Bourgeau Lake, Harvey Pass & Mount Bourgeau

August 27, 2023

Mount Bourgeau is a mighty peak in Banff National Park that overlooks the #1 Highway, and dominates the skyline around Sunshine Village Ski Resort, and Healy Pass. The peak is easily accessible with a beaten in track all the way to the summit. What Bourgeau lacks in technical difficulty, it makes up for with distance and elevation gain, clocking in at around 24 km and 1,500 m of elevation gain.

I’ve now hiked and skied up to Bourgeau Lake five times, and I honestly feel like that is enough. The 7 km of forest hike is fun on the way up with fresh legs, but feels endless on the way home. My first time to Bourgeau Lake was in 2002, when I was able to sneak away from my newborn twins for a well-deserved hike. Exhausted from being a new mom, the 14 km return was more than enough.

Harvey Pass is truly beautiful, and worth the extra distance from Bourgeau Lake. Bypassing three more tarns, and an incredible mountain cirque, the views up and down from Harvey Pass are stunning. If you don’t want to tackle the summit, getting to Harvey Pass is reward enough.

The first time I attempted Mount Bourgeau in 2017, Annette and I got all the way to Harvey Pass. There we found a momma grizzly bear and her twin cubs. I tried to wait her out, but she was not budging. We made the right decision to turn around and try another day.

When Erin suggested we nab this peak, we had clear skies, warm weather, no wind, and thankfully no bears. I was getting this mountain done!

Gear

Hiking boots, poles and regular day pack kit. Depending on the winter, snow lingers on this trail. If going early season, bring gators and be prepared for deep drifts.

Overview

From the Bourgeau Trail Head, hike up the trail to Bourgeau Lake. Continue on to Harvey Pass, passing three small tarns. At the pass, continue along the ridge to the summit of Mount Bourgeau. Return the same way.

Totals – Downloadable Tracks on Gaia, Displayed on Strava

Date: August 27, 2023
Group:  Two (Alisen & Erin)
Distance:  24  km
Elevation:  1,500 m (4,950′)
Time:  7 hours 20 minutes (includes lunch and breaks)

Parking and Trail Head

The Bourgeau trail head is located on the west side of the TransCanada highway, just west of the Sunshine overpass. The parking lot is not large, and it fills up quickly. I arrived at around 7:20 am on a Sunday, and I was not the first vehicle.

This area is fenced to keep the wildlife off the road, and the trail starts on the other side of the raised gate.

Main Trail

The hike to Bourgeau Lake is 7 km of forest. What could be pure drudgery is actually quite beautiful. This forest is full of moss, and we even found Fairy Slipper orchids here once in early spring. The trees are broken up by a bridge at about 4 km from the trailhead. There are also a couple of sizable avalanche slide paths, which opened up the views of Bourgeau and the surrounding mountains. Skiing here in the winter, these were crossed one at a time.

The waterfall is around 6 km from the trailhead. Here, the “bridge” is a series of rock blocks bound in wire. The first time I was here in 2002, there was no bridge. I seem to recall that everyone was expecting to see one, so perhaps it was washed away over the winter. The debate amongst the hikers was whether to remove our boots and suffer cold feet, or to simply trudge through the water.

After the waterfall, the incline picks up, as do the switchbacks. Above the switchbacks, the terrain flattens out, and it is a nice walk over to the lake.

Bourgeau Lake

Bourgeau Lake is hidden from the trail. To access, veer left at the Y junction, and walk down to the rocky shores. There are many flat rocks to spread out on, and enjoy the scenery as Mount Bourgeau wraps around the end of the lake.

Distance to Bourgeau Lake is 7.5 km from the trailhead, with an elevation gain of 725 m. Time to the lake was 2 hours.

As Erin and I were bolting for the summit, we decided to by-pass the lake on the way up, and instead visited on the descent. This was an ideal time to soak our tired feet, and wash off some salt and sweat.

