Warren & Brazeau

April 30 2026

Situated on the east side of the Icefields Parkway and just southeast of Jasper are Mount Warren and Mount Brazeau. These 11000ers overlook Maligne Lake and require quite a bit of distance covered to get close to but those that make the trek in and stand on top will be rewarded with views all the way to the Great Plains to the east along with a sea of peaks you don't see much of from other mountains on the list. The standard approach up the Poboktan Creek trail is littered with fallen trees and is quite lengthy but an alternative that takes some of the load off the legs and seems to have been getting more popular is a canoe across Maligne Lake before approaching and climbing the peaks on foot and paddling back across.

With a few 11000er trips left to do and only about a month and a half remaining in my list completion timeline goal of sub 2 years I was eager to check off some of the bigger trip objectives I still had left to do and Warren and Brazeau fell into that category. Typically done in 3 days, a trip for these summits is often categorized by a slog in and out with a heavy pack on unless you canoe but I had another idea. I couldn't find any information on past parties day tripping the two mountains from the road but given that it would be about 55km and 3500m gain via the standard route I figured it was possible for very fit groups with a ski descent albeit a very long day. The problem was an annual caribou closure in the area lasted until May 16 and a lot of the approach would likely be melted out by then but luck was on our side.

Having day tripped Mount Joffre recently before in good time I was feeling confident with the fitness and when Mitchell Thomas sent me a message letting me know that the caribou closure in the Brazeau area had been lifted a couple months early we were motivated to go for it sooner rather than later. Coincidentally a great looking weather window seemed likely later in the week so we kept a close eye on it to try and pick the best day. Mitchell was also keen on the single push effort idea but we both figured a 3rd member wouldn't hurt so we invited Taylor Sullivan to complete our uber fit trio. We had a bit of a decision to make regarding the exact approach we would take, we knew we didn't want to take the Maligne Lake route as we weren't sure if it was fully frozen over still for us to skin across, and we had heard about the winter approach option that heads NW below Coronet Mountain before doubling back on the glacier on the other side but we opted to go with the standard Poboktan Campground route as it had the most available beta and seemed the most straightforward.

links: STRAVA | GAIA
elapsed time: 20hrs
DIFFICULTY: AD-/AD, extensive glacier travel, remote, typically multiday, steep snow / ice climbing

Use the following links to jump to:

THE APPROACH
THE BRAZEAU ICEFIELD
MOUNT WARREN
MOUNT BRAZEAU
THE EXIT

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I was in Grande Prairie for work for a couple weeks sandwhiching our target day but with a window and a crew like the one we had lined up I was more than willing to make the commute and skip out on a day and a half. The downside was that I ended up arriving at the Poboktan lot by 11pm and we had plans to start at 3am so the glorious combo of a crap sleep and a huge day out was about to be realized once again. By 3:30am the three of us were off at a blistering pace set by Taylor but we were all still half asleep so it didn't suck as much as retracing our steps in the dark, more on that later. After three hours of skinning and log hopping we reached the Poboktan campground where a junction to the upper section of the Warren and Brazeau approach begins, and with the snow coverage what could've been a nasty bushwhack actually ended up being relatively easy travel and we made it into the upper sidehilling and elevation gain portion rather quickly.

The conditions were quite crusty in the early morning and the elevation gain through the final section of the approach to the glacier was categorized by a sketchy and slippery skin track since Mitchell and I didn't have ski crampons. After this gain to get closer to the glacier there's a dip and regain so we had to transition but got some sweet turns down on some of the best snow of the day before booting up the other side. With the solid April snowpack we were confident with the glacier coverage and opted to continue across the Brazeau Icefield unroped and after a foreshortened crossing had a front row seat view of Brazeau's south face.

Passing the coal mine near Grande Cache on the way from Grande Prairie

9pm and still NE of Hinton racing the sun, lost this one

THE APPROACH

Starting the day at a solid pace to get this approach done quick

Past Poboktan Campground already, about 3 hours in

Gaining ground, a bit too early to start going up but we avoided the canyon feature you don't want to run into so it worked out

Looking back, a whole lot of peaks that are completely foreign to me back there

Making good progress, the snow coverage up to this point made for quick travel

Getting higher, dropping to the low point of this drainage after we stuck to climber's left of
the creek

A bit of an awkward step to descend on skins

The sidehilling shenanigans begin, RIP our ankles

Another look back, wont be long till we can see the high peaks!

