Fisher Peak (Kananaskis)

Summit Elevation (m): 3053
Trip Date: Saturday, September 2, 2006
Elevation Gain (m): 1570
Round Trip Time (hr): 10.5
Total Trip Distance (km): 28
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 4 – you fall, you break something or worse
Difficulty Notes: Climber’s scramble on low 5th class, loose terrain. People have fallen to their death on this mountain so treat it seriously.
Technical Rating: SC7; YDS (4th)
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps
Photos: View Album

On Saturday, September 02 2006, Raf, Jason and I set out to climb Fisher Peak in the front ranges of Kananaskis Country. The weather was fantastic and the day was grueling – as expected of a 30 km day with over a mile of height gain on difficult terrain! Appropriately for a difficult mountain there was a great feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day and Fisher Peak will remain near the top of my scrambles because of its difficulty and remoteness. Our round trip time was just over 10 hours. Now for the details. Let’s get something out of the way right off the bat. Fisher Peak is not for the faint of heart. This is one long and tough day out – but it’s also a very rewarding one. We were only the fifth party to make the summit this year and in the past 8 years only a handful have braved the slog to record their names in the register. I noticed that not even the Alberta Centennial register debacle influenced this peak. Thank goodness…

The bike ride can be described in one word. ROUGH. Horses can really bugger up a trail and this horse route has not escaped that fate. The few smooth sections are very welcome but mostly you are on bone-jarring, wheel loosening / popping rubble. Stones the size of footballs and baseballs conspire to throw you off line and if you’re not looking ahead you can end up in thick mud-bogs which could end up stealing your granny gear – right Jason? Over roughly 9km (pun intended) you gain 500m and lose about 100 more. We followed Bill Kerr’s excellent suggestions on this trip. Bill was even kind enough to give me his GPS way points. We used Bill’s start point which is slightly further than either Gillean Daffern’s or Kane’s suggestions (hence a 9km approach). After the last stream crossing we went up a long hill and stashed the bikes at the top of the next long hill down.

We headed up through the steep forest, angling climber’s right to try to hit the pinnacle that Bill mentioned on his site. We actually ended up right on the pinnacle, after climbing a ridge that turned from steep grass to rough plate-sized shale. We didn’t really know we were right on top of the pinnacle until Jason uttered an “oh no”! We peered down the nose of the pinnacle and realized that Bill’s route split off to climber’s right about 300 meters back down the slope. We could have back tracked but that would be a waste of time, not? Instead we decided that we’d warm up for the crux down climb and started down the loose rubble on the nose of the pinnacle. We think everyone should go up via this route. If you look at it and turn back because it’s too steep / exposed you will not down climb the crux and you should not bother with the 500 meters elevation gain just to turn back again.

After that bit of fun we had a nice scree slog to look forward to! Oh well. It ended (sort of) once we finally hit the ridge. By the time we hit the ridge we were a good 100-200 vertical meters above the large plateau that Kane’s route goes over and about 1km further up the ridge. I found the ridge to be fun but long. The view is very foreshortened and every time you think you’re at the crux or the summit you still have plenty to go. As we leaned over and peered down the crux I thought back to Bill’s words of advice. He suggested that instead of going down to skier’s right on tricky ledges, we go straight down the very exposed / steep nose on firmer terrain. I didn’t want to think about things too long and headed down straight over the nose! The first few moves were very exposed and a slip was not optional. I never actually felt that concerned about it but this is certainly a difficult and exposed crux and probably deserves some respect.

The line I picked went straight over the nose of the crux and then angled down to my (skier) left, or north. Once I reached a nasty looking, over hanging section I went back across the nose to the south, under an overhang. That overhang is just to climber’s right of the crux pictured in the front of Kane’s book. Jason actually came down right of that crux over some very steep (i.e. cliff) terrain. I really enjoyed the climbing down the crux and found it challenging and fun. There were a few loose rocks that kept things interesting but we all made it down safely and could now concentrate on the summit right? WRONG.

The most surprising thing about Fisher Peak is that there is more than one crux down climb. We had already done two and would do another two or three on the way to the summit. The weather was absolutely perfect and we were having a grand time but the summit really took a long time to show up. There was even a short, exposed ridge that reminded us of the cockscomb on Crandell. The only fatality recorded on Fisher was the result of sliding down slabs and losing control. At first I couldn’t figure out where this accident could have happened but after climbing a few steep, slabby sections I had it figured out. Wet, snowy or icy conditions would make the crux dangerous and the slabs almost impossible to climb or down climb safely.

Finally we made the summit and enjoyed fantastic views in every direction. It was nice to have unimpeded views for once. I guess the last bout of wet weather must have damped the forest fires in Washington that had been ruining Rockies views for the past few weeks. After a leisurely 45 minutes at the summit we headed back down.

The best thing about Fisher Peak that I have never experienced before is that all the difficult down climbing is done on ascent and so all the fun up-climbing gets to be done on the descent. We even re-climbed the dirt pinnacle off the ridge on the way down – just for fun!

The bike ride back to the parking lot was fast and furious with Jason setting a crazy pace. I’m still not sure how I survived but I obviously did. Overall this was an awesome scramble with lots of challenging route finding and a feeling of remoteness. A worthy peak for anyone’s list but not one that I’d recommend doing until you’re comfortable with exposed down climbing and long days in the hills.