Mount Bourgeau

Mount Bourgeau is one of Banff's premier hikes. It's a long trail but not terribly difficult. The trailhead is clearly marked with plenty of parking. Expect to spend at least 7 hours on trail. 


We made our trip up Mount Bourgeau into a big group hike, dragging along a couple friends that hadn't been on a mountain in years. We arrived at the parking lot bright and early and started our day. The trail starts as a nice wide path through the forest and climbs gradually as it heads straight up the valley. 

The first treat along the hike are the falls on Wolverine Creek. The creek crossing is kind of interesting. It's a wide enough creek that it would normally warrant a bridge but in this case there were a few large mounds of rocks held together by chicken wire that acted as good stepping stones across the river. Sort of like the type you would normally see acting an pillars for a bridge to rest on. An interesting choice but it works and looks relatively natural from a distance so it's not a terrible one.


After crossing Wolverine Creek, the trail started to climb through a series of switch backs but those quickly give way to Bourgeau Lake. The lake is generally unremarkable except for its setting at the base of the huge cliffs along the side of Mount Bourgeau. A lot of route guides only go as far as the lake and it's a real shame as the scenery of the lake is nothing compared to what lies ahead. 


We made our way along the trail on the right-hand side of the lake. Here the trail is at its steepest but the section is short. We encountered several snow patches that had to be traversed. At the top of the slope the valley narrows to give way to a large cirque with a few tarns. We made our way around the first tarn. There's a nice outcropping at above the first tarn that is a popular place to stay for lunch but we opted to push on a little further to the lake in Harvey Col for our lunch. From Harvey Pass you're granted your first view of Mount Assiniboine. The lake in the pass isn't spectacular but there are plenty of places to get out of the wind if there is some. 


From Harvey Pass you can almost see the summit of Mount Bourgeau and the route up is nice and clear. It's a long sustained ridge to the summit but the rock is good with very little "treadmill" scree. We set a steady pace and made it to the summit in about an hour. 

When we did the hike in mid-July there were still plenty of large snow cornices along the ridge. Stay well back from them. We witnessed one fall late in the day and the fracture line was well back from the edge. Anyone standing on it would likely have been catapulted into the air and from there it would be pure luck whether or not you landed back on the ridge or would find yourself in free fall down the face of the mountain. 


The summit is marred by an ugly weather station but the views are impressive enough that you won't care. You'll have a great view of Mount Assiniboine dominating every peak around it to the south beyond the slopes of Sunshine Village. To the north you should be able to see Mount Temple and the peaks around Lake Louise. The town of  Banff is clear well below to the east and to the west are countless peaks begging to be summited. 


The descent is straight forward and goes quickly. I was suffering from a knee injury at the time and the descent down the ridge was the worst part of the return. However once returning to Harvey Pass and beyond I was able to move very quickly without any difficulties. The steep slopes between the tarns and Bourgeau Lake offer plenty of good scree to aid in a rapid descent. 

On our way out below Bourgeau Lake we encountered a few people in groups of two or three all completely inadequately prepared for hiking. By this time the sun was setting but they were determined to press on to the lake despite having only the clothes on their back (inappropriate cotton) and a 500ml bottle of water between them. I can't help but shake my head at those people that venture into the back country without proper respect. On a trail that busy and that well groomed I'm sure they'll be fine 99 times out of a hundred and that that one time something does go wrong there will be plenty of people to help them. But they don't get how easily something can go wrong and then how quickly things can spiral from there. I probably go too far towards the side of being prepared but someone has to. 

We returned to the car about 10 hours after we started our hike. Mount Bourgeau makes for a long day. We likely could have completed the hike a couple hours quicker but we had a couple rookie hikers in the group and one individual had some boot problems that required attention multiple times. Our rest breaks and summit time were far longer than they needed to be as well. Plus hiking in such a large group always seems to slow things down. I prefer groups of four or less. Six is okay if you know what you're doing. But seven plus becomes an ordeal and I felt like I was spending as much time herding as I do enjoying nature. 


Mount Bourgeau is a great long hike that everyone should do at least once. You won't regret it but you'll probably hurt from it.