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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
01 Aug 98 |
2:55 |
N/A |
01 Aug 98 - It was very cloudy this day, so the opportunity for great pictures
just wasn't there. To climb this mountain, you will want to follow French Creek towards French
Glacier (but not that far). Park at the Burstall Pass Parking lot off Smith Dorrien Trail.
From the parking lot, follow an old logging road. Almost immediately, the road will split giving you
a choice. Going straight into the valley between Mt. Burstall and Cegnfs Peak will be the more direct
route, but you'll have to walk through a 20 yard wide 18 inches deep section of French Creek.
The way around this is to turn left at the fork and proceed for about twenty minutes. Then take a
sharp right fork which eventually will lead to bushwacking. As that logging trail comes to an end,
you'll see a heavily used animal trail leading up a hill on the left. Go up the hill and then angle off about
15 degrees to the right. You'll eventually get back on the logging trail, and around the part where
you would have to wade through the water. The bushwacking is very thick, so if you don't mind getting
your feet wet, I would suggest going through the creek.
As you continue walking upstream, you will be on the left side of the creek. This trail runs
along side the creek and also weaves through the forest. Eventually, you will cross a heavy
rockslide gully about 5-10 yards wide. Turn left at this point, and go up the rocky gully.
Alan Kane suggests going through "moderate" bush which is just right of this rocky gully.
Upon reviewing the summit register, it was noted that Alan Kane climbed this mountain in 1989.
What might have been moderate bush at that time is some of the thickest bush I've ever seen.
As you're walking through the bush, you will never see your feet. Save yourself, time, energy,
and skin.... go up the rocky gully.
As you're going up the rock gully, you'll notice the left side of the gully is lower. Even
though you will eventually cross the gully at the top, go up the left side. It's a lot less
scree and much easier to gain the ridge. Once you gain the ridge, you will continuously see
"false summits". After about ten of these false peaks, and about 2 hours later, you will be
there. My ascent time is a little off because of the bushwacking getting around the flooded
area, bushwacking through Alan Kane's "moderate" bush, and getting lost a couple of times.
The above picture is the top section of that rocky gully that you will ascend. At the top of
the rocky gully, cross over the gully and scramble up to gain the higher ledge. You will do
this a few times on your route to the summit.
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01 Aug 98 - From the summit, the clouds briefly openned up to show part of the
ridge you will ascend en route to the summit. As you can tell from the picture, the ridge tends to
curve a little east steering from the south to the southeast.
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01 Aug 98 - To descend Cegnfs Peak, you have two choices. You can go down the
same way you came up, or you can head down the south side of the peak toward's French Glacier (seen
here). If you go this way, stay on the right side of the gully. There are cliffbands down there,
but if you get to them on the right side of the gully, you'll be fine. Continue down into the
gully, which will eventually bring you back to French Creek. Simply head downstream back to the
parking lot.
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01 Aug 98 - Here we see a better view of the cliffbands.
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