Cirque Peak
Notes:
Completed when dry, avalanche slopes when snowy, but is a somewhat popular ski objective. A very straightforward ascent no matter how you do it. Staying on the ridge has a bit of fun, optional scrambling, but is mostly a slog on a very well traveled scree trail. It is possible to avoid basically all the scrambling via steep and loose scree trails, which is why this is rated as an easy scramble and not a hike. No route finding challenges and only some exposure near the summit and false summit on either route.
History/Background:
Cirque Peak is a somewhat uninteresting scree pile on the Icefields Parkway. It is situated across the highway from Bow Lake, but is nestled in behind Crystal Ridge, so it is somewhat mysterious until you see it from the Helen Lake Trail. Apparently the mountain forms a cirque, which why is why it is named accordingly. Who could've guessed. Interestingly, the first credited summit was by Reverend Harry P. Nichols’ and each of the surrounding lakes were named after significant women in his life. From the summit, many prominent peaks are visible, such as Willingdon and Recondite to the east, as well as the Wapta Icefield Peaks to the west. To the south lies Mount Hector, and slightly to its right, Mount Assiniboine, over 100 km away, can be seen on a clear day.
Access:
The access for this hike is the Helen Lake parking lot. It is approximately a 33 km (20 minutes) drive north on the Icefields Parkway and the pull out is on the right, opposite of the Crowfoot Glacier lookout, it is hard to miss. Total driving time from the Calgary city limits is about 2 hours. The trail to the Cirque Peak route is described in the "Lake Alice Via Helen Lake" report linked below.
Routes:
This route describes the ascent from the col with Helen Ridge. See the full hike from start to finish with the first and last part in "Lake Alice Via Helen Lake", linked below. However, you may not even need to read this, because it is a very straightforward hike. From the col, head left and up the ridge. Spray paint, cairns, and arrows guide you up some straightforward, but fun scrambling until you reach the boring scree. Walk up a very evident scree trail. The slope will steepen gradually over the next while, until you become a bit frightened of the tourists ahead knocking down rocks (it isn't really that steep though), once you reach the false summit block, either scramble up a class 2/3 step, or avoid it to the climber's right on a slightly exposed trail. Head to the true summit on a very straightforward trail, with barely any scrambling. Descend the same way. An alternate descent/ascent route on a dirt trail also exists on the east side of the first half of the ridge and is very evident. This avoids the easy scrambling on the first ridge, but is a very steep slog, hardly better in my opinion. Note that the route in the image is our exact route taken. The direct route described here turns left right at the col instead detouring around the tarn.
Cirque Peak was the first and by far the easiest peak on our two day Lake Alice trip. Its fantastic approach trail (spectacular views) and straightforward ascent (spectacular views as well) make it a very alluring day trip for many hikers, and rightly so. It also calls to the more experienced crowd because it is just such a perfect ascent. This is 100% a must do if you've ever hiked in the Rockies.
Now, straight to business. This report begins right at the point where we reached the Helen Ridge col, and describes the out and back (or loop I guess) Cirque Peak ascent. The trip report, route information, and other details of the approach can be found in our Lake Alice Via Helen Lake trip report.
Gazing up at our objective as we look for a spot to drop our backpacking packs. I was in love with the purple colours and really just the alpine scenery in general.
This photos really doesn't do it justice, but the alpine scenery was very nice.
Eventually, I found a nice spot to put my pack. My dad had other ideas for where he put his, but I wanted mine up on a rock and away from the chipmunks.
A nice reflection of Dolomite Peak over the unnamed tarn. We went around it to the right and up the scramble route (ridge) for Cirque.
This is why I wanted to choose the ridge. Views, scrambling, and avoiding a true slog. Great choice if you ask me.
An arrow and cairn indicate where to scramble up on this short step.
The views just get better and better the more elevation you gain.
The easy scree slopes of Cirque lie ahead. This is just after the first ridge scramble, now it's just walking.
