Home»All Photographs»2020 Hikes»Mt. Murray - Cegnfs 08-15-20

With the fine weather forecast and maximum snowmelt at high elevation, we decided to give Cegnfs and Mt. Murray a go. I had wanted to do these neighboring peaks for some time now, and this was the opportunity.
The day starts with a nice hike up the French Creek drainage. Then some routefinding and bushwacking add to the challenge, as finding the rock "gates" are key to the ascent. After backtracking and searching around a bit, we found them and then knew we were on track.
A steep grunt up a v-shaped gully led to some pretty heinous treadmill scree. At this point, it was clear why this is an infrequently climbed mountain. We kept our heads down and patiently climbed up the slope.
The summit of Cegnfs (an acronym for the first ascent party) was a nice reward for our efforts. However, the view to our main objective, Mt. Murray, looked intimidating from here. This is a peak where patience, determination and the right gear are all needed.
We traversed the steep slopes of Mt. Murray around to the west side, before locating a chimney used to ascend the summit block. At the top of the chimney, we climbed a short series of ledges over exposed terrain that led to the small pointy summit of Mt. Murray. There was not enough room for the three of us to comfortably have lunch there, so we descended back to the Cegnfs col for a break. From there, we re-ascended Cegnfs in order to avoid side-hilling around the whole mountain. By the time we were at the Cegnfs summit for the second time, our elevation gain for the day was staggering.
The descent down the loose slopes of scree was great fun though - see video #2.
Beautiful surroundings and a sense of success on this tough peak kept our spirits high as we made our way back to the trailhead.