Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

December 22, 2011

2398m

Banff – Sunshine Village, AB/BC

After Twin Cairns and Wawa Ridge, I still had time, so I decided to get another peak done, namely, Standish Hump. Note that Sunshine Village calls it “Mt. Standish”, but its official name is either Standish Hump or Standish Ridge depends on which map you’re looking at. And like its official name suggests, this doesn’t look like a “mountain” at all, despite the fact it has elevation close to 2400 m. This little peak only rises above the adjacent Sunshine Meadows for 100 m or so. Also, Standish Hump is in front country, as the chair lift can take you directly to the summit. I think the name “Standish Lookout” is more appropriate. But anyway, since it has an official name, I’ll take it.

Ascent route for Twin Cairns, Wawa Ridge and Standish Hump

There’s nothing magic about tagging this summit. From the broad meadows above Wawa Chair, also the broad pass between Wawa Ridge and Twin Cairns I took a more-or-less straight beeline towards Standish Hump. It’s mostly flat terrain to travel through and the post-holing was minimal. Near the summit I crossed into the ski resort boundary and were joined by hundreds of down-hill users on the summit.

Near the summit. You can see the chairlift, and a snowboarder

The peak on right is Twin Cairns which I just did in the morning. Behind it is The Monarch

Looking south into Sunshine Meadows

Summit view.

Brewster Rock. Another front country summit

Looking down towards Sunshine Village

Sunshine Village. Note the gondola line behind.

On the descent I decided to take a short-cut route straight down to Sunshine Village. I saw a “black diamond” route going straight northwards from the summit so that’s the one I’d follow. It turned out to be a wee bit steeper than I was expecting and there’s too much side-hilling involved (for snowshoeing anyway). It was quite painful on my ankles but I made down nonetheless. The skiers must be wondering what the heck I was doing… I took a short break in the village and then took the gondola ride down.