CR2011: On to Burstall Pass

It was a perfect day to hike to Burstall Pass. The day was sunny, and we had three days of training under our belts with which to tackle the 9½ mile round trip.

The first two miles are mildly interesting when you are fresh, but can be boring and seemingly endless on your way back. The way starts out on an old logging road, with glimpses of the Burstall Lakes on your right through the trees.

The road gradually narrows to a trail, and after 1¾ miles mountain bikes are not allowed further. We have, however, seen tire tracks revealing that this regulation is not always observed. At 2¼ miles you reach the meadow of gravel and shrubbery fed by outwash from the Robertson Glacier.

The meadow is woven with small streams that must be crossed. There are several approaches to this: to wade, perhaps switching to sandals first, to jump, or to walk across on small logs, if available. We had brought our Tevas but hoped not to use them.

The route is marked by signs, as no trail survives the annual rerouting of the streams in spring flood.

From the midpoint looking south distant Mount Robertson (10,480') and the glacier stand out on the skyline.

Chris, one of the innkeepers at Engadine, had warned us that the west end of the meadow had a pool in front of the trail, but that there was a way around it beating through the bushes to the left. He was right.

Push through one stand of bushes, then walk on vegetation tops for several yards, so that the water climbs only an inch or so onto your boots, and then balance for several feet on a sizeable log, and voilá, you're on the trail again!

The next phase is an upward climb through the forest until you come to a long, skinny meadow in a hanging valley. Towards the end of the valley the path climbs again, followed by switchbacks to reach the pass. Burstall Pass is not a sharp pass, where you can stand in one spot and gaze down in both directions; it is more spread out, and potential viewpoints are scattered everywhere.

This next photo faces west from the pass itself. I'm probably standing on the border between Alberta and British Columbia.

The trail continues down through the open area in the center, beyond which is a parklike area that we'll see soon. Joan and I lunched in the sun behind a rock outcrop blocking the chill wind. Then we decided to climb the modest ridge on the left of the photo, and tackled it from behind. We first continued on the trail to the edge of the parklike area and then scrambled up the back of the ridge. Here's the view to the west from the top. You can't see the way we came; it's steep and hidden by the lip of the ridge.

The green parklike shelf is a favorite spot to hang out and relax, especially when the pass itself already holds a throng, or is just too cold because of the wind. The lake in the middle distance is Lemon Lake, which we could see from the other side on our visit to Talus Lodge, and the somewhat crooked peak above and to the left of the lake, appearing small because of the distance, is "The Talon," which we saw close up at Talus. (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Now for a video -- a 360° pan from this ridge. The panning is a bit shakier than normal; because of the width of the ridgetop, I walked closer to edges as I panned to get better views. Had I stayed at the center you would have seen way too much of the ridgetop and not enough of anything else! Note: I stripped the audio from this video because it was just blasting wind.

The video starts looking northward, at Snow Peak, and behind that is Mount Birdwood. The valley that shows up next holds the trail up from route 742 (Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail). That's the way we came. To the south is South Burstall Pass, which is supposed to be reachable with a modest amount of cross-country (no trail) walking skill.

Then it was time to return. We discovered that the front, or east, face of our ridge was a good way to go down and would have been the better way to come up. Eventually we reached the pond with the vegetative traverse, and saw a young couple on the other side wondering how to cross. I called to them to walk to their left, and they observed as Joan and I retraced the route. When we burst out of the bushes and chatted with them, they asked how long it would take to reach the pass. This couple had driven out from Calgary to take the Chester Lake trail, only to discover that it was closed due to bears. They had set out for Burstall as a substitute, and having completed the logging road and braided streams, weren't sure if they had enough time left. We told them we had been descending for an hour and a half, so they decided to turn around.

The last two miles on the logging road seemed to go on forever, but there was a surprise waiting for us at the end of this hike, perhaps a hundred yards from our car. A moose was enjoying thick mud.

Our Burstall Pass hike was a satisfying success.