Charles Stewart, Mount (+ SE2)

Way back in 2012 I scrambled up Mount Charles Stewart South, also known as “Buffalo Point” for some reason. While this unofficial peak is generally considered quite easy, the true summit of Mount Charles Stewart is usually considered a bit of a different beast. Lately there are more and more fit ‘n fast folks from the Bow Valley who do the impressive and complex traverse from Lady McDonald at the south, all the way to Princess Margaret at the north end.

I salute the feats of impressive soloing and fast times that these folks are putting up, but I am not in that game myself. I am in the scrambling game — I like to tag a summit via its easiest or at the very least most scenic line. And I’m here to tell others of the same ilk that there is not only a very easy and scenic line up Mount Charles Stewart, but this can be a 2-peak day and remain easy, scenic and relatively accessible.

Years ago already, I’d read a report from Josée on her trip with Raf and Chantel up Mount Charles Stewart. They, in turn, utilized an approach documented by Brandon Boulier up Cougar Creek and an unnamed north branch to access east slopes rather than going over Buffalo Point from the south.

The only fly in the ointment was the tremendous amount of time they took — 19 hours round trip! 🪰The stats simply didn’t back up that amount of time, so they must have taken their time on this one! I didn’t realize that Brandon’s report had a GPS track, so I only used Josée’s trip report for my own adventure. This actually worked out better in hindsight — I’ll explain later.

After a solo adventure up Butwell Peak which nabbed a first ascent in 22 years since Rick Collier’s 2003 trip I was ready for something a little less involved on Saturday, September 20th. Larches weren’t at their fullest yet, so I decided it was time to return to Cougar Creek. My last adventures up here were a long solo trip up Stenton and Carrot peaks in 2019 and before that another solo trek on the Townsend Traverse in 2018 . As good as these memories were, I also recalled some drudgery in the main creek before getting anywhere close to the objectives themselves. This time I started at daybreak from the parking lot and trekked over the impressive new dam at the outflow of Cougar Creek .

Once over the dam it was a familiar slog on a mix of easy trails along rubble and over log bridges up the creek and further up, some boulder hopping and route finding the easiest lines.

Eventually the creek splits a few times and loses all water so it’s very important to have a hydration strategy to deal with this, especially on a warm day like I had. I thought it was only 5 kms up the creek but it was actually 6. It took me 100 minutes from the parking lot to the north branch outflow and I wasn’t taking my time. At this point I was happy to leave the main creek — it really is a little boring! Lucky for me, the rest of my day was about to improve dramatically. The unnamed creek started out inconspicuous enough as a typical Rockies front range rubble drainage. Soon however, cairns and ribbons guided me to an obvious trail climber’s left side of the creek. This was a most unexpected and fortuitous discovery.

Josée doesn’t mention a trail in her report and I hadn’t seen Brandon’s report where he does make brief mention of one but also mentions “bushwhacking”, which I didn’t really experience at all. This is why I’m glad I didn’t have Brandon’s track, as I likely would have followed it too far north up the creek.

Josée’s party ascended a much earlier draw than Brandon did, which avoided bushwhacking and got them up to the alpine very efficiently. I was determined to follow this path and thankfully when I got under it, it was very obvious. At this point I was enjoying the day a lot more than expected. Just having the goat trail up the creek was a huge mental boost and I was making very good time — much quicker than if I’d hiked up the creek bed directly. Again — I strongly suspect that Josée’s group didn’t find this trail as she doesn’t mention or show it in her report. Thankfully the creek was running and I filled up one last time before starting up the steep open slopes leading to alpine meadows, still high above me at this point.

Pure magic awaited me as I huffed and puffed my way up the open draw next to a boulder field. I took advantage of shady forest to my right where it was open along the edge, but otherwise stayed on the open slopes following smatterings of sheep trails.

As I topped out along the edge of an upper stand of trees I couldn’t believe how scenic the landscape in front of me was. Considering how close this is to the busy town of Canmore, I felt like I’d been transported to the middle of nowhere. There was nobody but me in the whole valley, no sounds of humans, no signs of them either. It was wonderful. Fall colors made the whole scene even more sublime as I walked in sunshine to an easy looking headwall guarding upper alpine meadows.

The rocky headwall was indeed as easy as it first appeared. I scrambled up it directly, hardly bothering to find easier lines. Once again I was in for quite the treat as I topped out — wonderful fall views along a beautiful alpine valley encircled by various outliers of Mount Charles Stewart. Josée makes it sound like her team was off route ascending this way but I think this is the only way to go. Brandon’s track leads too far north and avoids this very scenic approach from the lower creek. As I wandered slowly up the meadows my view back to a striking outcrop was surprising and stunning with morning lighting and fall colors.

My day only continued to improve as I made my way across the bowl, trying to maintain elevation towards rubble slopes leading up to the ridge between Buffalo Point and Charles Stewart’s false summit.

Everything remained straightforward and quick as I trudged up the rubble (firmer than it looked) and easily through some slabs to the ridge. I also spotted a fast scree run down from the false summit that I would use on return.

