Alpine Lifestyle in the Canadian Rockies: May 2011

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mt. Sir Douglas attempt, South-East Face IV, 5.6

Approach: 5:15 (Asc 953m)

Climb: 3:40 (Asc 398m) Reached 3285m

Descent: 1:20

Return: 1:35 (Asc 20m)

May 8^th, 2011

At 1030h Pat and I skied along Burstall Pass and ascended 953m up the Robertson Glacier to reach the Mt. Douglas/Robertson col (2900m) by 1545h. The sky was clear with an intense sun and the temperature was around 12C. There was a lot of sluffing on the approach bellow the Robertson Glacier from the sun radiating onto the East facing slopes by 1100h. This showed how important it was to have an early start tomorrow. The going was flat until we hit the glacier. This is where most of the elevation was gained. Clouds lingered around the mountain which made it impossible to see our intended climbing route we planned to do tomorrow. While setting up camp a break in the clouds gave us a quick glimpse. The face was quite big. The longest technical climb I planned to do so far. Seemed like we had quite a day ahead! We dug our camp against a wind lip of snow and were in bed by 1930h.

View of Mt. Sir Douglas on the left.

Our camp on top of the col.

Looking at Mt. Sir Douglas from the col.

May 9^th, 2011

The alarm went off at 0300h. We needed an early start if we wanted to avoid falling snow and rock. A quick bite of bagel and peanut butter washed down with some coffee which was kept warm in the thermos and out of our sleeping bags we went. By the time we pulled on some warmer layers and boots it was 0400h. Everything seems to take longer when you’re winter camping. We started walking along the ridge leading to the base of the snow gully on the East face of Mt. Sir Douglas. It was obvious where the bergschrund was since it wasn’t completely covered. The crossing wasn’t too difficult. The snow in the lower wide gully was more work than I had expected. I thought that with the warmer weather. The melt/freeze of the sun would have had a bigger effect on the snow giving us a firmer surface to slog up in the morning. Instead, we occasionally had snow up to our knees. Our advance was more time and energy consuming than expected. When we reached the highest point in the gully we started trending right onto a narrow snow ledge. This is where the more technical climbing (5.6) was to start. It was now 0740h and the sun was starting to break through the clouds. It made for amazing views with us above a sea of clouds. But the intensity of the sun and the temperatures were something to worry about. The weather forecast was predicting clouds in the morning but they seemed to linger too low in the valley to cover the upper section of the peak. There was a good amount of snow pillows sitting on the rocky ledges of the face. I didn’t want to sit around too long with the sluffing we witnessed yesterday. We made the decision to bail on our attempt for the summit and returned back on our tracks. Lower down in the gully we started to see small signs of melt. At 0900h we were back at the tent. We didn’t witness too many signs of sluffing until 1025h which was when we started skiing down the Robertson Glacier. At first it was a fun ski descent on boot top snow. Although lower down we came across a hard crust that made it difficult to turn on skis. Especially with 70L packs that weighted around 50lbs. We made it back to the van for 1200h.

View of the sunrise before turning around.

Pat heading down. One step at a time.

Back at camp.

Skiing past some seracs higher up on the Robertson Glacier.

Fine style on nice snow. Even with a 50+lbs pack.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Mt. Willingdon (3373m), West Ridge I

May 1^st, 2011

Pat and I approached from the parking lot of Mosquito Creek to our camp (roughly 20km) beside Devon Lakes in 8hrs with 1190m of elevation gain. The majority of elevation gain came from crossing over Quartzite col. We went too far up into the cirque before climbing up to the col and found ourselves having to come down 50-70m to where we could ski down the other side. Where we originally appeared on top of the col. The terrain wasn’t skiable over the other side because of cliff bands. We could have saved ourselves the extra time and elevation gain by heading up the previous drainage. There was some moderate wind on top of col. This wind did cause a little snow transport (cross-loading from the S-W). But the amount didn’t have us too worried of wind loaded slopes (which could be avalanche prone) for the steep descent down to the Siffleur River. From bellow we saw that an easier alternative could have been taken another 300-400m to the east. This seemed to be a better route when we would return since the risk of cornices from above seemed lesser. The sky remained clear and sunny all day with a high of about 5C. The snow at valley bottom started to turn heavy and wet by 1100h. While arriving to our base camp destination we witnessed a size 2-3? avalanche go down the NW face of Devon Mtn around 1630h. It seemed to have been triggered by the afternoon sun. It sheered to the ground (about 2m?) and was about 200m wide. I made sure to note this and kept it in mind for tomorrow.

On top of Quartzite Col looking
onto our descent to the left.

Skiing down on beautiful snow.

... and the skiing kept going.

Views from the bottom of Quartzite Col.

A well deserved water break.
Taking advantage of not having to melt snow.

Avalanche that came down Devon mtn.

May 2^nd, 2011

Total time: 11h45 min (Peak 3373m)

Base camp to peak: 4hrs (ascended 1106m)---------------0745h – 1145h

Peak to base camp: 1h30min (asc. 36m)--------------------1145h – 1315h

Stopped for lunch and broke down base camp-------------1315h – 1445h

Base camp to car: 5hr (asc. 524m)----------------------------1445h – 1945h

Asc: 1667m, Dsc: 2166m (500m loss from camp to car)

ZZZ... The alarm went off at 0630h. We ate our frozen bagels with peanut butter and washed them down with our pre-brewed coffee from last night. Got to love a good thermos! We changed our clothes and finished preparing our equipment for the day without much rush. The skies were clear just like yesterday. Which was a nice surprise since the forecast before leaving Banff was predicting a possibility of precipitation. The approach to the bottom of the ridge was quite fast on the frozen snow crust. There was enough snow to ski up to where the ridge steepened. We left our skis there and kept our touring boots to walk/climb up the rest of the way along the ridge. The route wasn’t very technical. We did stay conscious of cornices along the ridge though. I had brought along a short 20m rope and pitons to protect the “crux” of the route. The 5m cliff band near the top wasn’t as exposed and hard as we thought. The views from the summit were quite good although clouds were coming in from the S-E. It was quite cold up there with a moderate wind still persisting from yesterday. The descent was fast and simple. Unfortunately, the skiing wasn’t good since the snow still had a hard crust. It still beats having to hike down though!
A bite to eat and off we went again. We broke down camp and packed our bags to head back home. The snow at camp and in the valley had already started to see the effect of the sun melt. The weather was similar to yesterday although by now a layer of thin clouds were starting to cover us. Once at Quartzite Col. We ascended the gully we had scoped out yesterday. The slope steepened quite a bit at the headwall. So we attached our skis to our packs and boot packed up the rest. I expected to struggle a lot more to get up with deep snow. But we reached the top of the Col after 1h30min. It still wasn’t a walk in the park. The Col was a blast to ski down but was the crux of the day to get up and we were glad once on top. It would of been way more convenient to have gotten over the Col in the summer when the snow has almost all disappeared. Once near the creek we followed our old tracks back to the van in good time. We enjoyed the elevation loss!