Vista Peak

BOU AVENUE
Vista Peak

On 8 September 2024, Asieh Ghodratabadi, Ali Shariat, Zosia Zgolak and I ascended unofficially-named Vista Peak located on the Continental Divide between Alberta's Banff National Park and British Columbia's Kootenay National Park (KNP). Although the peak is technically just an outlier of Storm Mountain--Bob Spirko named it "Storm Mountain North Ridge"--the name "Vista Peak" seems to have stuck given its proximity to nearby Vista Lake. Most of our inspiration for this trip came from Vern Dewit's excellent 2023 trip report, and we would more or less follow in his footsteps. Most of the route is within KNP, and we would start from a small pullout (51.22274, -116.05839) along Highway 93 beside the "Welcome/British Columbia" sign about 900 metres southwest of the Continental Divide.

Asieh, Ali, Zosia and I dodged speeding cars as we crossed to the south side of the highway before dropping down the embankment to Vermilion River which was dry here on this day. We initially hiked along the dry river bed to avoid bushwhacking, but it winds so much that we were almost walking in circles at one point. As such, we soon abandoned the river bed and just made a beeline toward where we thought we would pick up the trail described in Dewit's report. A short thrash later, we stumbled onto the trail which basically climbs up the north bank of a creek emanating from the bowl northwest of Storm Mountain. This trail also happens to be the scrambler's access route for Storm Mountain, but I have no recollection of it (likely buried under snow) when I ascended the mountain over 21 years ago. In any case, we made good use of the trail to climb to roughly where it enters the aforementioned bowl at an elevation of about 2100 metres. We then abandoned the trail to ascend the southwest ridge of Vista Peak. Some route-finding is necessary going up the ridge, but overall, the bushwhacking is not too bad. We eventually cleared tree line, and other than a couple of short drop-offs which were easy to down-climb, we had no difficulty following the remainder of the ridge to the summit. Unlike Dewit, we had no issues with this trip being too short, and therefore, we did not bother to extend the hike to the eastern outlier as he did. Instead, we simply took an extended break on the summit.

For our descent, Asieh, Ali, Zosia and I basically returned the same way. We strayed a few times from our up-track while descending the lower half of the southwest ridge, but we inevitably intersected the access trail as expected. Descending the trail to its end, we discovered that it pretty much peters out just short of Vermilion River. Eschewing the dry river bed, we headed directly for the highway, and although we were prepared for more bushwhacking, we actually found a few game trails which helped ease our crossing of the bushy flats. Perhaps some future ascensionists will have the foresight to come and flag the route from the highway to the start of the trail.

	Ali, Asieh and Zosia gear up on the side of the highway in Kootenay National Park.
	The dry river bed saves some bushwhacking near the start of the trip but also meanders quite a bit.
	Finding this access trail is key to the approach for Vista Peak.
	The west ridge of Storm Mountain towers over Asieh who is still on the trail.
	The group hikes off-trail aiming for the ridge ahead.
	The trees begin to thin out as Asieh climbs higher up the ridge.
	Zosia, Ali and Asieh enjoy pleasant hiking on the upper ridge. Standing out in the background is Mount Whymper.
	The remainder of the ascent is generally straightforward from here, but the actual summit is still not visible.
	A sliver of Vista Lake can be seen at bottom left.

No problemo!

There are a couple of short down-climbs along the ridge just before the summit.

	The group makes its final push up to the summit.
	Part of Arnica Lake is visible below the eastern outlier of Vista Peak.
	Ali, Asieh, Zosia and Sonny sit on the summit of Vista Peak (2708 metres).

Shame about all the haze on this day.

The group makes its way back down the ridge. Note The Goodsirs barely visible on the right horizon just over the left shoulder of Mount Whymper.

	Here is a complete view of two tarns below the northwest side of Storm Mountain.
	Total Distance: 9.0 kilometres Round-Trip Time: 8 hours 30 minutes Cumulative Elevation Gain: 1065 metres GPX Data