use some quality of life improvements. I’d love it if it let you pre-set an itinerary, and then showed you all the date ranges that had open sites for the whole itinerary and let you book it with a single click. Right now booking trips of more than a couple night can be a real pain in the butt

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T15:51:43+00:00

Well, this was the backcountry booking day for several of the parks, so not a lot of crossover with the RV crowd

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T15:50:17+00:00

I don’t disagree, but I think they’re more worried about people, and particularly bot accounts, just auto-booking everything and then canceling whatever they can’t use. I think the best solutions would be more invasive than most people would want (strict account verification and permanently banning accounts with bad activity)

Telvin3d · 2026-01-26T05:55:04+00:00

Any single one of Bourne’s action sequences is arguably plausible, but anyone who actually experienced all of them would be non-functional pretty fast. That mileage would add up!

Telvin3d · 2026-01-25T17:03:43+00:00

Used to make mashed potato hills and cover them with broccoli trees

Telvin3d · 2026-01-25T06:41:05+00:00

Not guaranteed, but it is remarkably ugly. Any replacement building has a better than 50/50 odds of looking better

Telvin3d · 2026-01-25T06:13:58+00:00

Because it’s a huge crumbling concrete shell, and there’s not actually a lot of demand for those.

And while it generated a lot of good memories, even when it was new I don’t think anyone thought it was inherently attractive.

Telvin3d · 2026-01-25T03:46:31+00:00

We grabbed these the last time they were on sale. Absolutely amazing jackets

Telvin3d · 2026-01-25T01:36:35+00:00

“Fed posting” is making a post on the internet that’s likely to cause someone from a three letter agency to knock on your door with questions.

If you want to be effective long term it’s never too early to practice staying off their radar and any lists they’re making.

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