Canmore alpinist attempting new speed record on Canadian Rockies 11,000ers

Alpinist Haldan Borglum in Canmore on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (LEAH PELLETIER RMO PHOTO)

If it’s a bluebird day in the Rockies, there’s a good chance Canmore’s Haldan Borglum is gunning for the summit of one of the highest peaks in the range.

Crossing off 49 of the 58 highest peaks in the Canadian Rockies so far, the former World Cup biathlete’s latest alpine project, after completing every visible peak in the Canmore area in 2023, is to set a new 11,000er speed record.

“I started seeing these bigger mountains, super intimidating, but was like, ‘Oh, it’d be cool if I could do those one day,’” said Borglum, noting his Canmore project only stoked the fire for new mountaineering objectives.

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Stretching across Alberta and B.C., the Canadian Rockies 11,000ers list encompasses 58 peaks that measure over 11,000 feet (3,352 metres), and while Borglum says the list is gaining popularity, there’s only handful of documented completions.

“A lot of them aren’t done much and for good reason. Nobody’s heard of them,” he said, noting Bill Corbett’s book, The 11,000ers of the Canadian Rockies has made the list more prominent.

Completing the peaks in five-and-a-half years, the current speed record is held by Ben Nearingburg, with Steven Song as the youngest-known completionist, crossing off his final peak at age 27.

Borglum, 26, is aiming to stand on his 58th peak in under two years, and the athlete is getting close.

“I’m kind of list-based in my goals,” said Borglum, who retired from his biathlon career this year and now works as a coach.

“I’d get into this stuff when I was just doing hikes in Canmore in 2019, 2020, so it’s a slippery slope, I guess. You start off with the easy stuff and then you’re like, ‘Oh, this isn’t as fun. I need to do something harder now,’” he added, noting the 11,000ers require a wide variety of advanced mountaineering skills.

Nine peaks left and about six weeks to do them, if he wants to complete the list in under two years, Borglum says it’s coming down to the wire.

“A lot of them will probably fall into May because of caribou closures. Some of the ones near Jasper, they’re closed until May 16 and then I’ve got to try to go for them and that’s a tight window from the 16th to June 8,” he said.

Weather windows and lessons learned

Fresh off a crevasse rescue course, Borglum set out for his first 11,000er on the list, Mount Forbes, in June 2024 but by the end of the over 50-kilometre epic, battered and beat, he found himself rethinking the entire project.

“During that trip I was like, ‘I’m never doing a multi-day trip ever again.’ It was that bad. It was soul-crushingly hard,” Borglum said, recalling the long slogs on the seldom-summitted mountain in Banff National Park.

Bringing only stiff mountaineering boots for the entire three-day trek, Borglum would learn some valuable gear lessons by the time he reached the parking lot.

“My feet got massacred and [I had] a heavier pack than I should have brought, so soul-crushing weight. I learned a lot of lessons on that one,” he said.

“That was the first real 11,000er I ever did, and it killed me.”

But a few weeks later, feet healed and the pain starting to fade into memory, checking another 11,000er off the list didn’t sound so bad.

“I learned that you can be tougher than you think out there. It’s like this insurmountable, super difficult thing, but you get through it, and you make some adjustments and you do it again, and it’s gonna suck still, but you can push through.”

Fast forward a year and Borglum is squaring up with the toughest peaks on the list: Mount Robson and Mount Alberta.

“Robson is probably a bit above [Alberta] in terms of objective hazards, like you’re going up some couloir and an ice chunk could just come tumbling down and hit you, like just bad odds, or crevasses or a cornice breaking, you name it,” said Borglum.

Sticking with his strategy of trying to knock out multiple 11,000ers in one area in one go, Borglum also set his sights on The Helmet and Resplendent Mountain, Robson’s adjacent peaks, and with some luck on his side, a weather window presented itself in June 2025.

“I had looked at it numerous times on the forecast the past year and leading up to that point and never had good weather, but this one was like three, four days of zero clouds, so I had to go for it,” Borglum recalled.

But when you’re 4,000 metres up, the mountain calls the shots on the weather and conditions can turn on a dime.

