July 30th, 2023. Rogers Pass, British Columbia.
Round Trip: 9 Hours, Elevation Gain: 1350m.
Difficult Scramble
This is a strong contender for Peak of the 2023 Season, providing an excellent scramble! Ever since scrambling up Cheops Mountain in 2021’s in smoky conditions, Balu has been on Bri and I’s radar. We managed to convince Dan and Flo to join us for this one, and it ranks highly for all four of us. Our main beta source for this was Scotty pointing out the SE Ridge to us in 2021 from Cheops Mountain, claiming it to be a low-end-difficult scramble over good rock. Additional research included David P Jones’ (2004) North Selkirks, in which rates the route as a 3rd class scramble. We found this to be mostly true if one applies good route finding skills.
A good approach trail from the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre via Balu Pass Trail (Parks Canada rates this a difficult hike) warms up the legs for this one. Balu Peak is an unofficial name for Urus Major’s eastern sub-peak, rising +600m above Balu Pass. Peak baggers be aware, this is a heavily travelled area for grizzly bears and thus a group of four with everyone carrying bear spray is mandatory for accessing this trail. Additionally, the cougar valley on the adjacent side of Balu Pass is indefinitely closed to the public. As such one needs to leave the hiking trail before surpassing the summit of Balu Pass – a dozen metres before the end of the Balu Pass trail, above the switchbacks, there is an opening in the trees where one can begin the approach to Balu Peak’s SE Ridge without crossing into the closure area. Minimal bushwhacking through here as you cross a long bench-like-escarpment towards the scramble section, the trees are well spaced out.
Traversing the bench/escarpment feature took us an hour before reaching the scrambly bits. The lower section of the ridge hosts numerous cairns and is relatively straight forward for the first hour. While the rock quality and stability were superb, we encountered quite a bit of exposure early on and half an hour into the route were into sustained technical scrambling with mild to moderate route-finding.
The final 100m or so of vertical is sustained difficult scrambling with an increased amount of route-finding despite a considerable number of cairns. We came across the crux just under the summit: a steep step with a slight overhang requiring an awkward pull-up into wriggle motion through the overhang. A fall from this spot would most likely prove fatal. Bri and I tried traversing east under the crux and found ourselves staring up trickier slab-like terrain. It would have been a direct shot to the summit from where we found ourselves, however the slabs were hella sketchy and slipping here would have been disastrous. We returned reluctantly to the initial overhang and awkwardly scrambled through the crux, minutes later standing on the summit.
In searching for a way to bypass the crux, Bri and I added an extra twenty-five minutes to the day, which resulted in Dan & Flo getting an extended lunch break up top. No register found despite the large summit cairn, which is visible from Balu Pass. We enjoyed the views and observed the connected west ridge to Ursus Major Mountain. It appeared almost a scramble up until reaching a grey slab-like wall above the highest reaches of the glacier… we thought better of it and after a good break decided to was time to begin the journey back down towards Balu Pass Trail.
On the way down from the summit we managed to slightly avoid the crux by approaching the (skier’s) left of it. Here there was an extra rocky step not seen from below that offered a couple extra holds for the downclimb. It was still a spicy spot, the exposure all the same as crawling through the overhang used on ascent. At some point in the downclimb, Flo decided to go route finding down the ledges slightly to the ridge’s eastern flank – this resulted in him downclimbing some very unnecessary sketchy terrain. We regrouped with him in the basin just under the bench/escarpment and tried short cutting through the basin to the Parks trail switchbacks… this worked but was barely a shortcut due to the tedious boulder hopping we encountered. Staying on the bench to Balu Pass would have been easier in hindsight.
Other than making things mildly more difficult for ourselves on the return journey, we all walked away from this one grinning ear-to-ear. A fantastic outing and highly recommend this to any seasoned scrambler out there. Fit, ambitious parties could likely pair this with Cheops in the same day given the shared approach, however it would be a very long day!
Steep Sheep 