We passed a multitude of hikers, oohing and awing over the views at the lakes, as we made our way back down to the Lake Magog Campground, and as surprising as it may seem, these were the only people we'd encounter during the entire (4 day) length of our stay! (Obviously we saw a few people at camp and on the approach into the park, but that's not what I'm talking about here.) Aside from these brief five minutes to remind us that we were indeed in a very popular backcountry destination, completely sold out of campsites, it genuinely felt like we had the entire park to ourselves! Sometimes I forget that we're the odd balls and that bagging 13 peaks in three days isn't something that your typical Assiniboine visitor does...🤷‍♂️

After navigating our way back through the maze of campground trails, we carried on to the southwest, crossing a minor stream and continuing down the trail towards Hind Hut. Following Vern's advice, we followed the trail for a short distance past the "AHHH, Mount Assiniboine is dangerous! Stay away!" warning sign (that's not actually what it says, but you get the idea 😂) before starting up a narrow, overgrown drainage, breaking through the forested slopes to our right. A couple minutes later we arrived at a clearing and backtracked to the north, crossing over a field of avalanche debris (ie. deadfall) on route to the big boulder field that grants easy access to Sunburst's upper bowl.

Incredible views of the entire length of Lake Magog opened up as we quickly gained elevation on the lichen-covered boulders, and it wasn't long before we were entering the upper bowl, gazing up at what appeared to be an impenetrable wall guarding the upper reaches of the mountain. We wandered up the scree bowl knowing a relatively straightforward route would eventually reveal itself, and sure enough, as we neared the base of the cliffs we noticed a convenient, grassy ledge starting near the center of the bowl and traversing up to climber's right.

As we angled across the band, the vertical walls above soon began to break up, and we followed the natural curves of the mountain as our ledge petered out and an obvious, blocky weakness appeared directly above us. A couple moderate steps later we had breached the cliff band (be sure to glance back and familiarize yourself with the terrain so you can find this weakness on return!) and were ascending steep grassy slopes, trending back to the left and aiming for a narrow gully that would lead us to the summit ridge. This final gully is steep, loose, confined...I guess what I'm trying to say is, you might want to bring a brain bucket for this one! The center of the gully is literally just a narrow chute filled with unstable rubble, and we avoided it whenever possible, ascending slightly more stable scree-covered ledges immediately to climber's right.

The skies had been threatening for the entirety of our ascent (we'd already been spit on a couple of times), but as we scrambled up this final gully, they finally decided it was time to party and we found ourselves in a literal thunderstorm just meters from the summit! Climbing higher and higher is the polar opposite of what you should be doing in a thunderstorm, but with how "spotty" the weather had been we hoped this system would pass over quickly and slowly carried on.

Staying as low as possible (while still going up), we followed a ledge system traversing just below the summit ridge. There are multiple possibilities for gaining the ridge depending on how far you traverse, and we eventually found a short rock step that was to our liking and easily ascended to the broad summit plateau. As we made the final few steps to the summit cairn a miracle happened! The rain completely stopped and the sun came out, brightly illuminating the summit plateau in beautiful, warm light - No one was gonna get struck by lightning today 😉!

Views from the summit were absolutely stunning! Dark storm clouds continued to brew to the east, contrasting the bright, blue skies to the west, and it felt like we were on the boarder between two opposing worlds. Peering down Sunburst's north face, to the beautiful blue shades of Sunburst and Cerulean Lakes, an airy 500 vertical meters below, was a breathtaking sight to behold, and how could we not mention Assiniboine's majestic (and scary...I can't believe people free solo that thing!) north face still towering almost a vertical kilometer above us! Oh, and don't forget to take a short walk to the west to really complete the scene! Wouldn't want you to miss out on admiring Lake Magog from up here as well!

We spent over an hour marveling at the views from this strategically placed viewpoint before finally retracing our steps back down the mountain. When we arrived back at the grassy ledge, we cut off some distance by discovering a narrow weakness about halfway along the traverse, and easily descending it directly down to the scree bowl below.

I was curious how bad the typical "bushwhack route" was, so as we neared the base of the boulder field we stuck to the left side (along the edge of the forest), looking for a reasonable place to enter the trees. Just as the slope starts to level out we found a faint, but noticable, trail and glady followed it as it trended left, down the forested slopes with little to no bushwhacking required! The trail did have a tendency to fade away at times but we were always able to rediscover it without difficulty and the only actual bushwhacking occurred just as we were exiting the forest and emerging to a clearing just uphill of the main trail. To be completely honest, I didn't have a problem with either of the routes here, but if I was to pick one it'd have to be our descent route. It should be noted, however, that with the bushwhacking coming right at the edge of the bottom clearing, finding the trail on ascent could be a bit of a challenge...in which case you will likely end up actually bushwhacking...and that would suck.

My dad turned in for the night shortly after arriving back at camp (I think I wore him down just a tad on this trip...) while I walked out to a bit of a clearing where I stretched out and watched the sun set over Assiniboine one final time in peaceful solitude before making our departure the following day.

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