Mount Drummond Scramble

The strong winds on the way up only make the top that much better

Mount Drummond Scramble

Notable Visited Landmarks

Passes

Introduction

Mount Drummond is a 60km, 2650m elevation gain out and back trip through the Skoki area to one of the lesser traveled peaks in the Canadian Rockies. Urbi and I are were the 12th party to write our names in the summit register which was placed in the 90s. This is probably because there is a minimum 23km hike to the base of Mount Drummond where you then have to cross a river where you will inevitably have to take off your shoes and get your feet wet.

Mount Drummond isn’t technically difficult, it is only class 2, and almost entirely scree, the scree is a bit loose which is unfortunate. The views from the false summit are fantastic, and the views from the summit (at least what we were able to see of them) were good as well. If you are looking for a more physical outing that doesn’t require technical skills than Mount Drummond is a good choice for you.

GPS route from the trip

Approach

You are going to want to park at the Fish Creek Parking Lot across the 93 from Lake Louise. You will want to arrive there early, we started walking up the service road towards the Skoki trailhead at 4:05. The service road is 4km long and you’re just walking up a dirt road for this portion of the trip so there isn’t really a downfall to walking it in the dark. The Skoki trailhead is marked by the sign showing all the distances to the destinations in the Skoki area. Red Deer Lakes campground is 15km from there, a not so encouraging sight to see.

Because Mount Drummond is so far in, I suggest that you do this as a backpacking trip. Urbi and I decided that we would take it easy and invite some friends along to and from the Red Deer Lakes campground. We did this as a 3 day backpacking trip where the first and last day were just going to and from the Red Deer Lake campground and the second day we would ascend Mount Drummond. Due to lack of resources this made our packs way heavier than they should have been. We did not own any backpacking tents, so we were bringing front country camping tents. We were bringing 5 friends with us and Urbi was carrying an 8-person tent for them. Urbi and I are pretty big we are both 6’3″ and over 195lbs so I was carrying a 4-person tent for the 2 of us.

Packer’s Pass Peak is a class 2/3 scramble from Deception Pass, you get a view of Myosotis and Zigadenus Lakes but Packer’s Pass Peak has an elevation of about 2550m so you can’t see too much given that Ptarmigan Lake is less than 300m below you. We continued on from Deception Pass following the trail signs to the Red Deer Lakes campground. The campground is about 17km in from the parking lot and we gained about 700m of elevation on day 1.

Myosotis and Zigadenus Lakes from Packer’s Pass Peak

The campground has 10 sites, fires are permitted, it is about 500m from the Upper Red Deer Lake with access from a trail breaking off West from the eating area. I made the trip out to the lake 3 times that evening, once to go swimming. It was about 20:00 the air temperature was probably about 10 degrees Celsius when I went swimming and I was in the water for about 2 minutes so for a lake in the mountains it is quite warm, I would definitely recommend especially if it was a hot summer day.

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Taking a dip in the Upper Red Deer Lake

We planned to wake up at 6:00 the next morning to get a relatively early start but due to thunderstorms we were delayed in our start and didn’t get moving until about 9:00. There is a trail that cuts through the campground (the trail you make it into the campground on) you will want to take that trail heading North-East. You will pass over the Red Deer River on some bridges this is a very beautiful spot. Shortly after you will reach a sign, go right on the path that is marked Natural Bridge. You will not actually make it to Natural Bridge, but you want to be starting in that direction. Eventually the trail to natural bridge will branch off to the South, you do not want to take this, instead cross the creek that should intersect your path, there should be an easy way to cross if, you end up crossing on a large spiky tree like we did then you did something wrong. Follow the trail until you get to the drainage area from the Drummond Icefield.

Looking East from the bridge area

How to not cross the creek

Section where there are bridges over the Red Deer River

Drainage area from the Drummond Icefield

Once you get to the drainage area you will have to cross the river. When we went, we were able to find an area about knee deep to cross but not immediately. We were in denial to start off, and we tried to find a way that we would be able to jump across, we failed. We then resorted to trying to build a bridge across with some fallen logs, this also failed, and it ate up about half an hour and a lot of energy. Eventually we took off our shoes and walked across.

Our failed bridge attempt

In the middle of the river

Ascent

Once across the river we turned our focus North towards our ascent gully. The initial slope is forested, you will want to try to stay in dried out creeks so that you can avoid bushwhacking. After you are up the initial slope yow want to turn climber’s left and start heading towards the false summit. You should run into a small tarn at a flat section which signifies that you are on the right track.

Approximate route up to the gully

Head climber’s left aiming for the false summit once you are on the slope above the treeline

Small tarn

You will now want to go up the bowl to the ridge that will take you to the false summit. The scree was kind of loose, but the snow wasn’t in condition to make the ascent easier, so we stuck to the scree. From the tarn to the ridge there is about 550m of elevation gain. You may not want to follow the bowl the whole way up to the ridge, in the upper bowl we went climber’s left up a break in a cliff band which we then followed to the ridge. I do not know if that move was advantageous.

Once on the ridge head West towards the false summit there will be a small wall with an obvious break about 5m back from the ridge that you will ascend. This brought us to a patch of snow which I assume is there year-round, no gear was needed but there was a cornice so don’t walk too close to the edge. You will arrive at the false summit soon after and you will have a great view of the lakes between the summit and the false summit the higher of which has year-round icebergs.

Urbi coming up the break in the wall

The small snow patch with the false summit ahead and the summit to the right

Lakes between the summit and the false summit

From the false summit the route to the summit is pretty clear and everything is scree. Just follow the ridge to the summit. We had a lot of wind this day and there were clouds encircling us at the top, I still managed to get some photos though and the clouds made for some interesting views.

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Urbi joining me in the clouds

Looking back to the false summit

Looking North

Back Out

After a break on the summit we went back the we came, the route was essentially the same, we got back to the false summit and we took many pictures there. We used the snow to descend in the scree bowl when we could. We crossed the river in our bare feet and took the trail back to our campsite, this time we found the correct way to cross that one creek though.

Drummond from the false summit

Urbi taking a break on the false summit

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Descending fast on snow

Back at the campsite we met back up with our travel companions, ate a nice dinner and went to bed. Day 2 was about 20km, 1500m of elevation gain and 10 hours. The next day was the casual hike out from the Red Deer Lakes campground. We went the Baker Lake route so that we would vary our scenery. It is about 19km out and 300m of elevation gain up to Ptarmigan Lake.

Mount Drummond doesn’t require much technical skill and physically it is easily doable in a backpacking trip, it is a great option if you want to get off the beaten path and avoid crowds while still getting great views.

Baker Lake

Ptarmigan Lake behind pink Indian Paintbrush