Mt. Andromeda; Asteroid Alley IV, 5.9

Total time: 15h40min (Peak 3384m)      Approach: 1h45min (Asc. 570m)       
Climb: 10h15min                   Rappels: 3hr                          Return: 30min

The most challenging alpine climb I have done so far.

We had a twist to the start of our day. Pat lost the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors this morning and took up the drive to Mt. Andromeda while I tried to catch up on some extra sleep. As we approached Lake Louise Pat mentioned that he thought he saw a person standing and waving along the highway. He stopped, reversed back and sure enough there was a guy in their early 20’s standing there in a sweater. I cracked the window down to talk to him. He was stuttering from the cold and told us he had been standing there for 3 hours trying to wave a car down without luck. He explained that he had just been in an accident with his car and as he kept talking I noticed a knife handle sticking out of his pocket. He told us it was to protect himself against bears and offered to go put it back into the car. We could see that he had actually rolled the car nearly 5 times according to the marks in the snow. There was no way this was a set-up after seeing the state of the car and we offered to bring him to Lake Louise which was nearby. Once there we woke up one of his friends and made sure he understood that he needed to go to the hospital and that he shouldn’t let him fall asleep since he probably had a concussion.  Once he was taken care of we kept towards Mt. Andromeda on the Icefields parkway.



Views while approaching Mt. Andromeda.


The steeper and more technical climbs on this mountain are known to have bad rock fall danger. So choosing our day wisely was important to our safety and good health. Spring and fall are the better times to attempt this climb since the colder temperatures hold the loose rock together. We made sure the temperatures wouldn’t rise too much today. We had a daytime high of about -5C on our shaded north facing climb. It felt like winter leaving the parking lot at 0630h.  We made good time on the approach to the base of the climb with the help of our touring skis and mountaineering boot combination. We did need to take off the skis and walk for short sections of scree before reaching the glacier. We stashed our skis and kicked steps up the steep snow slope to reach our first belay in the narrowing right-hand gully for roughly 350m (roughly 5 rope lengths) with 30cm of boot penetration.




The climb following up the snow slope
and onto the chimney.







Our first belay was where the snow disappeared in exchange for steeper rock with a mix of ice. The first pitch (65m) wasn’t too strenuous and mostly rock. The second pitch (65m) was one of the best pitches I have ever climbed. It consisted of a steep chimney that was a body width. There was thin ice at the back of the chimney that took 10-16cm screws all the way. I was glad to have brought 10 short ice screws since there was little in the way of rock protection. Sections along the side walls of rock allowed good feet placements to stem off of the ice and rest. It was never desperate but still challenging. I made the third pitch (20m) quite short since Pat was exposed as he belayed bellow me. While climbing I try to keep in mind to always find a safe location to belay from. I didn’t want to accidentally injure my belayer by sending down any rocks or chunks of ice. So I belayed him up to a safer spot.



Pat nearing the steeper technical part.

The last 2 pitches were on rock with very little ice. They didn’t have any signs anyone climbing on it recently. There was much more snow mushroom formations to clean off of the rock as a result. The fourth and second last pitch was mentally the hardest. I headed up rightwards to a left facing corner which seemed to have a nice crack to place rock protection throughout but got intimidated by the steepness of the line. I was only 10m up before deciding to down climb and look towards the left-hand side of the belay for another route alternative. On the positive side I found and kept a cam which was left in the rock as I climbed down. Possibly from someone else who had also decided to back-off??? I went with the left-hand variation instead which was also in the guidebook as one of two options on this pitch. It wasn’t as steep, but in exchange more technical. The amount of snow at the start of the pitch made it hard to determine where the rock would allow me to put in protection. I cleaned off snow on the slabby rock as far as my reach would allow. After debating whether continuing on or not I found a finger sized crack to place gear into and kept on going. This pitch wasn’t quite as direct and as a result the rope drag was quite bad by the time I reached the belay 35m up where I belayed off of existing pitons. The last pitch was easier and had sunshine as a reward once on top. Being in the shade all day is the price to pay on North facing climbs.



View from the first belay stance.



We used the same stations we came up to rappel down. They consisted of pitons and fixed nuts in the rock. Unluckily, the rope tangled on a chock stone as we pulled it down after our first rappel. Not what we needed. But fortunately it wasn’t stuck too far above us so Pat belayed me up a short ways until I could untangle the rope free. The rest of the rappels went better, but I think that a single rope would have made the rappels easier even though there would have been more of them. The time spent untangling and managing the extra rope makes up for it. We slid down to our skis and followed our tracks back to the parking lot. Along the ski out I bailed pretty hard while gaining speed on a gentle slope and landed on a chunk of ice. Damn those unstable mountaineering boots!

Climbing up the lower part of the chimney.

Topping out into the sun!

Final rappels before the sun sets.

