Brewster Peak (Unnamed GR NE of Mount Howard Douglas)
Completed in dry conditions, unadvisable with snow. This peak has never been documented, nor is there a documented scrambling route until now (from what my thorough research provided). Route finding is absolutely necessary on this peak, do not just rely on my GPS map. Our route attempt was successful and almost the entire thing was on YDS II terrain. However, throughout the trip, we did choose a few 3rd class sections to scramble, even though they are all avoidable on easier terrain (but you need to be seriously good at route finding, that’s why I put this as third, because chances are you’ll run into it). I would consider this to be a moderate scramble according to Alan Kane’s method of grading.
Unnamed and under the radar, this peak is tucked in just south of the Sunshine Road and east of the Sunshine Ski Resort. It is a good looking, slabby peak and is clearly visible from Highway 1 on the straight section that passes by Banff, as well as for much of the Sunshine Road. Being so close to the road and so visible makes it surprising that there are no documented ascents, although in the shadow of the Sunshine Ski Resort and Mount Bourgeau, it could be seen why this lower peak is overlooked. Before completing the ascent, Antoine and I were doubtful that it even had any recorded ascents whatsoever, even his obscure climbing and scrambling books said nothing about it (and they have everything), but since we saw a cairn at its summit, we know that we weren’t the first humans to venture up there. While relaxing at the summit, Antoine and I decided to nickname the peak Brewster Peak, since it sits directly above Brewster Creek.
Park in the ditch or in a pull out approximately 5.3km (5 minutes) in on the Sunshine Road from the bridge that crosses Highway 1. The pull out should be on the left side of the road. And while I can’t guarantee that parking is legal in this spot, there was nothing saying that it wasn't, so that's just something to be aware of. The parking area is about a 1:15 hour drive from the Calgary city limits.
From the pull out, look for a small trail leading into the bush and down to the creek. An extremely steep and slippery trail descends to the creek, which may have to be forded in early season or crossed by hopping rocks late in the season. From here, get above the creek bed and struggle up (and to the left) through bush for roughly 50m, before the avalanche gully slowly opens up and you begin on rubble. Ascend the entirety of the avalanche gully by rock hopping and scrambling or on a small trail on its left side. Once the gully widens, trend right on moss and dirt ledges. At this point, you should notice that you are on a massive upsloping ledge that continues up and to the climber’s right. Follow this expansive “ledge” until you can see around the ridge to your right. Then, find your way up rock bands, scree, moss, and boulders, heading up. Once on the next upsloping ledge, head right and up. Eventually, you will top out on a somewhat flat section of the ledge that you followed up. You should see a large cairns up here unless the wind knocked it down. For the next part, you will descend into the bowl ahead via the easy ledge that you are on. Once you enter the bowl, gain some elevation and then route find through scree and slab and traverse until you reach a more prominent ridge, ascend this ridge until the cliff above, then traverse a bit further right and scramble up a gully. Once you reach the ridge, follow it to the summit, avoiding difficulties on scree and easier scrambling on either side as necessary. From the summit, descend the exact same way that you came up (a GPS track from your way up or careful noting of landmarks is helpful). Something to note is that a possible alternate route could begin directly from the bottom of the north ridge, but I cannot advise on its difficulty or any details of the route. Note that our Gaia GPS track is far from accurate and only for visual reference.
Antoine and I had been wanting to get out for a scramble for a little while and we were really considering doing Big Sister, but Antoine had a better idea. Since he goes skiing a lot at Sunshine, he has always wondered about this one slabby and good looking peak that you can see from the road. He knew someone that had skied a part of the slab, but likely didn’t bother going up to the summit. When Antoine told me about this potentially unclimbed summit, I was intrigued to say the least. We quickly changed plans and did research to scout out the route with satellite, topo, pictures of it from the summit of Bourgeau, and Antoine’s memory of what the mountain looks like. Throughout this time, we also attempted to find a written record of the peak or an ascent, unsuccessfully. Armed with two potential routes, we decided to tackle the beast and see if we could claim a first ascent.
As soon as we saw the peak from Highway 1, I noted that it looked a lot harder than the satellite map had shown, but our two routes still looked doable. As we got closer and examined the ridges, we decided that we were going to opt out of the bushwalking (treed) ridge, which left the option of the slabby ridge with a bypass. We drove further up the road to get a good look with our binoculars at what we would be dealing with on the north and northeast face and they looked promising, with lots of scree (this is a good sign, because it means it’s not that steep). We eventually decided to head up the obvious avalanche gully and then make our way up and around the face to the ridge. We chose this route because we had seen that there were potentially huge obstacles on the north ridge, otherwise we would’ve picked that way. In hindsight, I think that the north ridge would’ve been possible, but we’re still not sure.
Our objective (center) looks daunting from Highway 1.
Our parking spot and the obvious avalanche gully we would be ascending. X marks the spot that you should be aiming for.
We set off at 8:30 am and immediately began down the horribly slippery and steep trail leading to Healy creek. I even had to get my poles out it was so steep. On the return, we joked that this trail was the crux of the entire trip (it wasn’t really), but it was damn slippery so be prepared.
I took off my boots and walked across Healy Creek. Antoine jumped across some slippery rocks, which I wasn’t interested in.
After bushwalking for a surprisingly short amount of time, we began up the long avalanche gully that steepened over time. There was sort of a trail at climber's left, which Antoine took, but I stayed in the gully and scrambled up minor slab steps further up.
Once the gully widened, we trended right and up, aiming to stay on the huge scree ledge that we were on. This stuff was kinda nasty and some of the giant boulders were super duper loose.
