Mount Forbes | 11000ers of the Canadian Rockies

Mount Forbes
3617m, 11867ft
June 8-10 2024

Positioned near the center of the 11000ers of the Canadian Rockies and sitting just south of The Lyells is Mount Forbes, a jagged tooth of rock, ice, and snow that while not the most technical mountain on the list is quite remote requiring multiple days to get done in a seldom visited area of Banff National Park. It is also the highest in the park and the seventh highest in the entire range making it one of the bigger undertakings for those looking to complete the list, and because of these challenges it's one of the less done giants in the range.

Climber on the upper flanks of Mount Forbes with it's summit block behind and a few pinnacles along one of its ridges at left.

The approach for Forbes involves what is often called the "death march" because of it's long grueling nature as you slog with heavy packs past Glacier Lake and up the headwall to reach camp 20km later. And while Forbes can also be approached via the Valenciennes River Forest Service Road to the west, this adds a number of factors that could prove challenging including river washouts of the road adding numberous kilometers and significantly more glacier travel, and because of this wasn't really an option I considered.

After doing a glacier travel and crevasse rescure course just a few days prior I was keen to go for an 11000er to push myself and Doug Lutz and I had already been in contact about the idea of a trip for Mount Forbes. Doug and I knew each other through a scrambling Facebook group but had never been on a mountain trip together and Forbes was definitely a bigger endeavor than either of us were used to going for but Doug was interested and all that was left was to find more keen partners. We had a bit of a hard time locking down anyone interested but when Doug's friend Darren Steffler expressed interest we had three and felt comfortable with the extensive glacier travel with this group size. I thought about bringing skis in but given that Doug isn't a skier and Darren didn't feel like hauling his heavy setup we went for snowshoes and I rented a pair.

We met in the Glacier Lake lot at 5am on June 8th and began our approach with 10km of nice trail to the lake. It was my first time carrying a pack heavier than 30lbs on a hike and boy was I feeling it. Next came the hike around the lake and a few more flat kilometers before a mellow river crossing and gaining the headwall which proved to be the toughest part of day 1 by far!

links: STRAVA | GAIA
elapsed time: 60hrs
DIFFICULTY: mountaineering - multiday, glacier travel, steep snow climbing, 5th class

The pack I'd be hauling in, a soul crushing 60lbs, live and learn!

The numerous subpeaks of Forbes rising impressively above

The lower portions of the Lyell Icefield visible

The upcoming water crossing with the Lyell Icefield above

Doug preparing to cross, the headwall route goes up the rocky terrain on the right

The headwall started off mellow with some hands on sections here and there and a bit of bush and then transitioned to more of a sidehilling traverse as we continued up and eventually got to the ridge of a moraine that we followed. This initial section wasn't so bad but it was the final step that we had heard bad things about and we could tell that the terrain could be challenging as we got closer. While some groups take the drainage direct, this involves slabby terrain with potentially a few low 5th class sections depending on routefinding, and because it was also filled with snow we were sure we didn't want to go this way. The alternative is ascending on the right to gain a low shoulder of Division Mountain and also involved some routefinding as certain sections definitely felt tricky with a heavy pack on but we were able to get up this way and headed down to a tarn where many groups camp.

Working our way up, awesome color in that glacial lake

Another look back with some of the canyon visible

Smiling through the pain of my heavy ass pack

Mons Peak in the distance, we set up just left of here

My tent with Sullivan Peak in the background

The next morning we were up by 2am and on the move soon after and the day got off to an interesting start when we came across flowing water and Doug broke through some ice in an attempt to cross plunging waist deep. This was very bad considering the temperatures and the fact that Doug's pants and boots were now soaked but he's a trooper and after draining his boots as Darren and I waded across barefoot he felt good to continue and we pressed on.

The initial climbing went fast in the dark with a consistent grade and no glacier terrain to worry about and the snowshoes made for fast travel. After a couple hours we reached the toe of the glacier, roped up, and while we did have a few sags to navigate the coverage in June was very good so we didn't have much to worry about. Before long we were at the point where Forbes gets steep quickly and we weren't exactly sure what to do given the deep snow conditions so we ended up leaving snow shoes on to make for easier travel. This might not have been the best call as the grade on Forbes is unrelenting and once we were on the steep terrain we didn't feel comfortable switching footwear so we ended up making the snowshoes work all the way to the summit! Not what I had been expecting we would do but the snow conditions were forgiving and although it's steep, the grade on the way up never felt like more than 35-40 degrees.

Darren and I in front of the Forbes summit block

Alpenglow hitting the distant peaks on the horizon

Looking down at Darren from the top of the steep section before the final ridge

Summit! Doug's 4th 11000er and Darren's 13th

The first 11000er of my speed record attempt! #1/58!

After enjoying the exceptional views from the summit we made our way down. We switched to crampons for the descent and with our tracks from this ended up working well and we weren't sinking very deep at all. The descent went surprisingly quickly and I think because of the challenges of ascending in snow shoes, felt a lot easier than the way up. Regardless by the time we were back at the base of the steep section of Forbes we were all pretty tired but continued on with the plod back to the base of the glacier and all the way back to camp. It definitely would've been nice to have skis for this section at least, would have saved hours of time just skiing the non technical terrain, we arrived back at camp around 1pm.

A lot easier descending with the trail we made on the way up

Exiting with the impressive canyon to the right

My feet were messed up after returning to camp from spending the entirety of the approach and summit day in mountaineering boots so we decided to stay at our camp for another night rather than descend the headwall and we'd do the entire deproach the next day. This was an important lesson for me for multiday 11000er treks and would be the first and last time I didn't bring approach shoes. The next day we headed out relatively early, around 7am, and got the toughest section done with first, finding a much easier line down the upper headwall further north leaving just an easy hike out to the parking lot. Regardless my feet were going through it and Darren and Doug were clearly going a lot faster than me so by the time we reached Glacier Lake I thought it best we part ways so I could take a break and they continued on. The last 10kms were grueling mostly because of the feet but the pack weight was also a major factor and I certainly wont be doing a multiday trip like this entirely in mountaineering boots ever again.

All in all this trip went extremely well and although it was quite painful for me it served as good taste for what the big 11000er trips can look and feel like and mentally prepared me quite well for bigger trips to come. After recovering over the course of a couple weeks Brent DeWolff a fellow mountaineer that I had been in touch with was keen to get out and with my feet back in working condition we made plans for another 11000er!