Trip Reports

Athabasca North Face - June 21

• Posted on July 3, 2008 at 12:31 PM
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Roping Up

“Icefields Parkway”

In keeping with our newly formed habit of mad dash, sleep deprived, heavily caffeinated weekend trips, we decided that the Rockies were due for a visit. The forecast looked great and JM, Joel, Jonathon and I set out at lunch on Friday to attempt to hit the weather window on the Ice fields Parkway. As we passed through the Robson Valley it appeared as though the skies were not going to cooperate. A low ceiling and heavy rain showers were both disappointing sites but we continued on optimistic that things would change. Jasper did not look much better but by the time we rolled into the Ice Field center and met Ben and Antoine (Joel's friends from Calgary) things looked a little better. A break in the clouds gave us a clear view of the entire North Face and our route through the rock band at the top. JM and I left the other four to their own devices (the North face of Cromwell which eventually kicked them off in hectic spring fashion). We relocated to the trail head and I settled into 4 hours of blissful, parking lot, beauty sleep. JM was not so fortunate and lay tossing and turning. I am certain he was wondering whether it was worth waking me, just so that he wasn't the only one suffering the insomnia that so often precedes an alpine start. Two AM rolled around and we set out in uncomfortably warm conditions. After making our way up the moraine we came upon a mostly melted boot pack on the glacier that offered very little in the way of support but made route finding in the early morning light effortless. It was to be the last effortless part of this climb. Welcome to Post-hole City! Population 2! 100cm of isothermal snow on the glacier significantly slowed our progress. Regardless of who took the lead, the follower would sink another 15-20 cm into the already thigh deep tracks of the leader. We reached the base of the North face at around 8 o-clock, crossed the shrund with little difficulty and proceeded to kick steps for the first couple hundred meters not bothering to dig through 50-100cm of snow to place pro. As we approached the rock band the snowed thinned and we switched to simul-climbing until we reached the rocky crux. The 5.4(recently re-rated 5.8) rock moves required to exit the face were plastered in a thick rime that was constantly breaking off in watermelon size chunks. We scoped around and decided to attempt a variation that avoided the standard rock route in the middle of the face and instead worked up a system of ramps and mini-couloirs. Our route was great in theory but typical Rockies protection and snow ledges that were disappearing under our feet made for extremely stressful leads. We painstakingly pitched out four tedious but hectic mixed sections. Each frenzied chunk of climbing was followed by a lengthy, fight to keep your eyes open, belay. When we finally broke from the rock band and hit the exit pitch of glacial ice we were ecstatic. I made haste to the summit ridge slowing only to take advantage of the bomber ice pro. We had planned to eat lunch on the summit and bask in the glory of the day. Upon reaching the summit we were greeted with a panoramic view of a rather nasty looking storm making its way rapidly towards us. “I guess we eat later hey?” I commented. “uh huh” was JM’s reply. And down we went. The descent was largely uneventful with the exception of 25 pounds of snowing sticking to our feet every step and several entertaining glissades. We had hoped to make it car to car in less than 10 hours but when all was said and done we were closer to 13. After returning to the campsite to talk to Joel and John who had aborted Cromwell by this time we headed to the Ice-fields center thinking a cold beer would be a fitting end to the day. Somehow we got sucked into also sitting down to a meal and between a plate of stir-fry and two Honey browns I essentially doubled my budget for the entire weekend. At least the views were nice! Joel and Jon left at 2300 to climb the hour glass while JM and I slept. They returned in the morning just in time for tea. Another safe successful weekend in the mountain came to a close and we began the drive home.