The whole route is visible from the avalanche gully. Make sure you get on the ledge that we are on.
The back of Eagle Mountain looks magnificent in the morning sun. From this point, we continued scrambling up and towards Eagle Mountain to have a look over the ridge that was blocking our view of the rest of the face. Once we got over there, we switched back and scrambled straight up slab and ledges to get to another scree ledge.
I know it's not very visible, but the gully below the picture is not the one you want to descend on return.
Once we got to this part, we aimed up and to the climber’s right above the small cliff band which was easy to scramble up, although you have to find a good spot.
We got so extremely lucky that the ledge that we chose was the correct one. It is the only big break in the cliff band visible at left. We built a huge cairn so we could find our way back (it wasn’t really needed though since this part is quite obvious. From here, we followed the obvious trend of the day which is to traverse and ascend the giant bowl ahead. Also, the bowl looks big but really isn’t, it took probably no more than 15 minutes to cross. We dropped down, then ascended the grassy section and traversed on a scree ledge at the top of the photo.
Looking back at our perfect choice of ledge.
Looking back at the ledge and the bowl we traversed. From here, we ascended straight to the summit ridge.
Slightly to the climber’s right of the small ridge we ascended, we found this gully which we took to top out on the summit ridge.
We finally topped out on the summit ridge. Things would be more straightforward from here. We followed it the whole way up, avoiding obstacles to either side or scrambling directly up them. The summit is a fair way away, but the terrain is quick.
Closer now. We were almost certain that we’d be able to make it.
Third class scrambling on the ridge is all avoidable.
The terrain looks tough, but as a general rule on this mountain, it was all easier than it looks.
Such a beautiful and very, very rarely seen view of Eagle Mountain (right) and Mount Howard Douglas (left).
Where we had to turn around due to the technical difficulty of the ascent. We were just within reach of the summit, but unfortunately didn’t make it (just kidding). It was just a walk from this point on. We joked that they could put a Walmart up on the flat spot ahead and they honestly probably could. It might be the smallest Walmart location, but it would have a great view. The only problem would be that they wouldn’t have any customers…
Walking on the land of the future Walmart.
Summit time! Unfortunately, we were not the first people up here, although that was definitely not completely unexpected. With this peak being so close to the road and surprisingly so easy, there were bound to have been people coming up here, even if there is no record of it online.
Beautiful rock formations to the southwest. Again, I don’t think many people have gotten the chance to see any of this.
Summit pano. There was sadly a lot of smoke on this day, but we could just make out Mount Ball at center, between Eagle Mountain (left of center) and Mount Bourgeau (right of center).
Looking over the Brewster Creek valley to the Sundance Range, which is partially obscured by the smoke. Apparently it actually has several unclimbed peaks. Maybe we can claim a true first ascent over there.
Looking down the length of the ridge that we ascended. The Walmart platform at left, with Little Bourgeau above it.
We spent a bit of time at the summit, happy with our 2.5 hour ascent. As we sat at the top, looking down at Brewster Creek, Antoine came up with the “genius” name of Brewster Peak. It was fitting, so hopefully it’ll stick. I like mountains having names, especially since you can see this one from the Highway and it’s actually fairly prominent. And don’t worry, we checked, and there’s no other Brewster Peaks around (although there is a Mount Brewster over in the Vermillion Range and a Brewster Rock in the Sunshine area, but technically that’s not exactly the same), so the name was up for grabs. We sat and I inhaled some pizza, but unfortunately there was a swarm of flies on the summit cairn that soon migrated over to us, and Antoine got very frustrated with them, so we cut our stay a bit short and headed down.
Going down the interesting looking ridge. We bypassed most of the steps that we scrambled up on the ascent.
Antoine on the ridge.
Skipping some ridge sections on a faint trail.
Approaching the descent gully.
The gully is at left. Another possible scree traverse bypass lies right.
From this point, I retraced my ascent route by going straight down and then traversing the bowl, while Antoine just went straight over to the bowl. Both were viable options, with nothing worse than some short YDS III slab in the whole area.
After getting back to the ledge, I got this beautiful shot of Antoine and our cairn.
Looking back at the expanse of the bowl. It’s not as big as it seems.
Continuing down. Don’t get lured off to the left.
Straightforward scree, slab, boulders, and grass from here. We probably dislodged about three or four massive boulders in this section that tumbled all the way down the mountain. We were thankful that no one ever comes up here.
We welcomed the cold creek crossing after a quad burning descent. The “real crux” of the route lies ahead. That horribly slippery path. Jeez, I still get flashbacks of trying to get down that thing.
Sure we weren’t the first ascent, but we damn well felt like we were. The entire trip had been up to us and we created a route from bottom to top. We did get a bit lucky with our ledge choices, but I like to call that skill. This trip was super fun, but that was mostly because of the actual exploring in uncharted waters. As for the actual scramble, the views of the back of the Sunshine Mountains are phenomenal, and the ridge scrambling is fun, but the majority of the trip is one loose scree/boulder fest, so I couldn’t in good conscience recommend it for the terrain. However, if you, like Antoine, have been wondering what it would be like to summit it, go up and give it a shot, it should be fun. And if you do, maybe try out the ridge ascent for the whole way and let me know how it is. I can’t recommend it since I haven’t done it, but it looked easy enough and more fun than what we did, so if you’re into adventuring, I’d give it a shot. Anyways, since we didn’t get an unclimbed peak, I’ll be searching for one that is attainable and I’ll eventually bag one. Otherwise, as usual, another great day out in the mountains.