Mount Henry Macleod above, apparantly there's a couloir to gain that peak on the SW side
for the winter approach option

Topping out on a sweet view point before we had to lose some ground

The early elevation loss, best snow conditions we got all day here!

Mitchell with the Brazeau Icefield looming above

The first of many bootpacking section today

Prime views to The Twins, Woolley, Diadem, & Alberta's epic north face

Numerous sweet looking peaks to the west, everything here is quite high as well, all above
3100m

THE BRAZEAU ICEFIELD

The plod across, definitely a bigger icefield than I had been expecting

Mitchell with some remote terrain behind

Initially we had been considering going for a ski descent of Brazeau's north face after ascending the south, but since we didn't know how the line looked we opted to go down and around Brazeau for Warren first. The ski down was quick but we knew we'd have to regain the elevation before doing Brazeau so we weren't stoked about that. Not long after switching to skins where we got our first view of Warren we got a good look at Brazeau's north face and it was in nasty shape so we definitely made the smart call. Our plan was to go for the chute / couloir feature route to the left of the icefall on Warren's south side so we motored across the glacier between the two peaks to reach its base.

Cruisy skiing down past Braz, we'll have to regain this elevation loss later though...

MOUNT WARREN

3362m, 11030ft

Switching back to skins, lots of transitions today

Mitchell with Brazeau's epic north face and numerous icefalls above, note the bare ice on
the upper section, it's good we didn't try to ski that

Taylor blazing ahead while Mitchell and I get a freshly made skin track

Hero shot of Brazeau's north face from below

Getting closer now, aiming for the couloir / ramp feature to the left of the icefall

Starting up the couloir feature it didn't take long to realize the snow was getting extremely sun affected with the direct south facing aspect, but after switching to boot packing and topping out before turning towards the east ridge / face above conditions improved. That being said travel remained tough with snow at least mid calf deep most of the way up but thankfully with three people we could switch out leads frequently as needed. A while later we topped out on the steep section of ridge with just some low angle gain remaining so we switched back to skinning for the final climb to the summit and were treated to views of Brazeau's north face as well as the still frozen over Maligne Lake after checking out the other high point on Warren that may or may not be higher.

With a lot of distance and elevation gain still to cover we didn't hang around for long on the summit before starting the ski down. Ski conditions weren't great near our line up on the east ridge but occasionally we'd get some better snow for a few turns and for the lower section it was heavy but fun spring skiing snow until we reached the glacier below and geared up for the elevation regain slog to come.

A closeup of the icefall, some neat features in there!

We started up with some switchbacks but the snow was very sun affected so it
wasn't very efficient

Time for some boot pack slogging, thankfully we had 3 people to trade off the lead

Onto the upper portion of the ascent climbing the east face / ridge, it gets steeper than I
had been expecting

Summit in sight, we put the skis back on soon after this

What a view of Braz, that north face is definitely not in for skiing at the moment though

Looking NW to the other highpoint of Warren

Warren summit shot! 11000er #17 for Mitchell, #50 for me, & Taylor doesn't keep track but he's done a bunch

The other highpoint with Robson visible in the distance behind the snowy pyramid at left

Taylor & Mitchell from the other highpoint

A sizable amount of relief off that west
face!

Me on top, likely not the true summit but
cant hurt to check it off regardless

Clemenceau, Tusk, & Shackleton way off in the distance, still very high on my to
do list!

The iconic Maligne Lake view, not quite as stunning when it's iced over but still pretty sweet!

Looking down the east face direct that Trevor Sexsmith skied, that's a steep line!

And once last shot of Brazeau's north face from the top of Warren before we ski down

Stoked, now time to descend and get another one

Not as fun turns through this section, variable
conditions

Onto the south facing slope, was a lot more like spring skiing here, not quite isothermal but very soft

A closeup look back at Warren, our tracks visible on the lower slope

Mount Brazeau

3470m, 11384ft

After spending some time melting snow since we had run low on water we got a move on back towards the base of Brazeau's south face as we were already over 12 hours into our day and didn't want to risk getting benighted in technical skiing terrain. It was obvious we were all feeling it by this point but after an hour or so of grinding the summit fever motivation kicked in again and the ski and boot pack up the face hurt but didn't quite kill us as much as we thought it might at that point in the day. The SW ridge was foreshortened from below so we ended up boot packing for longer than we were expecting to when we took the skis off but once we reached the summit there were no other high points to worry about and we got to transitioning and skiing down after some summit celebrations and a few photos.

