Phantasm Peak

Earlier this year the indefatigable Devan Peterson invited me to join him on an excursion to my one remaining major summit on a line of peaks that stretches from Mount Astley in the south (near Lake Minnewanka) north through, Solstice Peak, Spectral Peak, Stoney Peak and Puma Peak. This particular summit is over 2950 meters and sits between Spectral to the south and Stoney to the north. Of course there are many other ghostly themed summits nearby that I’ve had the pleasure (!!) to tackle including, Haunted, Psychic, Elaphus, Revenant, Brocks, Apparition and Aylmer.

I didn’t know much else about the mountain and I’m pretty sure Devan didn’t have any secret beta either - this was to be an exploratory adventure. For various reasons the trip never happened but on September 9 2026 Devan solo’d the SW ridge and reported back that it was 3rd class (moderate) scrambling. He also gave it a spectacular name that all-but-guaranteed I’d have to ascend it sooner than later. I mean c’mon, how can you NOT want to claim a peak dubbed, “Phantasm”?! 👻🏔️

After a recent marathon larch march in Lake O’Hara, I decided that I would do the exact opposite of everyone else visiting the Rockies on Sunday, September 27th - I would avoid larches and head into a severe bushwhack to an unofficial summit that most people have never and will never give a 💩about. An advantage of avoiding the crowds was that I didn’t have to wake up at 0400 to beat them all to the various larchy trailheads. I set my alarm for 0630 instead. Those 2.5 extra hours were most excellent, I assure you. 🛌😴

As I rode my bike up an extremely familiar Cascade fire road, I meditated on my route. I knew there was fresh snow above around 2600 meters and with the SW ridge rating of 3rd class I decided to tackle the bushwhack on both approach and egress. For some strange reason I was in the mood to slow down and become one with the forest today. Little did I know that there’s forest bathing and then there’s forest waterboarding. Even though both involve meditation in the bush, one of them is traumatic and the other is cathartic. You decide which is which but I f’d around and found out.

As I cycled the large bridge over the Cascade River I noticed huge wolf tracks on the metal deck under my tires in the overnight frost. The tracks had melted the frost and were likely only minutes ahead of me. They were about the size of my hand! 🐺😰

Rant: One of my pet peeves is movies and TV shows that hype how dangerous wolves are to humans. Hint: they’re not. At all. One study found 26 fatalities WORLDWIDE over 18 years. And most of the deaths were from rabies, not savagery. There were two deaths in North America over those 18 years. You know how many people died from weather related events in North America over the past 18 years? 12,000 to 18,000 in the USA alone, that’s how many - mostly from heat, believe it or not. You should be much more concerned about wild weather than wolves, that’s the conclusion here in case you missed it. 🌩️

I was surprised to come upon a brand new bridge, still under construction, at the outlet stream leading up into my approach valley. There are actually two new bridge spans being constructed here. Apparently the stream exploded through the road with the high water flows in early spring 2026. It’s nice to see Parks Canada keeping this route alive with new infrastructure. I was done riding at this point, roughly 11 kms up the trail, and after locking my bike to a tree I proceeded up the creek on foot.

Devan had warned me that the bushwhack was intense on this one. I’d asked about the creek since the southerly neighbors of Phantasm had both had pretty great creek approaches. When Wietse and I ascended the Spectral Peak drainage we encountered a decent amount of ‘whacking but it wasn’t brutal. It sucked but it didn’t scar us permanently the way a proper bushwhack can. On my solo ascent of Solstice Peak in 2021, I’d enjoyed the creek approach - it was surprisingly bush free and fun. I expected something similar to Spectral today and I got more than that.

Right from the road things quickly deteriorated. The creek was obviously not going to be as friendly as Solstice’s was. Not even close. Trees and forest detritus lay haphazardly across and throughout the creekbed like a game of giant pickup sticks. Despite being oddly in the mood for an off trail adventure today I immediately wondered how long that would last, looking ahead at what lay in store for me. For a while I thought I might be able to stick on climber’s right of the creek, not quite on the bank but to the side of the running water. I was nervous about the steepening banks but stubbornly kept at it before things got stupid. Not surprisingly my track converged pretty closely with Devan’s track. There is only so much suffering a human can handle before they look for a way out. And even at this early juncture, I was looking for an exit!

After ascending moderate bush (lots of willows and some blow-down), I found a light trail running through the mess and judging by Devan’s track he’d also found this reprieve. Soon Devan’s ascent track deviated up to my left where he started up the SW ridge. I continued following his exit track through the forest for roughly 400 meters before deviating on a higher line than he used on his exit.

I was following smatterings of animal trails and didn’t like the idea of plunging down to the willow choked stream below.

Roughly 3.5 kms from the bike drop I merged back with Devan’s egress track and into the valley bottom where I found mostly open rubble slopes on the south side of the creek. The creek itself was still a mess of willows, thinning gradually but not enough to get into it as I continued up the valley.

The day was turning into one of those lovely fall days where you don’t want to think about the coming winter. As I hiked I meditated how lucky I was to be all by myself when most other areas of the Rockies were packed with larch hunters.

Speaking of larches. I didn’t expect any on this hike but wouldn’t you know it? I rounded a corner towards my peak and spotted ONE lonely, bright yellow larch tree below! Hilarious. Literally ONE larch. Needless to say, this is not a “larch march”. 😀

As I slowly rounded open terrain to my left (north), easy rubble ascent slopes loomed ahead.

There were no technical difficulties as I slowly picked my way to the south summit ridge with stunning views over upper “Haunted Creek” towards a towering Revenant Mountain.

I slowly picked my way over fresh snow to the cairned summit before taking in the views in crisp, clear autumn air. Mount Aylmer looked huge, as always, and Revenant Mountain also loomed large. Stoney, Puma, Haunted, Psychic, Oliver, Spectral and others in the area also featured prominently.

I was surprised to see a white PVC tube in the summit cairn and when I opened it I realized that it was placed by Allan Schierman in 2022. He summited via the same route as Devan, along the SW ridge. After signing the register and taking a few more photos (lots of larches in the upper Haunted Creek valley), I slowly wandered my way back down the south ridge.

Descent was, as expected, first easy down rubble slopes and then a lovely wander through the upper alpine valley in warm sun and brilliant blue skies.

It was quiet and still as I sat on a small patch of soft vegetation and leaned back against a boulder in the upper valley. I wasn’t looking forward to the bushwhack anymore - but there was no avoiding it as I reluctantly started the rest of my egress.

As usual with descents, return was slightly easier than the approach even though I never did find a secret bushwhack-free trail or route. I think my return track is probably worse than my approach and should not be used blindly as a good route. Stumbling out at the new bridges on the road was a relief, I’m not gonna lie.

The Cascade fire road exit was a lonely affair. It was a little strange to be all alone the entire day from start to finish, when I knew the Rockies were packed with people everywhere else. But of course, I loved it and it was exactly what I was looking for today.

I’m not sure I’d recommend Phantasm Peak for anyone other than hardcore Rockies peakbaggers or anyone who likes the name as much as I do. There are many other nearby peaks that offer much nicer approaches, more engaging scrambling routes and higher summits. For me it was the perfect getaway from the larch crowds and as a bonus I still got to see that one, misshapen, lonely larch tree. 💛🌲

Come to think of it, that larch reminded me of myself in some ways. Just two old mountain dwellers, silently enjoying a small, hidden corner of the Rockies with no other in-kind life forms anywhere around us and no one to know we were even there. If that sounds fun to you, then this is a peak you should nab.