Looking back from further up. A few more tarns come into sight, as well as Lake Katherine under Dolomite Peak. At the bottom right of the image, people can be seen coming up the alternate route.
Now the grade was getting a lot steeper. It's a bit of a grind and can be a bit loose/slippery in places.
Here is the optional and fun step to the false summit. Bypass is at climber's right on a good trail. I opted to just go straight up, possibly because I didn't see the other trail.
From the false summit, I immediately headed over to the true summit. There's a nice couloir leading down to the glacier. I though that Antoine would probably enjoy skiing this, although I'm not sure how you would get out of the area once you go down it.
Ah yes. An empty summit with a crowd at the false summit. I wonder why people don't push the extra 2 minutes that it takes to grab a summit...
Huh? Very interesting.
Summit selfie with our new friend Michael. We chatted with him for over an hour during our stay. It only felt like 30 minutes too!
Looking down at the glacier. Quite exposed on this side.
I guess Michael was visiting from Oregon and hitting a whole bunch of hikes and peaks in the area. Great to meet you man! There was a lot of back and forth about peaks and we told him all about some of the areas around the Rockies, although he seemed to already have a very solid trip itinerary. He also talked about the Cascade Volcanoes (Washington and Oregon) and I believe he said he climbed up all of them. That is on my list for sure, especially Rainier. Hopefully someday.
Obligatory pano. This one is looking north to Observation Peak and Charlie Peak, which we did the weekend prior.
Here's a link to our Observation Peak trip if you'd like to read up about it. It's not quite as good of a scramble as Cirque, but it has absolutely spectacular summit views.
Looking the other way. So many lakes!
The lakes are just so cool. Definitely worth another picture. Unfortunately Assiniboine didn't show itself this day.
Looking over to Watermelon Peak (R) and Bobac Mountain (L). They are the big and close massifs with flat tops. In the distance, the triple peak of Willingdon, Crown, and Tower is visible, as well as the distant and pointy Recondite at left.
As quickly as it started, our glorious summit stay was over. We still had more to do with a hike in to Lake Alice and a summit of Watermelon Peak. Plus we had to get in bed early for Bobac Mountain the following day. What a busy trip.
I then left Michael all alone on the summit of Cirque Peak. I'm sure he enjoyed it a tiny bit more without our endless blabbering.
I took the bypass route down since it was much quicker. Not sure why some lady was telling everyone to go up the crux and not this way...
On the way down the scree, we ran into a friend, Melissa, and chatted with her for a bit. She's the wife of one of the people that my mom works with. Again, it's funny the kind of people that you meet on the trail. Hopefully her group had a good one. It was certainly a beautiful ascent for a beautiful day.
We opted to descend on the scree trail to the left.
Well that was quick! This shows the very obvious but foreshortened scree trail. Many people choose to go up this way, but it is steep and unpleasant. I do have to say that the purple is cool though. Maybe they should've named this one Purple Peak instead? That probably woulda been a bit better.
Anyways, I got back, put sunscreen on and then we immediately got going. We had tons more yet to do. You can see our whole hiking trip here, as well as our ascents of Watermelon Peak and Bobac Mountain (all done on this same trip!).
As soon as we were done Cirque, I though about how enjoyable our morning had been. I could come back here again, maybe even a couple times, we'll see... I'd definitely like to bring my mom up to the lake and Helen Ridge though.
Now as I'm editing this, I'm very surprised by how short of a time we actually took to get up and down (moving time), like it was honestly not much more than an hour. We spent more than 1:10 hours at the summit, and stopped a bit to chat on the way down, which already carves a big chunk out of our 2.5 hour total. This peak was very quick and very very worth it. I really cannot recommend it enough. And don't get me started on the approach. Absolutely wonderful. If you're still reading this, you should definitely just get out and do it (but early so you can experience it without the hordes). You might even get a mirror reflection on Helen Lake like we did. And if you haven't read that report already, you really should. The first chunk should have all the info you need for the approach.