Navigate Site:  

Fossil Mountain

Home » Mountains » Banff National Park
Published by vdewit on April 29th, 2009
Trip Details
Trip Activity: 
Scramble
Attained Summit?: 
Yes
Location: 
Banff National Park
Trip Date: 
September 6, 2005
Summit Elevation: 
2,946m
Summit Elevation (ft): 
9,665ft
Related Content
Interesting Facts: 
(info from peakfinder.com) Named in 1906. The mountain's slopes contain numerous fossils. Official name. First ascended in 1906 by Topographic SurveyJournal reference CAJ 4-112, 20-144.  
Related Trips: 
Oyster Peak
Skoki Mountain

Trip Report

After bagging Skoki Mountain it was time to go after our last objective for the day, namely Fossil Mountain. Be the end of day on Wednesday, September 6 2005 we had circled completely around Fossil Mountain, traversing Oyster Peak, climbing Skoki Mountain and then finally summitting Fossil herself. Not a bad day in the hills I would say!

Making our way up to Deception Pass from Skoki Lodge was actually quite a climb! We knew that we would be ascending about 200 meters but it was still more effort than we had counted on. Eventually we could see the pass and Jon and I cut off to the lower slopes of Fossil while Rod made his way to our camp at Baker Lake.

Jon and I were both starting to feel the effects of climbing well over 20,000 feet in the past 5 days (we had done Hawkins Horseshoe on September 3rd) and we really dragged our butts up Fossil! This is not a hard mountain to scramble and was one of my least favorites in the Skoki area. That may be partly due to how tired I was feeling, I don't know. There were no technical bits of climbing, only an endless plod up scree to finally top out to another gorgeous Skoki panorama of summits that were becoming very familiar after only a few days! Now we could spot all the landmarks and the summits we had attained and just thinking about all the effort was tiring!

On our way back to camp we discussed how early we would have to pack up camp in order to get our last 'Kane summit' in Skoki - Redoubt Mountain...

Vern and Rod make their way up to Deception Pass. (Jon Pic)
Vern and Rod make their way up to Deception Pass. (Jon Pic)
A view back down into Skoki Valley from the ascent slopes east of Deception Pass.
A view back down into Skoki Valley from the ascent slopes east of Deception Pass.
Brachiopod from the ascent slopes of Fossil.
Brachiopod from the ascent slopes of Fossil.
Jon scrambles up the lower scree slopes of Fossil.
Jon scrambles up the lower scree slopes of Fossil.
The entire traverse of Oyster with Mount Douglas towering above from the summit of Fossil Mountain. (Jon Pic)
The entire traverse of Oyster with Mount Douglas towering above from the summit of Fossil Mountain. (Jon Pic)
Brachiopod and Anthozoan from the summit of Fossil. (Jon Pic)
Brachiopod and Anthozoan from the summit of Fossil. (Jon Pic)
Vern fills out yet another summit register! (Jon Pic)
Vern fills out yet another summit register! (Jon Pic)
A memorial at the summit of Fossil. (Jon Pic)
A memorial at the summit of Fossil. (Jon Pic)
Jon at the summit.
Jon at the summit.