Harvey Pass

Not to be confused with Healy Pass, which is just on the other side, Harvey Pass is another 2.5 km from Bourgeau Lake, around 10 km from the trailhead. Elevation gain is 1,020 m. Time to Healy Pass was 3 hours, just under an hour from Bourgeau Lake.

From Bourgeau Lake, it’s a bit of a stiff effort up through scree. When I was here with Annette in 2017, we hiked up to the outcrop on our right. Why? She was here a few years prior, and I just loved her photos. I wanted to experience what she did, and it was a lovely place to stop for a snack.

The first Harvey tarn is on a flat area. We hiked past it, and up another rock area. After crossing the stream, we were at the second tarn and in the cirque just below Harvey Pass. This area is gorgeous, and often has herds of Rocky Mountain Sheep.

We continued onto Harvey Pass, passing the third small tarn just below the pass.

In 2017, Annette and I were the first to arrive at the pass, and we stumbled upon a momma grizzly bear and her twin cubs. A couple from Spain came up behind us, and were not wary at all. The guy kept creeping closer and closer to the bears in his effort to get a good photo. I kept telling him in English to back off, to no avail. Luckily Annette is fluent in German and Spanish, and she told them the momma bear would attack and kill if he got too close. That got the woman’s attention and she finally dragged her partner back.

I was concerned though, because the bears hadn’t noticed us. The wind was from the bears to us, and it was very loud. As I noted the long line of hikers coming up the pass behind me, I decided to alert the bear that humans were near. I did the Canadian Yodel (Bob and Doug Mackenzie style – Coo loo coo coo, coo coo coo coo!)

Well, that startled momma bear, and she started to charge. In that moment my only thought was, I don’t stand a chance. Thankfully, momma quickly recovered. With a look on her face that clearly said “Meh. You’re not worth my time,” she calmly returned to digging up whatever tasty morsel she was after.

Mount Bourgeau

From Harvey Pass, it’s another 2 km, and ~500 m of elevation gain to the summit. Time to summit was 4 hours, 15 minutes.

Erin and I had a snack and some water to get us up the summit in one push. The trail here was now in the scree and rock piles, and the steepness was noticeably sharper. While sometimes a bit faint or slightly braided, the trail was easy enough to follow.

Here we leapfrogged with three young women. One friend was running out of steam, and they left her in a good spot to wait. The duo got almost to the top and contemplated turning around, not wanting their friend to wait too long. Erin and I highly encouraged them to nab the summit, confident that a true mountain friend would want them to be successful 🙂

There were a couple of interesting features to break up the ridge. There was one small pile of larger rocks. This was the most ‘difficult’ part, but didn’t require any route finding or hands on rocks. Other than that, the views were spectacular.

The summit is hidden, and comes into view with little fanfare. The top is covered with weather equipment, and a somewhat meager summit cairn for such an easily accessible mountain. I’m wondering if someone didn’t destroy the original historical cairn? We took lots of photos and videos. It was fun for me to look down on the ski runs and trails that I’ve tramped along for decades, always looking up at Mount Bourgeau.

Mount Bourgeau Return

After a healthy summit lounge of around 30 minutes, Erin and I finally headed back down. We now encountered the Second Wave of summit hunters, including my buddy Jacqueline Louie. She’s a local writer who researched and wrote the Scott Duncan bio that now hangs in his hut on the Wapta Icefields.

Erin and I quickly got down to the stream crossing, and stopped to filter some fresh cold water. As it was now smoking hot, that got us down to Bourgeau Lake. Here, we gratefully removed boots and socks, and soaked our feet. We also soaked our sun shirts before heading back down. While a bit nippy putting them back on, it sure kept us cool.

We stopped to filter more cold water at the waterfall, and again soaked our shirts. While this slowed us down a bit, I like to think we hiked that much faster in the oppressive heat.

Back at the parking lot, we went our separate ways. Erin went camping at Two Jack lake, while I headed home to prepare for a three day backpack and Mount Romulus.

Mount Bourgeau is an iconic mountain that just about everyone has done. I’m glad I was able to finally summit. I highly it recommend it for anyone who wants to take their hiking to the next level, or experience their first Easy scramble.

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Alisen