Larch Valley near the Valley of Ten Peaks, Banff National Park, Canada
Larch Valley near the Valley of Ten Peaks, Banff National Park, Canada
With just a long weekend to spend in the Canadian Rockies climbing summer alpine routes, I elected to go after two of my long-time goals there with Summer. We had already driven to Calgary once that summer, for a wedding, so this would be the second time we did the drive in almost as many weeks.
The North Face of Athabasca towers above Sunwapta Pass, the obvious line up an impressive face of an impressive and important summit. I had scoped it out with interest in the summer of 2000, when I had visited the area with my friend Gene, but we had elected to climb Andromeda at the time, and then had passed on Athabasca after the Andromeda climb in favor of the classic East Ridge of Edith Cavell.
Summer and I woke up early and were determined to be hiking by 4am. We actually kept to the plan, and the air was warm when we got to the parking lot. Many parties were already hiking up the moraine in the pre-dawn darkness, and we were nervous that someone would get on the route ahead of us. So we hiked fast and hard up the moraine, but were not able to catch any of the parties ahead of us. That was OK, because everyone was climbing either Silverhorn or North Glacier.
Summer and I did not rope up until we reached Silverhorn col, where the wind was whipping and the air was much colder. We were not sure we were committed to the route, so we decided to stroll over to take a look. Things looked good, so I took the lead, busted out the rack, and started across the 'schrund. Summer and I were climbing with our 70m 9.4mm rope, which allowed for long pitches.
For this climb, since Summer was along I opted to be as safe as possible, so I was belaying every pitch and using three screws for each belay. This left 4 screws for each 70m lead, but the screws were bombproof and I was comfortable with this arrangement. I led several pitches out on the face of lower angled ice, trending up and right towards the rock band that guarded the exit gully.
The face is quite foreshortened, and turned out to be longer than I thought when first starting up. Three pitches up I thought it would only be another pitch to where I thought I could tackle the rock band, but it turned up to be three more pitches to the base of the rock band, which was bordered by two mixed ice and rock gullys on either side. The mixed gully on the left looked low-angle and dumb. The rock band looked steep and scary, even if there were fixed pins there. The mixed gully to the right of the rock band was vertical for 15 feet, and looked extremely challenging and interesting, and I knew it was the way I wanted to go. I knew that if I could get a good screw below the mixed step, I would be willing to try the mixed step even with fall potential.
Here on the North Face, I was freezing. I was tired. I quickly downed two packs of GU, drank a shot of water from Summer's Camelback, and lead off up the steepening mixed terrain. As expected, the ice underneath the mixed step was solid, and I sank a 22cm screw for good measure. Then delicate hooking and stemming led to several fixed pitons, which I clipped. There was a higher fixed piton, which I now gently hooked with my ice tool before stemming off to the left and scratching up the short vertical step with thin ice and pick camming. Around M4ish, but the exposure made it very exciting and exhilarating!!
Summer seconded the step quickly and came up to my screw belay. Here we moved the belay to a rock alcove several feet up and left, that I had not seen at first, so we could conserve screws, and I led off on yet another solid, perfect water ice pitch! I established a belay up higher, and one more pitch brought me to the summit ridge, about 20 feet from the true summit. It was 4 in the afternoon, and we enjoyed the warm sun after freezing on the face all day.
A quick decent over Silverhorn on an established climber's path lead to the long traverse that the North Glacier route takes back to Silverhorn Col. We were the last climbers on the mountain, and had things to ourselves. There was no rush, and we meandered down to the car in the afternoon light as fast as our tired bodies allowed.
The day after our ascent we awoke to the smell of smoke and haze. Where we had had nice blue skies and good views the day before for our ascent, now everything was obscured by haze. We drove over Sunwapta Pass heading South to climb something from Abbott Pass the next day. However, we were not able to get reservations for Abbott Pass hut, and therefore the Lake O'Hara buses, so we had to opt for something else. We were too tired to try our first choice, The Northwest ridge on Sir Donald, so I was looking for something easy that Summer and I could do without too much stress or weight carried. We considered Grand Sentinel, but after we talked to a guy at Bill Peyto's in Lake Louise who was heading up Temple the next day, we decided to join him and do the Southwest Route on Temple.
I didnt know much about Temple, but something so prominent and imposing from Lake Louise begged to be climbed. While I was interested in the East Ridge, I was not interested in climbing it with Summer and so wanted to do the Southwest route so I could check it as the descent route for future ascents of the East Ridge. Plus, the Southwest route was a long route on a large mountain, and promised plenty of excercise!!
We left the parking lot at a bright and early hour of 3 am, with a group of ACC members from Edumonton. The guy we had met at Bill Peyto's was part of this group. We made steady progress up the trail, leaving Moraine Lake and meanding through Larch Valley up to Sentinel Pass, where the Southwest Route begins. We arrived at Sentinel Col at dawn, and couldn't see much through the smoke and haze.
Here the group splintered into two separate groups, one of four that was moving faster, and one of three that was moving slower. After getting the route description from the guys who had done it before, we and the two other guys who comprised the faster party moved up the route. It was very straightforward going, and after only a few hours of scree slogging and scrambling we stood on the blustery, cold summit of Temple.
While it was freezing on the summit in the wind, only 10 feet down, on the lee side of the mountain, things were pleasant. We hung out on top for about 40 minutes, taking in the view on a hzay day. Then, fully expecting the hordes and hordes of climbers that usually throng up this route to show up any minute, we started down. We met our slower half of the party above the cream colored rock band, and continued down. Summer had left her headlamp and Sentinel Pass, and worked down the regular route to go and retrieve it while we bore off to the left and surfed the scree slopes down to the trail.
A short while later, Summer caught up, having found her headlamp in the care of a climber coming up the route. We then waited for many hours for either our slower half to descend, or someone to head back to Moraine Lake so we could tag along and avoid any fines a smaller group might incur (groups have to number 6 or more...). Finally, a group of hikers came down from Sentinel Col and we accompanied them back to the cars.
Overall, this was a really fun climb, more rewarding than Summer or I initially thought it would be. Larch Valley and the Valley of Ten Peaks is of course beautiful, but the route itself was fun, offering a great vantage point and lots of exercise.
North Face of Athabasca
The Impressive North Face of Athabasca.
Dawn on the North Face of Athabasca, with climbers approaching the Silverhorn Route.
Photo of the North Face from the bergschrund. Photo credit unknown.
Athabasca's steep terrain. Photo Keenan Harvey.
The rock band and mixed climbing exit to the Regular North Face.
Summer Locke descending the North Glacier route to Silverhorn Col.
North Face of Athabasca through the smoke, the day after our ascent.
Southwest Route on Temple
The Southwest route on Mt. Temple.
Alex and Summer freezing on the summit of Mt Temple.