Nemesis 160m VI, WI6 (Ice Climbing)

Total time: 7h45min (Peak 2177m)

Approach: 2h50min asc. 491m

Climb: 3h25min

Rappel: 36min

Return: 55min (asc. 13m)

Pat got a flat tire on Chico (the van) two days ago while coming back from skiing Mt. Hector with some other friends. After installing the spare tire and having driven back to Banff. He noticed the spare tire was missing a bolt and there was another one that was half bent. Which means two out of the five bolts are now non functional. A friend happened to be going to Haffner Creek which was on the way to the climb we intended to do. We made plans to be picked up in Banff at 0845h. There was another car in the parking lot and there seemed to be fresh tracks heading up on skis. The ski up from the trail head was straight forward since we already had some fresh tracks to follow. It was a good call on the mountaineering boots and Fritchi Freeride binding combination since the trail was flat enough once past the starting incline. After 1h30min we came out of the trees into an open area and saw that there were two other people starting up our intended climb. We decided to hang-out under some nearby trees where we would be out of any avalanche danger to see how the other group would be doing as they climbed up. If we couldn’t get on the climb after waiting around for an hour we decided that we would start heading back. We sat around for about 30min when one of the guys yelled across to us asking if we planned to also climb. After yelling back “yeah!” he told us to come over. By the time we reached the climb they had both rappelled down. Conveniently for us, one of them had plans to be back in Canmore for 1500h and he figured they didn’t have enough time to finish the climb.

We did the climb in two long 70m pitches. I led the first on thin and bulgy ice and reached a bolted anchor to the left of the second tier. Pat led the slightly steeper second pitch on thicker blue ice. The rappel down was quick with the V-threads and bolted anchors already in place. The ski out was quick. We kept the skins on to help keep the speed under check since our mountaineering boots didn’t offer the most control. It was a great end to the ice climbing season!

Mt. Hector 3394m (Ski Mountaineering)



Boot packing up a steep scree section.



Date: April 12th, 2011

Total time: 10h 10min

Approach time: 8h (asc. 1591m)

Descent time: 2h10min

I had a a great time showing Erin, Talli, Hannes and Morten to the top of Mt. Hector today. We started skiing up the creek at 0720h (temp. -11C). We then boot packed up some old avalanche debris and kept going up the gully to where it opens up into the alpine.

We reached the toe of the glacier around 1100h and roped up.
The bottom and lower angled section of the glacier only showed a few crevasses partially open. When the glacier steepened it didn’t show any signs of crevasses and the snow was quite firm. It was even too firm in some sections. One of the guys had trouble getting a proper edge into the snow while we traversed upwards. We reached the summit (3394m) after 8hrs (temp. -7C). We left our skis behind and climbed the last 50m to the top. I chose to leave my crampons behind but found the mountaineering axe useful since the snow was quite consolidated.

We had a blue bird sky almost the whole time except for a big cloud that rolled through for the top half of the ski down. As we had seen on the way up, the snow was quite crusty on the top section of the glacier. It definitely beat having to walk down though! What made this tour even better was the 1600m descent all the way to the vehicle. There isn’t a need to take your skis off or go back into touring mode.



View of Mt. Hector from the bottom of the glacier.

The snow was starting to see the effect of the intense sun 100m above the tree line when we skied down around 1500h. The snow was starting to melt and I wouldn’t have wanted to hang around the gully and old avalanche debris towards the bottom too long. The temperature at the parking lot was hovering around 0C.

 It was a good experience “guiding” everyone along the way. I kept a good sense of what was going on in the surroundings. Also making sure the pace was good for all assured everyone had a good time!



Lunch break... nearing the top.



First Ascent - Ice Climbing

Total time: 16h 25min

Approach: 7h20min (ascended 870m)
Climb: 4h50m

Return: 4h15min

Giro (a climbing gym instructor), Pat and I started skiing up at 0440h. We skied for 18km to reach the climb. Giro had told us that we were potentially going to be doing a first ascent on this route. The mountain doesn’t seem to have any records of having been climbed by anyone which is surprising since as we skied along we saw over half a dozen ice climbs (1-4 pitches long) and 2 or 3 ice and mixed climbs that seemed to reach the summit. A very talented Japanese friend of his had attempted a hard mixed line to the summit of this mountain which he figured was around M7 or M8. But he had to bail after a 20hr push and decided to leave it for another year.

From further away, as we approached, we could see two separate waterfalls which seemed to have formed fatter than the others. The right-side one seemed to have had a big pillar that broke off above sometime during the winter. We decided to head towards them. The weather had been quite cool all morning. Even with the sun coming up it was somewhere bellow -10C. We witnessed a quite a few sluffs coming down as we approached. We came out of the trees and onto what looked like moraine features. Here the wind was blowing quite strong and we kept seeing small to mid-sized sluffs coming down the mountain. The weather still felt like winter. The climb we were heading towards was relatively safe since there weren’t any big snow bowls above. As we closed in there was a small sluff that came down right on top of the climb. We arrived to the base after 7h20min of ski touring. We climbed the right-side of the left-hand waterfall.

