On Sunday, July 7, 2024, we ended up at the top of the col below the summit of Mount Burstall. We did not set out to climb Mount Burstall or even ascend the col.
Our original objective for the day was Mount Lawrence Grassi however as we hiked in, a nice man doing work in the area for TransAlta stopped to chat. He told us the trailhead was closed and there was no public access to the area. They were blasting and it wasn’t safe. We drove down the road to check if the Chester Lake trail was open. It was not. Strike Two.
The beautiful blue sky day was wasting away so we decided to just cross the road and hike Burstall Pass. Not a summit but at least we’d be out there among them. About 3 km in, we noticed a trail heading off to the left. We decided to check it out.
Beta:
- This is an out-and-back route, descending the same way as the ascent.
- Parking: Off Spray Lakes / Smith Dorrien Road there is a parking lot with trail kiosk, outhouse and garbage bin across from the Chester Lake parking.
- Elevation gain to the col: 765 meters
- Distance: about 10 km total to the top of the col and back
- Difficulty: Very steep hiking off-trail over snow, scree, and loose rocks
- Gear: we should have brought helmets. We heard rock fall from the upper slopes of Mount Burstall and would have needed helmets if we had decided to go any higher.
Permit Required
A Kananaskis Conservation Pass is required to park at the trailhead.
Helpful Apps
- AllTrails – Mount Burstall
- FATMAP
Books
- Scrambles In the Canadian Rockies by Alan Kane
Trip Report
We hiked for about three kilometers up the trail towards Burstall Pass when we saw this trail heading up to the left. There is a small pile of rocks marking it.
The trail through the forest was narrow but well defined.
It led to the bottom of an avalanche gully.
A lot of snow had come down. Small trees and other debris were mixed with the snow near the bottom.
It was pretty easy to walk up the avalanche debris. The snow was soft but we didn’t sink too deep.
We hiked up the avalanche debris into a bowl. The FATMAP app showed that the big mountain at the end of the bowl on the right is Mount Burstall. But we weren’t sure of the ascent route or the difficulty level. Our trusty copy of Kane’s book was left in the truck.
The col in the distance looked interesting and we decided to try climbing it. We hoped to get to the top and see the other side. We wondered if there was a good ascent route to the top of Mount Burstall.
From a distance, we tried to decide the best way to ascend the col. We thought maybe the gully on the far right was the least steep. When we started hearing rock fall, we changed our minds. We did not want to be below the rock face. Perhaps the gully on the left?
I remembered something I had read in a book about Alpine Climbing. It said something like beginners and novices often choose to ascend gullies instead of going out onto ridges and ribs because they are trying to avoid the steeper terrain. But the ridges and ribs often provide more solid footing and end up being easier to climb than gullies which can be full of loose rocks or scree.
That was certainly the case for us. We started up the gully on the left only to find that the ground was so soft, we slid down with every step, hardly gaining any height. We moved over to the rib that separated the gullies and had a much easier time.
The photo below shows the optimal route. The solid rock rib separates the left gully from the middle one, which is full of snow in this photo. The arrow points at the top of the rock rib.
Here is the view from the top of the col, looking at Mount Burstall. Still a lot of snow up there.
The large wind lip on the top of the col covered the summit trail which winds up through the green meadows in the distance and up the rock on the right side.
We hope to return sometime and climb to the summit. Maybe this year, maybe next.
Here is the view across the valley from the top of the col. It shows the avalanche debris that we came up.
We hiked around and below the wind lip, hoping to find a way down the other side of the col into the next valley. There is a trail there along French Creek that we hiked years ago.
There certainly is a lot of snow. We went one at a time and didn’t pause for long as we crossed beneath this beast.
We did not find a way down into the next valley. There were cliffs below us and no way around. We went back to the top of the col and descended the way we had come up.
We did not get a summit on this day but Dan still found a way to sign our “Dangela”.
It’s nice to live in a part of the world where you can find snow any month of the year.
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If you’ve climbed Mount Burstall and you have some advice for us on how best to go about it, please share your thoughts in the Comments box below.
Reach the peak!
Read about our other summits:
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