The Monarch & Ramparts flowers and lake
July 20th Wednesday 2016
Harvey Pass to Healy Pass and back down to Sunshine gondola parking. Starting at Bourgeau Lake trail parking. The beauty of this hike is you do not have to return down the boring Bourgeau trail. It is 7.5 km to the lake and another 2.2 km to Harvey Pass. The last 2.2km are way steeper than the preceding 7.5 km. From the Pass you can look across at the route. There is a small trail on your right but it is not the correct way to go. Head up the small knoll on your right to gain the higher ground. Your objective is to stay high and aim for the rocky crag on the ridge ahead (see Photo ) it looks impassable but on arrival is very easy. Then follow the ridge down and back up and down and along a long wide ridge. I was trying to follow a route described by Mike Potter in his book of ridge walks. All was well until we dropped into a marshy meadow. At this point to stay on the ridges we should have gone right but it looked like a slog to go up another peak so the inclination is to go around which we did. Note at this point from the marshy meadow there is a valley leading out to the Healy trail. We wanted to come out right at the top of Healy Pass which we did by climbing back up to the ridge that leads down the path at the Pass. If we had got it right and or had the energy we should have come from the top of this ridge. At Healy Pass we took a well rest before trekking down to Sunshine Parking. We had already placed a car there to get back to Bourgeau Parking.
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Trail up to Harvey Pass
This is the trail we took but in reality we should have been top right corner
To get to Healy Pass you need to be on the top of the peak top right. This is the rocky crag mentioned in the description
Looking back at the route from Harvey Pass
Mt Assiniboine and Citadel Peak left
Heading to the next ridge
We dropped a lot of height
Rumholtz on the windy ridge
This shows most of the route. Harvey Pass on right.
We came to the Pass through the trees. Proposed route we would have come from the top of the Peak
These to guys were very interested in where we were going
The grey line was the proposed route * note bottom corner the deviation.
Distance return 27.0 km Time return 9:15 hrs ( inc 30 min lunch ) Elevation Accumulated gain 1620 m Elevation to Summit 1205 m Summit height 2595 m
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