Giro led the first 50m pitch (WI4) on sun affected ice.  It had a 2 inch layer that often peeled off as you placed your tools and this layer needed to come off to place a half decent screw. The ice had been affected by the warm weather recently. I led the next 60m pitch (WI5) to the top. I could tell that I hadn’t been climbing much since I was feeling the “pump” a little sooner than usual. I wasn’t quite as mentally strong. The first half of the climb was on the same type of rotten ice as bellow. But to get onto the upper half, I needed to climb a lower angled snow section which had a crust of ice on top for about 5m. This part was quite hard on the nerves since you couldn’t completely trust your tool and feet placements. I was expecting them to pop off at any time and fall onto a half descent screw. Not a good thing! I made it back onto the ice and had to deal with climbing the next 10m with 2 screws. The ice was quite steep and hadn’t formed as a uniform sheet of ice.  It was featured with large and small icicles that didn’t take screws very well. No chances of making a belay even if I wanted. As I placed one of the two remaining screws I tried to clear some ice around it and knocked it off the ice. Watching it fall out of sight. I felt quite frustrated with myself as I placed the last remaining screw. I pulled myself together and finished the pitch to the top. I placed the essential two remaining screws that I had kept for the belay and backed it up with my ice tools plated firmly into the ice. Pat and Giro then followed. We rappelled off of two V-threads. As we skied out we witnessed a moderately big sluff or slab release off of the face. The residual snow dusting was only about 100m away! Good thing we kept enough distance away from the face. The ski out took us 4h15min and it was nearly 2100h by the time we made it back to the van. It is quite special to think back and realize that I had just climbed a section of ice where nobody has ever been on it before. Considering the other potential in the area I would like to make another trip possibly next season and discover more. So for now I'll be keeping this place a hidden secret.

Saskatchewan Glacier & Columbia Icefields (Ski Touring)

  

April 3^rd, 2011:
Pat and I decided to head out this weekend on a relaxed note and possibly attempt to ski up the North-East face of Mt. Castleguard and if we felt like it we would also head for the South-East ridge of Mt. Andromeda. We were heading out more for the winter camping experience. The chance to head up onto a peak was just the icing on the cake. We parked along the “Big Bend” on the Icefields Parkway and skied up towards the Saskatchewan Glacier @ 1000h. By 1130h we had reached the toe of the glacier. Ski penetration on the glacier was 5-15cm deep. We skied up to 8150ft by 1500h and made camp to spend the night. We dug and built a wall high enough to equal the height of the tent. We left room at the front to be sheltered for cooking. Since we were using a 3 season tent we also packed snow around the base to cut the draft of cold air from coming under the fly. Cooking was a little bit of a hassle. The Whisperlite stove kept puttering out even though it was protected from the wind and had enough gas pressure. We found that keeping the bottle of fuel facing down resolved the problem. Weird since I never had that problem in the summer. Maybe the cold? The weather was great all day. It was -7C at the parking lot and it reached 0C in the afternoon on the glacier with clear skies. We did get cloud cover before dinner around 1700h which turned into a short white-out. Just in case we made sure to take a compass bearing (60 degrees or NNE) to head back down the glacier.

April 4^th, 2011:

Sleep was on and off last night. It was quite windy and it snowed about 10-15cm. We woke up at 0700h and found bad visibility outside so we decided to sleep some more and hope for the better. When we woke up at 0915h it was nice to find the temperature around +4C in the tent. The wind was still moderately strong and visibility hadn’t changed with about 200-500m at best. We decided to get out and stretch the legs at 1330h and see what the visibility was like as we skied towards Mt. Castleguard. We had marked the snow wall of the tent with colourful objects that we had brought to help us find it on the way back. We didn’t get out farther than 15min until decided we should turn around. By now we had just lost visibility of the tent. It had also snowed enough to have me worried about wind loading and wind crusts on the slopes that would have been encountered if we went further out towards Mt. Castleguard. I should also note that it would of been helpful to have wands to place along the way if we were to have attempted to go further out to Mt. Castleguard or Mt. Andromeda. On the way back I placed Pat in a crevasse rescue scenario and had him practice “rescuing” me. It was -8C in the afternoon and we didn’t see much of the sun all day.

 

April 5^th, 2011:

Woke up again to white-out visibility but this time it was even worse. There was maybe 100m of visibility at 0800h this morning. We decided to cook breakfast and slowly packed up our stuff to head out. We started skiing out by 1230h with 20cm of ski penetration. Too bad, since the ski out could of been quite faster if it would of been frozen crust. We reached the toe of the glacier by 1400h. The last km on the glacier was steep enough to enjoy a few turns on windblown snow. We crossed the gravel flats and skied down the trail through trees to reach the van by 1600h. It was about 18km from our high camp on the glacier to the van with 800m of elevation gain. Since our birthday's are coming up we decided to split the cost and finally buy a GPS.