“All of a sudden, we’re in a whiteout on Robson. Some parties 100 per cent would’ve turned around but we kept pushing,” Borglum said, describing the final kilometres before the summit.

One foot in front of the other, well aware of the sharp drop on either side of the ridge, Borglum and his crew topped out on the highest point in the Rockies.

While Robson stands as king of the Canadian Rockies, luring mountaineers to test their grit on the rock giant, Mount Alberta, the fifth-highest peak on the list, would present Borglum’s biggest technical challenge.

Conditions weren’t looking the best when Borglum and his team of three set out in late summer of 2025.

 “Usually, people consider Alberta one of the hardest ones, bone dry, but then all of a sudden you have snow on it and slippery rocks,” Borglum said, recalling the wet and snowy conditions on their attempt.

Pushing on anyway, Borglum and the crew would reach the summit around 7 p.m., after a 12-hour push up technical alpine terrain.

“It feels more like a multi-pitch when you’re up there. I’ve never had that before on one of these 11,000ers where you’re climbing and you get to a point and you’re like, ‘I kind of want to clip into something,’” he said, noting the steep grade.

“The summit is pretty sweet, but then you’re like, ‘damn, we gotta get down this thing,’” he added with a laugh.

Rappelling in chilly conditions through the night, the sun began rising on the next day by the time the team finished their last rappel.

“You’re not thinking straight when you’ve been going for 20 plus hours and you’re in the dark. You gotta be dialed if you’re in an exposed spot,” Borglum said.

“To this day, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done.”

Familiar with the high intensity of biathlon training, Borglum says his background in the sport has set him up well for tackling the Rockies’ toughest peaks, but that also meant that he’d have to find others with a similar skill level to team up with.

“Through Facebook groups for the list specifically, I initially just put invites out and then you make friends and then you have your crew,” he said.

Although there have been a few times where Borglum went it alone, including his trek up Mount King Edward in Jasper National Park.

“It was kind of a special scenario because the window for that one can be tight because you have to wait for a forest service road to open but then you need to get in early enough that the river crossing you have to do isn’t too high,” he said.

After a successful summit push, Borglum made it back to the river realizing that the water level had risen since crossing it earlier in the day.

“I started crossing and immediately it’s getting up to (my chest) and in the middle I got pushed off my feet, so I’m just like front crawling and I had to unclip my pack so I could ditch it if it’s getting disastrous,” he recalled.

Within a few metres, Borglum regained his balance and managed to get back on his feet.

“[That’s] probably one of my scarier moments, honestly. I haven’t really had close calls that often,” Borglum said.

“I’d rather go with partners.”

While topping out on an 11,000er doesn’t come without risk, for Borglum, the challenge and “rush” of chasing summits keeps him coming back.

“It’s the mountains, a lot can happen out there, so for sure there is risk you have to be willing to take. I’d say it’s worth it,” he said, noting he built his skill one rescue and glacier travel course at a time.

The final stretch

While on track to set a new speed record by June, Borglum knows that anything can change in the mountains and while he’s planning for the best, reaching his speed goal still “isn’t a guarantee.”

“I do feel pretty lucky because a lot of people … if they even complete [the list], they get it done over … like 10 to 15 years and I’ve just condensed that experience into two years. It’s pretty wild,” he said, noting his “unique life trajectory” and job has given him the flexibility to make the mountain objective his priority over the last two years.

Ticking Mount Joffre off the list on Sunday (April 19), the crux of his remaining climbs, located within the Clemenceau Icefield in B.C., are the remote Mount Clemenceau and Tusk Peak, Borglum says.

“We’re canoeing across the Kinbasket. It’s either that or heli in, so we’re going the self-supported way,” Borglum said, describing the limited access to both peaks.

While he’s hung up his biathlon rifle, Borglum hasn’t stopped testing his limits and the lessons he’s learned on the racecourse are the ones he’s taken with him while chasing summits in the alpine.

“You have to be able to push yourself,” he said. “Sometimes one race doesn’t go your way, so you have to really know how … to then double down for the next day.”

“You gotta be resilient for the 11,000ers.”

For Borglum’s trip updates visit: haldanborglum.com

The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. This position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.