As I traversed to the false summit I snapped some photos of the massive cairn randomly situated on the ridge.

Buffalo Point looked pretty fierce to the south but the false summit looked very accessible to the north. It didn’t take long and I was starting along the ridge to the true summit. I knew from Cornelius that this ridge starts out innocent but quickly becomes serious terrain — exposed and loose.Sure enough! After a short, difficult stretch of ridge I choose to descend to my left down a ramp feature to the MUCH easier scree traverse below.

People have commented how terrible this scree traverse is but it’s really not. First, it’s short. Second, there is a trail forming there now. Third, this is the Rockies! If you think this scree traverse is so bad, you should pick a new hobby or a new mountain range.

In no time at all I was under the most serious section of ridge (no longer scrambling, this is climbing if you’re on top) and easily making my way up to the summit. By sticking as close as possible to slabs on climber’s right I managed to avoid about half of the scree here.

Within 4.5 hours of the parking lot I was on the summit of Mount Charles Stewart. As usual for this September, views within around 10-15 kms were very fine with more distant views a little smoky / hazy. Mount Peechee featured prominently to the north and even Mount Assiniboine was visible through the haze. It was only from the summit that I noticed Charles Stewart SE2.

Despite scrambling (and loving) many unofficial peaks over the years, I draw the line at feeling compulsive about every single high point in the Rockies. I think some folks are determined to summit every “peak” in David Jones’ climber’s guides but I am definitely not one of them. 😉 When I saw posts on a peak called, “Charles Stewart SE2” on Strava and Facebook earlier this year, it didn’t hold my interest whatsoever. A long creek approach to ascend an outlier of a peak I’d already done? Lower than anything else in the area, also lower than nearby peaks that I’ve already done? No thanks! But now here I was, in the area on a perfect late summer day and I’d just spotted an easy looking line up the dang thing. Hmmm. Was it time for a twofer?

As I descended along easy scree slopes and traversed back up to the false summit, I decided that I might as well go check out the scree ramp I’d spotted up SE2’s north face. It was hardly out of my way and didn’t look like too much extra gain — possibly a few hundred meters at most. I guess I am a hopeless peakbagger after all. Dang it. 🐐

The alternate descent I’d spotted down to the meadows from the false summit worked great. It was a mix of loose and hardpack scree but was very quick and easy. Soon I was striding across the meadows once again — this time looking intently at an obvious ramp leading up SE2 ahead.

After passing some disinterested sheep, I started up the rubble ramp to SE2. Interestingly, there was much less loose rubble than I was expecting. I managed to find buried slab and firm rock for most of the ascent, making this even less of a “waste of time”.

It only took me 25 minutes from the meadows and I was standing on my second “summit” of the day — this was adorned with a bright pink Ephraim Roberts artifact.

As I stood there looking at familiar summits and the various valleys and gullies below, I wondered where exactly the route for SE2 out of Cougar Canyon was? I was fairly confident it wasn’t where I’d come up — it had to be another gully system somewhere to the south and west of my position. The only issue? Since I dismissed SE2 when I first saw it on my socials, I didn’t have a track for it in Gaia. I also had no cell service at the summit. Oh well, I loved my approach and didn’t mind returning that way. Before I descended I traversed quite a way SE of the summit to get better views of Cougar Creek canyon and wouldn’t you know it? I had full cell service there! I quickly loaded up Sonny Bou’s report from earlier in the summer and imported his GPX track into Gaia. Cool! I could now descend a different way, making a loop out of my day and probably saving a few kms of distance too.

This day was turning into a real treat. First there was the cool trail up the north creek. Then there were the amazing alpine meadows. An easy scramble to a lofty summit over the Bow Valley and another easy scramble to another “peak” for a twofer. Now I had an alternate descent back to Cougar Creek via another untrailed gully that I hadn’t visited before. Nicely done! And much of this day wasn’t even planned ahead of time — just spur-of-the-moment changes as I went. I love days like this.

There were no difficulties following Sonny’s track down a steep gully south of SE2. It only took me 40 minutes to descend the steepest part of the gully before it levelled out, still descending towards a distant Cougar Creek.

It took longer than I expected to actually reach Cougar Creek but it was all pretty straightforward and uneventful.

The sun was hot as I slowly made my way down the main creek back to the dam and my car. Cougar Creek is a busy place on a Saturday afternoon, with families, dogs and climbers all enjoying the great late summer we’ve been having in 2025.

I highly recommend the route I have documented on Charles Stewart for all the reasons folks like us enjoy the Rockies. Despite rumors of a rather boring and unpleasant outing, I found nothing but fun little canyons and creeks. I had zero bushwhacking. I traveled handy sheep trails and hiked through stunning alpine meadows.

I enjoyed easy scrambling all day and even bagged a second peak and followed an alternate descent back into Cougar Creek. It was a much more engaging and scenic day than I originally expected and surpassed my expectations a hundredfold.