Some thoughts on Mortality and Climbing Fisher Peak for the Final Time

by Gerry Warner
Cranbrook Daily Townsman
You could call it our heritage mountain. But it's more than that as it is a rite of passage for many in the Cranbrook-Kimberley area and somehow many of us just don't feel quite complete until we've climbed it as I did for the third – and I think final time – Tuesday on a glorious September day that you can only experience in the Kootenay Rockies.
I'm talking about Mt Fisher, of course, or Fisher Peak as it's often deservedly called, an almost perfectly shaped pyramid peak that soars above a tangle of lesser peaks on the northeastern horizon overlooking the meandering Kootenay River and the Rocky Mountain Trench.
Named for Jack Fisher, one of the first prospectors to discover the Wild Horse Creek gold diggings in 1861, it was climbed for the first time officially in 1913 by Art Nichols and G. Lum, but it wouldn't surprise me if other prospectors and explorers did it earlier or if Ktunaxa natives did it eons before on a vision quest or "because it's there," as George Leigh Mallory once famously said.
In my case at age 65, I think I've burned my thighs for the final time on Fisher's steep rock and scree, but with my son Nathan home from university and on his way to medical school in Australia, we had to do this unique Kootenay rite of passage again as we'd gotten blown off the mountain near the summit in an earlier attempt around five years ago.
And this time it took longer. Quite a bit longer for this aging senior who is fighting the label and still trying to behave like a frisky 30-something. Not so, I'm afraid as the almost five hours it took me to gain the summit was at least an hour longer than the last time and I was over 60 then. But if it's any consolation Janice Strong, author of the popular “Mountain Footsteps” guidebook series says it takes her at least five hours one way to climb Fisher and she's much younger than me, I think. (Apologies to Janice if this is not true.)
But Janice and I are both mere pikers compared to some of the mountain climbing luminaries around here who have racked up prodigious times in climbing the highest summit in the area. From the Mause Creek Road trailhead to Fisher's lofty summit at 9,336 feet (2,846 meters) is 4,400 vertical feet, almost a mile straight up and about eight km of walking. (steeply!) I mentioned five hours for Janice and I and even my Townsman colleague Dan Mills (a much younger man than me) takes at least four hours to reach Fisher's narrow summit platform yet the climb has been unofficially done in one hour and 10 minutes by Wycliffe mountain man Chris Lague, a friend of local hiking legend Denny Kerr, who's made it in one hour 18 minutes and climbed the lofty spire a grand total of 138 times (official). Kerr, in fact, recently installed some sign markers and two metal hand-hold rings on the upper slopes of Fisher near the summit to aid climbers thanks to some money provided by Victoria.
Fisher climbing feats have also been performed by several Kimberley climbers including Roy Moe of Moe's Canyon fame, who used to scamper up the giant landmark in around an hour and-a-half after peddling his bike in from Kimberley. I have also been reliably informed that a remarkable individual from Kimberley climbed Fisher at the age of 90, but I was unable to confirm this. As for the youngest Fisher climber, I've heard of children as young as eight or ten but I don't know any more than that.
Whatever the case, if you ever think of climbing Fisher yourself you might want to think twice. Fisher is a serious mountain. It's not ropes, pitons and caribiners, but it's steep and long and there is some serious exposure near the top. In fact where the metal rings have been placed is often referred to as “the Hillary step,” after a short rock face near the summit of Everest named after Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to climb Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
But don't let this discourage you. If you're in reasonably good shape, younger than 65 and have a spirit of adventure, give Fisher a go. But don't go alone, dress for the quickly
changing weather and take a good look at the sign kiosk installed near the trailhead a few years ago by the East Kootenay Outdoor Club that contains information that could save your life.
For as Hillary once said, a mountain is not officially climbed until the climber returns alive.
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