She’s Seven. She’s Climbed 22 Mountains In A Year. Sometimes She Wears A Princess Dress.

In August, Ellie Saba celebrated her seventh birthday the same way she has spent much of her childhood: standing on top of a mountain. This time, it was Boundary Peak, where she and her dad, Braiden McDowell, stopped for cake and presents at the summit. 

The trail, 8km with 901m of elevation gain, wasn’t any particular challenge for the duo, who’ve been hiking almost every weekend for the last three years. 

Two weeks later, they summited Mount Daly (29 km, 2166 metres of elevation), in a 16.5 hour day which ended with them walking in the dark for three hours. That was the longest day and the largest elevation gain for Ellie so far. 

Ellie regularly makes her way up trails with a length, elevation, or difficulty that would challenge many experienced adult hikers. Sometimes, she does it in a princess dress.

This summer, she’s summited Mount Bogart (19km, 1461m elevation), Elbow Hill (31km, 1300m elevation), Mount Galatea (17km, 1344m elevation, the tallest peak in the Kananaskis Range), and Snow Peak (21 km, 1120m elevation), amongst a number of other mountains. 

“People are always shocked every time to see her up there,” said McDowell, “But you just can’t carry a kid all the way up there, you know what I mean? She truly does it herself.”

He added, “Whenever people say, like, ‘how did you get up here?’ I just tell her to say, ‘I used my feet.’”

Ellie and McDowell, who live just outside of Calgary, discovered their love of hiking together. Their first trip was to Troll Falls in Kananaskis, when Ellie was just three years and nine months old. 

“I had never been hiking before, not purposely at least,” recalled McDowell, “I lived and worked in Canmore for three years. And it's funny looking back at it, I don’t even remember if I ever looked up.”

But ever since that first hike with Ellie, they’ve been out in the mountains together nearly every single week. Together, they’ve explored much of the Banff and Kananaskis areas, gradually increasing the physical and technical difficulty of the trails they attempt. 

“We just started off slow and worked our way up when we felt comfortable enough,” said McDowell.

They’ve turned around due to the technical difficulty of a trail only about five times, according to McDowell. “But we’ve never turned around because we’re tired or anything,” he said. “It’s always for safety.”

McDowell has three other daughters. One is not yet old enough to walk, while the other two occasionally join him and Ellie on hikes. Neither shares Ellie’s enthusiasm for the mountains, and McDowell doesn’t push them to come along.

“The other girls get scared” said McDowell. “Whereas Ellie is fearless. There’s no point pushing someone to do what they don’t want to do, especially if its dangerous.”

McDowell said that the physical challenge of taking a young child up difficult trails is less significant than the mental challenge. He considers it essential to already have a good relationship and strong communication between parent and child before attempting anything difficult or dangerous. 

“You can’t go out there and have your kid not listen to you,” said McDowell. “I know that sounds crazy to say, because kids obviously don’t listen. But that’s another reason why I don’t take my other kids with me. I know if it came down to it, they would probably make a mistake in that moment. And I just never felt that with Ellie.”

 Ellie and McDowell regularly post their adventures on Instagram (@bandehiking) and in the Wild Canadian Rocky Mountain Hikers Facebook group, accumulating a modest but enthusiastic online following. 

Earlier this summer, Ellie and McDowell set out to complete the 40-kilometre Elbow Loop. About 45 minutes before reaching Tombstone Lakes, Ellie slipped while crossing a creek and broke her arm. McDowell called for help within about 10 minutes. A helicopter crew flew them out, sparing Ellie a long hike back to the trailhead. When they landed, the pilot recognized Ellie from the pair’s hiking posts and greeted her by name.

Ellie was back hiking within a month. 

In 2025, Ellie went hiking 54 times, summited 22 new mountains, and traversed 756 kilometres of trail with 53 456 metres of elevation gain, the equivalent of walking from sea level to the top of Everest six times. She said that her favourite hike is the Wedge, a classic scramble and ridge walk in Kananaskis which they complete every year. 

Ellie and McDowell don’t have any particular goal or checklist in mind when they choose their hikes, simply going wherever their fancy strikes them. 

Next year, however, McDowell says they might start working on the “11 000er challenge,” a list of 58 peaks in the Canadian Rockies that are 11 000 feet or taller, in the hope that Ellie might eventually become the youngest person to complete it. The current record holder completed the challenge at age 26, which Bow Valley Insider reported.

While he considers that a potential objective he might complete over the course of Ellie’s childhood, the main priority is simply to enjoy themselves.

“She’s definitely unique, but she’s not the only kid in the world that does this kind of stuff,” said McDowell. “I think a lot of kids actually could, it’s just the parents don’t want to or can’t.”