Forum

Height: 7,923
View-o-meter: 4/5
Scrambling Difficulty: Moderate
Total Trip Difficulty: Easy
Best Feature: Views of snow filled, pyramidal peaks
Worst Part: A short bit of loose scrambling near the ridge top


Forum Peak and the "Dragon's Back" as seen from the popular Carthew-Alderson Summit Trail

Approach Forum by hiking up the Akamina Pass trail up to the BC border. At the border, head left (south) along the cut line. In about 1km the cut line passes near a steep hillside with a grown over trail. This used to be popular spot for skiing in the 40's.

Hike up the short, steep headwall. At the top of the ridge continue hiking through the Tamaracks. There are nice views down the left to Cameron Lake. Eventually you run into a rotten headwall. Avoid difficulties by going right. This puts you on lose 3rd class terain until the top of the ridge. The true peak lies off to the left

At the ridge top, you can go right to head down to Bennet's Pass, along the "Dragon's Back". This is a very popular and scenic ridge run. Most people do the Dragon's back by ascending the ridge between Forum lake and Wall lake, however, following Forum ridge gives you an extra peak and was the original route for this ridge run. The unamed summit to the West of Forum peak is actually several hundred feet higher than Forum.

The 1861 Boundary commission put up a boundary marker down to the left (south) of the peak. Here is an original picture from that time (courtesy John Dormaar).


John Dormaar has recently finished a book on the 49th Parallel. West on the 49th Parallel is another excellent read about the original boundary surveys. It provides some great insight into the local mountain names as well as some guessing how some of them have changed - Sheep and Sopah for instance

The cairn has long since disappeared. As a 12 year old, I found a slab of rock with some names carved in from this time period. This was part of a longer trip down to Custer and out Goat Haunt. (This is a nice way to get up Custer - although there is a fair bit of traversing on shale ledges).

Other Route Descriptions

Takabe.ca A very nice set of pictures with the associated description.