courtesy JInnes
Andrew and Cassándra, Forum Peak
With the challenging part of our route to Forum Peak behind us, it was now time to relax and explore the scenic summit of Forum Peak. The flat-topped summit was mostly grassy meadow, with a few clumps of short trees here and there that graded into more continuous forest down a gentle slope to the west. Happily, the pesky mosquitoes of our bushwhack and ridge ascent were now absent.
Peaks of Northern Glacier NP
Cameron Lake and Mt Custer
The skies were mostly clear, but there was a fair bit of haze in the air, making distant features somewhat indistinct. Nevertheless, the edges of Forum Peak's summit plateau still provided excellent views. Across to the east, beyond Cameron Lake, stood Mounts Carthew and Alderson. Closer in and immediately below us was a wonderful view down precipitous cliffs to the head of Cameron Lake. Especially nice was the view across the steep headwall of Mount Custer - green and lush down near the lake; steep, rough and corrugated higher up. Most of what you can see in this direction is in the U.S., within Glacier National Park. In fact, the Canada-US border was only 400 metres away to the south.
courtesy JInnes
courtesy JInnes
Exploring Forum Peak Summit
While Jenn and Cassándra took some shots near the highpoint, I wandered a bit further south along the summit plateau, looking to see how close I could get to the border. I made it another two hundred or so metres before I was stopped by a band of cliffs that marked the southern edge of the summit plateau. Below me to the south were a series of stepped platforms that formed the ridgeline connecting to Mount Custer. I estimated that the tip of the next platform down from where I was standing was probably where the border came across - perhaps 250 metres from where I was standing. It would have required some downscrambling to get to, so this was as far as I went. My GPS's latitude read 49.0018889 - just a fraction above the 49th parallel. And .0018889 of a degree of latitude works out to 208 metres. My 250 metre guess was not far off.
Close to the 49th
Exploring the scenic top of Forum Peak was very enjoyable, but time was marching inexorably towards 11 a.m. - and I was mindful of the forecast for afternoon thundershowers. So, we transitioned into the next phase of our journey - the trek across Akamina Ridge itself. From the summit of Forum Peak, the way was obvious and easy. Gently-angled and nearly completely open alpine slopes - at first over a big grassy hump, and then transitioning to the ruddy argillite terrain of Akamina Ridge itself.
Scramble Route, Forum Peak
Akamina Ridge in full view
Apart from a few widely-spaced trees on the western slopes of Forum Peak, the way was clear. The footing was excellent, too - a compact surface with small flat rocks, interspersed here and there with some hardy alpine grass. Not at all rough and as easy as walking on any well-graded trail. Except that we weren't on a trail, but instead on glorious alpine terrain, with great views in all directions - especially to the south, where impressive and rugged peaks, glacier-carved hanging valleys, snowfields and remnant glaciers - all stood against the horizon
Kinnerly Peak and Kintla Valley
As you've probably already gathered from the pictures, Akamina Ridge is not a flat walk. It's not especially strenuous, mind you, but it does have a few "bumps" along the way. The most vertical elevation you'll need to climb as you walk along the ridge is about 400ft (120m). This is the rise we needed to surmount from the second lowpoint after Forum Peak to the top of the highest point on Akamina Ridge.
The ascent of the highest bump was rather nice, actually. Akamina ridge narrowed to a sharper crest on the way up to this highest bump (it was by no means a knife-edge, but there was a distinctive crest along this rising stretch). The ground underfoot had turned red, owing to us entering a large area composed of red argillite. About 2/3rds of the way up the ridgecrest, a distinctive footpath (or perhaps goatpath) led off to the left, traversing across the fairly steep eastern face of the bump. We thought briefly of simply continuing up the steep ridgecrest to the highpoint, but the path was actually pretty well-defined and it was apparent that most traffic went this way. So we followed it - a wonderful little scree-path with good footing - as it corkscrewed around the highpoint at a nicely-ascending grade. The path wound around to the ridgecrest on the other side of the hump, arriving quite close to the top. We chose to take a quick detour to say we'd reached the highpoint of Akamina Ridge. In a self-honoring act, Jenn had renamed the bump to Paige Peak, or some such thing.
courtesy JInnes
Jenn atop Akamina Highpoint
