Having done most of Kane’s scrambles, I have come to expect rubble, but especially the south peak of Mt Burgess was one of the worst for ugly talus rubble. The mountain seemed to be held up by friction that would frequently break down unleashing piles of junk onto whatever or whoever happened to be below. Fortunately we all had helmets, but these do not prevent bruises to shins.

Batting mosquitoes, we walked up the steep, good Burgess trail from near Field by 8.30am initially in only +6c temperatures. Soon warmed up, we found the faint cairned side trail heading up an avalanche slope towards Burgess north without difficulty. This led up through a narrowing gully with abundant rubble to emerge near Mt Burgess north soon after 12 noon.

David on ridge to Mt Burgess north peak

Spider conquers moth

With negligible wind and in the sun with only a few mosquitoes, it was the perfect place to eat lunch, relax, and admire the views that were unfortunately marred by BC smoke. These included Mts Caernavon, Wapta, President, Stephen, Field to mention a few.


Emerald Lake and the Wapta from Burgess mountain

Mt Burgess north peak - lunch

After lunch, Zorica decided on a siesta rather than continuing to the south peak with the rest of us.


Descent from Mt Burgess north towards Mt Burgess south

Arnold had done this peak many years ago and after much discussion, we decided on his vaguely remembered route which followed an angled grey broken band from the basin to near the south summit. Not pretty, but it worked and did not contradict Kane’s vague description over some ugly terrain. We flagged the route for our return when we removed the flagging. Thanks to the safe cautious movement of all, we emerged onto the south summit by 3.00pm and took a long 45 minute break.

Mt Burgess South Summit

The damp register dated from 1990. With the very loose rock the descent was no quicker than the ascent as we split into two groups of 2 and 3 for safety reasons.


Descent from Mt Burgess South

Eventually we joined the relaxed Zorica a few hundred feet below the north summit at 4.30pm and promptly got lost. All the descent gullies looked alike. After some wandering, we climbed back up to near the north summit, identified our faint ascent trail and started down the correct gully. This circle walk pushed the total day’s elevation to over 1400m. We should have looked back more frequently during the morning’s ascent.

Thanks again to the whole group, we moved down together slowly but steadily through the loose rocky gully to emerge unscathed on the Park trail by 6.30pm. We arrived at the cars about 7.30pm and with a break to fill up at the busy PetroCan in Lake Louise, I was home about 10.30pm. A good long day with a great group of Arnold, Zorica, Jeannine, Gary and Susan. The views were great, but pity about the smoke. I won’t be repeating this one. The mosquitoes are out. C&s David.