Mt. Louis; Homage to the Spider, III 5.9



The summit cross with Mt. Rundle on the right-hand side.


Left parking lot at 0530h

The approach: Started climbing at 0830h (3hrs)

The climb: Reached summit at 1400h (7h30)

Rappelling: Finished rappelling at 1600h (2hrs)

The walk out: Arrived back at parking lot at 1700h (1hr)

We rode our mountain bikes up the Edith Pass trail in the dark for about half an hour (a quarter of the way) and hid them before arriving at a small creek crossing.  From there it was a straightforward walk along the hiking trail along Edith Pass to reach Mt. Louis. At the base of Mt. Louis the trail up to our intended climb puttered out and we ended up finding our own way to the bottom of the climb. A short solo up loose and low angled rock brought us to the first bolted belay station. As we took out the climbing gear a darker cloud brought a light drizzle. We sat around a few minutes to see if the weather was going to improve. The clouds did seem to clear up in the distance so we took a chance and started the climb. We did take a look at the weather forecast before leaving and there was a slight chance of a thunderstorm in the evening. This stayed in the back of our mind during the day and we kept aware of how the weather was doing in the distance. The climbing on Homage to the Spider was great. The third pitch was loose and a little scary because we had gone off course too far left. Every other pitch on the climb had great sustained climbing with solid rock. Once we finished the route we simul-climbed our way along the ridge to the summit. When we reached the summit there was a guided group of three. They started to set up for a rappel as we also arrived. They were a little slow but we didn’t mind. We took in the nice views and weather. Once back on the ground we jogged down the scree slope and only stopped for our water bottles that we left on Edith Pass. We had only brought one litter of water on the climb and were quite thirsty from the warm sunny day. A few more kilometres of jogging mostly downhill brought us to our stashed bikes. The ride down to the parking where our van Chico was waiting was fast and fun. It saved quite a bit of time!

A dark cloud rolling over Mt. Louis.

Pat leading up the first pitch.

The summit.

Mt. Assiniboine in the far center.

Holding up the summit registry.