Cranbrook Mountain

BOU AVENUE
Cranbrook Mountain

Kicking off the Victoria Day long weekend in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Zosia Zgolak and I ascended the city's namesake mountain on 21 May 2022. Located just south of the city, Cranbrook Mountain has been heavily logged, and consequently, there are numerous logging roads in the area that provide easy access to the summit. For our trip, we used the same approach described by Kieran Simpson, and although the driving directions in his report lack some details, I was able to figure out where he went with the help of Google Maps.

From Cranbrook, head south on Victoria Avenue and turn left (east) onto 13 Street. Travel for one block and turn right (south) onto 24 Avenue. Drive to a T-intersection with 21 Street and turn left. Travel for one block again and turn right onto Hidden Valley Road. Drive 8.3 kilometres to the end of pavement and go through a cattle guard. Drive another 250 metres and turn left onto Peavine Creek Road. Drive 900 metres and turn left onto Hogg Creek Road (other approaches for Hogg Creek Road are possible if approaching from outside of Cranbrook). Ignore any side roads and drive 5.8 kilometres to a junction. Keep going straight (right) and drive another kilometre to a second junction. Again, keep going straight (right). From this second junction, the road makes three more big switchbacks before terminating near the upper edge of a cut block. There are occasional rough spots, but most of the road is in surprisingly good shape and should be suitable for 2WD vehicles with high clearance.

Because of lingering snow, I was unable to drive all the way to road's end and simply parked in a flat spot somewhere past the last big switchback. From there, Zosia and I climbed straight up through the slash of a large cut block, but we soon veered into less tedious terrain on an unlogged forested slope. As we climbed higher, we encountered more snow, and while Zosia and her elven feet seemingly danced effortlessly up the slope, I floundered quite a bit trying to keep up to her. Fortunately, the snow cover thinned out a bit as we climbed out of the trees and reached a viewpoint with a large cairn. The remaining short section to the summit was guarded by deadfall and more snow, but thankfully, the snow here was much more supportive and allowed us to easily bypass most of the deadfall.

The abundance of snow on top of Cranbrook Mountain killed any ambitions Zosia and I had of traversing southward for about another three kilometres to Moyie Mountain. Instead, we backtracked to the viewpoint and stopped there for a leisurely break before resuming our descent. Other than some mildly annoying post-holing through snowy sections in the forest, we had few problems hiking back to our car.

	Zosia starts climbing up a cut block directly above the parking spot.
	Zosia easily walks on top of lingering snow cover in the forest.
	The snow cover thins out a bit near the top.
	Zosia heads for the summit which is barely visible just left of the tall tree on the right.
	Sonny and Zosia stand on the summit of Cranbrook Mountain (2061 metres).

This one will have to wait for another day...

Moyie Mountain sits about three kilometres further to the south.

	Zosia backtracks along the summit ridge on supportive snow.
	Mount Baker dominates the view to the northeast.
	Zosia takes a break at a viewpoint overlooking Moyie Lake in the distance.
	The city of Cranbrook can be seen in the distance as Zosia descends the cut block above her starting point.
	From the parking spot, there is a good view of several prominent landmarks in this part of the Canadian Rockies.

A must-do for all peak-baggers!

Mount Fisher is the most iconic mountain in the Cranbrook area.

	Here is a last look at the western slopes of Cranbrook Mountain from the approach road.
	Total Distance: 3.4 kilometres Round-Trip Time: 3 hours 13 minutes Net Elevation Gain: 375 metres GPX Data