The ski down Braz was similar to the upper portion of Warren having been quite wind affected but slightly more consistent, the one thing to watch for though is it's easy to go too far right trying to avoid the rock bands and I ended up staring down the cliff off the SW face a dozen meters below me before stepping my way back up and heading back to our uptrack on skier's left. Below the rock bands there were a few more turn opportunities before we decided to straight line it to try and retain as much elevation as possible for the first of two tedious elevation gain sections on the way out.

And now for the trudge back up to the base of Brazeau's south face, oh boy

On the plus side we had our tracks to follow on the way back but this section hurt bad

The views helped to keep the stoke up, still a bit to go until we started up the face

Starting to switchback up the face, a foreshortened view to the summit unfortunately

We didn't remember quite how long the SW ridge was so this section dragged

Mitchell leading the final push to the summit

At the top, the crew feeling pretty bagged

Another one! #18 for Mitchell & #51 for me!

Dreamy summit views, it was 6pm though so we couldn't hang around for long, we've still
got an exit to do!

The Stuts, Cromwell, The Twins, Woolley, Diadem, King Edward, Alberta, and
even Sir Sandford visible

Looking east, if you look close enough you can see the Great Plains in the distance at left,
pretty wild given how far away that is from here

Switching back to ski mode, I wish I could say it was our last transition but it wasn't

THE EXIT

Not the best ski conditions down Braz but a fun ski nonetheless

Looking back at Braz after we skinned up the bump on the Brazeau Icefield, in the pain cave now

By the time we were throwing skins on to get up the bit of gain to crest the glacier before skiing down I was feeling a bit nauseous partly from not having had water for the past few hours but also not eating recently enough and getting low blood sugar late in the day. Regardless we pressed on since we'd have all the water we needed at the creek lower down and didn't want to waste time. After the small amount of gain it was back to downhill mode and the skiing was enjoyable until we got below the glacier and it was borderline isothermal with a fresh breakable crust on top... fun. The initial descent from the glacier was short lived before we had our second elevation regain section, but thankfully the exit from there on was predominantly all flat or descending.

The soft snow with a breakable crust on top continued as we retraced our tracks down but thankfully once we reached the treed section things improved significantly with no more crust and we made short work of the deproach from the glacier. From around the Poboktan Campground things got a lot more slow going unfortunately and with the numerous logs and downed trees to hop over we switched to skins for the remainder of the trip. This section of the exit was one of those that drag bad and being over 18 hours in and quite exhausted definitely contributed to that. Taylor got off ahead while Mitchell and I stuck together and not much was said for that last couple hours, the mutual suffering was understood. When we finally got back to the parking lot it was after 11pm and we were thrilled to be able to take the packs off, change out of our sweaty clothes, and hit the hay.

More cruisy skiing, this section was fun

Back at the top of the initial bootpack section we had, the snow through here and
below was a breakable crust that had recently formed with soft snow underneathe,
tough skiing

The last proper climbing section of the day, still a long ways from the parking lot though

More tricky skiing below until we reached the trees and it improved

Back in the boulder field, Taylor did a good job of finding a more direct line back

The canyon you want to avoid, wouldn't be so easy getting up through that!

Faffing around without the skins on,
we threw them on soon after

The single website worthy photo I took in the
last 3 hours from Poboktan Campground to the
parking lot, that exit was hard

As I've usually found with extremely long single push efforts, at times in the moment the suffering is potent and feels hard to justify rather than a multi-day trip, but the pain after the fact always feels worth it (especially when it's a wildly successful outing). This trip with Taylor and Mitchell is undoubtedly the strongest team I've ever been out with on a mountain trip and it's awesome to see what can be done when you get a group of keen, uber fit, and crazy alpinists together for a day. The amount of terrain we covered in 20 hours is wild and it was cool to experience standing atop Warren and Brazeau while also starting and ending the trip on the same day.

Following this trip I'm sitting at 51/58 11000ers of the Canadian Rockies checked off! Not exactly sure which one is next but there will only be 4 more trips if everything goes to plan, stay tuned!