Mount Ogden

BOU AVENUE
Mount Ogden

On 22 July 2023, I climbed Mount Ogden in British Columbia's Yoho National Park. Joining me were Daniel Dufresne, Shaun Luong, Ali Shariat and Aga Sokolowska. A non-technical ascent route via Sherbrooke Lake is described in Alan Kane's Scrambles In The Canadian Rockies, but we would follow a seemingly more popular one which ascends the south ridge directly from the Trans-Canada Highway. As far as I can tell, this route was originally published by the Rocky Mountain Ramblers in 2002, but it has since made it into Andrew Nugara's More Scrambles In The Canadian Rockies as well as Vern Dewit's blog site. The route starts from a pullout next to a decommissioned bridge on the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway, 8.9 kilometres east of Field or 17.0 kilometres west of Lake Louise.

Probably the most dangerous aspect of the entire trip is safely crossing the very busy Trans-Canada Highway. Vehicles zip by here in both directions at high speed, and Daniel, Shaun, Ali, Aga and I had to wait for just the right moment to safely cross to the north side of the highway. Had I read Dewit's trip report more carefully, I would have realized that the correct way to circumvent the initial cliff band beside the highway is to climber's right (east) as per the tip he received from Elizabeth Imhof and Mike Rogers. However, the last photo on Dewit's site--showing his truck parked in the pullout--appeared to have been taken from somewhere further to the west, and consequently, I made the mistake of convincing everyone to circumvent the cliff band to climber's left. While there were smatterings of game trails there and even a few pieces of irrelevant flagging, we could not really find any obvious trail. By the time I realized my mistake, we were already well into a bit of a miserable bushwhack, but by veering right, we eventually intersected the expected trail. We then settled into a long and relentlessly steep grind up the south ridge. The trail is not as well-defined higher up, but the forest is open enough to allow for easy route-finding. After a little more than two hours of steady uphill travel, we passed through a short but pleasantly flat section of forest before finally breaking out of the trees for good. From there, we continued northward up the open ridge mostly on the crest with the occasional detour to climber's left to avoid unnecessary elevation loss. Although there is nothing technically difficult about this section of the ridge, the protracted approach on mostly uneven rubble can feel monotonous or even a bit tedious. When we finally reached the summit block, we traversed along the base of west-facing cliffs before turning a corner to arrive at the crux--a moderately exposed down-sloping ledge followed by a short chute. Aga did not feel like tackling the crux and opted to stay put while the rest of us continued. Given the bone-dry conditions we had, I did not think the crux was terribly difficult, but some care and focus are necessary to safely cross the ledge and climb up the chute. Past the crux, we finished the ascent with a short and easy scramble up the north side of the summit block.

Daniel, Shaun, Ali and I spent less than half an hour on the summit before descending to rejoin Aga. As noted by Dewit, descending the chute was a bit more awkward than ascending it, but we all made it down and back across the ledge without incident. After regrouping with Aga, we all backtracked along the south ridge which somehow felt even longer on the return. We did not do ourselves any favours upon re-entering the forest where we went off-route and had to negotiate some dangerously steep slabs. Even after regaining our up-track, we still went astray and suffered through some more annoying bushwhacking before finally stumbling onto the same well-defined trail we ascended earlier in the day. This trail led us all the way down to the highway emerging, not surprisingly, just to the east of the initial cliff band. A final nerve-racking dash across the busy highway concluded our trip.

A big thank you goes out to Ali for safely driving all of us to the trailhead and back. An honourable mention goes to Daniel for hauling along two Prusiks in case the crux turned out to be too overwhelming for us!

The first crux is crossing the highway safely! Ali, Shaun, Daniel and Aga get ready at the highway pullout. Mount Ogden's south ridge is visible at upper right.

Need to find the trail or you're in for some miserable bushwhacking!
Ali and Shaun grind their way up the forested lower part of the ridge.

Easier to climb up than come down... Shaun watches Aga climb up a rock slab along the ridge.

And Mount King way off in the distance!

Above the rock slab that Aga climbed is this viewpoint of Mount Stephen (left of centre) and Mount Field (right).

We heard some people swimming in the lake!

Trees thin out higher up the ridge to reveal Sherbrooke Lake. At right is Paget Peak.

	Mount Ogden's summit is visible at the far end of the ridge.
	For some sections of the ridge, it is easier to traverse below the crest.
	The group sticks to the ridge crest as they approach the summit block (right).
	The south side of the summit block is guarded by big cliffs.
	The group traverses along the base of the cliffs on the west side of the summit block.
	Daniel arrives at the start of the crux which is just around the corner.
	Daniel waits as a couple of other scramblers make their way across the crux which is a moderately exposed down-sloping ledge. Photo courtesy of Ali Shariat
	Past the crux, Daniel and Ali prepare to scramble up the remaining short stretch to the summit.
	Shaun, Daniel, Ali and Sonny stand on the summit of Mount Ogden (2704 metres).

Ali just got back from Iran a few days ago!

The President and The Vice President are visible at left in this view to the northwest as Ali begins his descent from the summit.

	Here is the view to the north from the summit.
	Here is the view to the south from the summit.
	The view to the west is mostly dominated by Mount Field (left) and Wapta Mountain.
	It is necessary to descend slightly to get this full view of Sherbrooke Lake from the summit.
	Shaun carefully descends a short chute at the crux. Photo courtesy of Ali Shariat
	Aga again traverses below the summit cliffs on the return trip.
	Ali and Daniel wait for Shaun and Aga to descend a slightly exposed step along the ridge crest.

Better than what's to come descending to the highway!

The return trip along the ridge is both scenic and tedious.

	The group is a bit off-route here while descending to the highway. Visible at left is Wapta Lake.
	Total Distance: 10.3 kilometres Round-Trip Time: 9 hours 29 minutes Net Elevation Gain: 1178 metres GPX Data

	Ali, Shaun, Daniel and Aga get ready at the highway pullout. Mount Ogden's south ridge is visible at upper right.
	Ali and Shaun grind their way up the forested lower part of the ridge.
	Shaun watches Aga climb up a rock slab along the ridge.