Date: August 13, 2023
Location: Fernie, British Columbia, Canada
Total Trip Distance: 10.88 mi / 17.5 km Total Elevation Gain: 4,160 ft / 1,268 m
Trip Duration: 6 hours 40 min
Team: With Alex Catalfamo
Field Notes: It seems it is up for debate whether this is the true summit of Mount Fernie. Many maps have the summit on a smaller peak on the ridge, google maps/earth have the summit at the tallest peak on the ridge. This route takes one to the tallest peak and it is a worthy objective with steep, easy class 2 scrambling. There is no water on route. Large parties may want helmets.
Rating: Class 2
The True Summit of Mount Fernie
Whether or not this is the actual summit remains a mystery. After hiking the Mount Fernie Ridge trail multiple times this summer, Alex and I began to talk about where the true summit actually is. The town tourism website of Fernie shares the details of the hike that "leads to the summit," but in fact is only a hike to a viewpoint on a ridge. I remember one instance where we hiked to this viewpoint and met some locals. When we asked them where the true summit was they looked at us as if we were speaking a foreign language. Continuing with our research, the maps indicate the summit is further along the ridge, requiring an additional scramble (as you can see on the route photo above). However, when searching on google earth, the summit is actually located at the highest point on the ridge (typical of summits), which is where we climbed to.
We decided that we would climb to the true summit, regardless of what the maps say, and reach the highest point on the ridge. Independent of what is actually the true summit, we didn't care. We found the tallest peak to be beautiful and figured not many make the trip.
Approach
This is the second day in a row we found ourselves back at Island Lake Lodge having hiked Mount Baldy the day prior. No doubt this is a great zone and one can only imagine the ski potential here in winter. We started down the road for a bit and then turned left onto the Tamarack trail. I always love the wooded approach before going to climb a peak. Even better was that it was old growth forest - simply magical.
The trail began to make it's way up out of the valley at a very gradual pace. Before we knew it, we had easily ascended 1,900 feet and were at the top of the ridge. To our left was the Tamarack summit viewpoint (which we would save for the end of the day), while the trail turned into the Heiko / Mountain Lakes trail. We had some water and continued on.
Within another fifteen minutes of walking we got a view of our objective for the day. True Mount Fernie is a beautiful peak and we were excited to make the ascent. The forecast for the day was supposed to be hot, but the temperature was quite nice and we appreciated that. We continued on until we reached the scree gully that I had marked as our ascent route for the climb. It took us two hours to reach this point from the parking lot.
Ascent of True Mount Fernie
We had a quick bite to eat and assessed our route. There was a bit of unknown. The scree gully climbs straight up and then turns to the climbers right, going out of sight. Just a minute before reaching this spot on the trail, another potential ascent route gets cliffed out. I wasn't overly concerned because if we really needed to, we could retrace our steps on the trail and bush bash to meet the summit ridge. We figured we would be okay and made our way straight up the gully.
After a couple hundred feet of climbing, the gully wraps the climbers right. I got a view of what lay ahead and we were golden. At this point, there are two options to reach the second, main scree gully that will take you to the summit ridge. Option one is to stay in the gully and keep climbing another fifty feet or so (gets slightly steeper here). Option two is take a hard climbers right into the brush where you will meet the main gully. Option two made for better travel so we did this.
Once in the main gully we powered straight up. It's a classic, steep scree gully. Here, larger parties may want a helmet purely because of other climbers kicking rocks down from above. We climbed in the gully until the final two hundred feet or so, where the gully moves ever so slightly to the climbers left. We avoided this and moved climbers right, finding easier travel through the brush.
Once at the col leading to the summit ridge, we took a breath and enjoyed the surroundings. There were excellent views in all directions. We high-fived and were fired up to be here. The final four-hundred feet to the summit was straightforward with a short section of ridge climbing. It's a very short section of ridge with big drop offs on either side - a fall here would be very bad. With that said, it's nothing more than a walk.
We wondered if there would be a summit register and / or a cairn on top. Believe it or not - there was both. Funny enough there was only one entry in the summit register - signed just two weeks ago! The entry said something to the effect of, "no matter what the maps say, this is it, the highest point."
The views from the summit were simply awesome. Three Sisters, Proctor, Hosmer, the Crowsnest Range, Fisher Peak, The Lizard Range, it was all there. While Alex signed the summit register I ate a PBJ and took in the views. My favorite peaks have always been the obscure ones. I'm not sure why, maybe it's just an extra feeling of adventure or the unknown. I also love scouting out a peak and using my route finding skills to find the best way to the summit.
Once we had our fill at the top, we made our way back down using the same route. The scree gully was particularly shitty, but fortunately one makes quick work of it. On our way back to the trailhead we were both feeling great, so we climbed the short two-hundred feet to the Tamarack summit. We watched as a fire unfolded in Sparwood, the smoke traveling over the Lizard Range.
The day ended with a burger, fries, and our ritual plunge in the Elk River.
Happy days...
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