Assiniboine, Round #1

My partner in crime convinced Kananaskis Parks Services, for whom he works for that Mt. Assiniboine (despite not being in Kananaskis park) would be a great destination for his once a month paid "park discovery" day. After an intense spring course in exercise physiology and a week of late night studying for my final Chris some how talked me into joining him for an alpine style climb up one of the tallest mountains in Alberta. 36ish kms later, and finally at the hut I thought I was going to die... the following is a report Chris had to submit in order to collect our tax dollars as his pay check. bugger!

A Weekend to Mt Assiniboine
By Chris Willie June 28-30

It took some convincing but at 04:00 Brad arrived at my trailer at the UofC field station. This was impressive by virtue of the fact that the afternoon prior he had written a final exam, the studying for which had taken precedence over sleep for the past week, and moreover that the night before his girlfriend had returned from a three week climbing trip. Needless to say, he was somewhat tired.

We quickly organized our gear, drank enough espresso to convince ourselves this whole endeavor was a good idea, and were on our way. Admittedly it was suggested that bouldering and catching up on some lost sleep might be a better idea than a wintery attempt at Mt Assiniboine, but some vague notion about the value of masochism prevailed and we continued south into Peter Lougheed. Passing several hundred deer, a nursing elk pair, a couple of moose, a pine martin and two Grizzly bears en route to the Mt Shark parking lot in the pre-dawn air, we discussed our plan for the ensuing 30km hike: whine and complain as much as we liked but take no prolonged stops until the Assiniboine Lodge. Largely we stuck to this, which wasn’t overly difficult as contrary to popular opinion I felt this hike was quite beautiful. The Bryant Creek trail ascends through forest with little in the way of view but for the plethora of flowers lining the trail edge – none of which I know the names of, but I can say authoritatively that they were lovely. This trail takes you into Banff National Park along the Eastern flanks of Mt Coutley – an impressive escarpment of rotting limestone with a number of large waterfalls cascading from the top.

There are a couple short-cuts leading to the top of Assiniboine Pass, and roughly 25km into the approach, we caught our first view of our objective, and were pleased to see that we did not haul boots, crampons, two technical ice tools each and a full rack of climbing gear in vain: the entire North Face and NE Ridge were completely plastered in snow and ice.

Leaving our approach shoes and clothes behind at the Lodge we walked around the west shore of Lake Magog, over massive piles of loose boulders composing the worst moraine I have ever seen, and ascended a snow gully to the right of the large serac barrier of the north glacier. By this point both Brad and I had to resort to counting steps. Starting with a hundred steps before resting, by the end both of us were on a twenty-count between rests. Nine hours, forty-five minutes after leaving the parking lot we collapsed into the Hind hut. Three liters of soup each and a pasta dinner later we passed out into our bags with the alarm set for five hours later.

After some coffee and bacon-cream cheese bagels we crossed the completely snow-filled bergschrund at one AM and began kicking steps up the north couloir. Climbing without a rope we quickly ascended a few hundred vertical meters to the base of the first rock step where we roped up. By headlamp we climbed the rest of the face through mostly snow and ice interspersed with a few rock moves to the NE ridge. Typically, I find alpine climbing is cold, tiring, and scary. I swear it is not for me every time I find myself miserable on the side of a mountain. But invariably the memory of the suffering fades and what remains is Type II fun: fun that is only enjoyed after completion of the endeavor in question. The route was just technical enough to be interesting but not so much as to be terrifying and was the most fun I have ever had while alpine climbing!

A few belayed pitches here brought us to the summit ridge where with some trepidation I straddled a ridge-top snow mushroom with my left leg foreshortened against the 1500m shear drop of the East Face, and my right crampon biting tenuously into the apex of the North face. The most exposed position I’ve ever encountered to be sure, and simultaneously very cool and a little unnerving.

 At this point I was standing roughly 100m away from the summit, with a massive cornice running the length of ridge between. With no possibility for protection and some ambiguity as to the integrity of the cornice system we decided to descent from there. So close to our goal, I’ve not yet come to terms with our failure. I suppose this is the nature of mountaineering: the cogitation a climb engenders persists long after the climb is complete. The decision to retreat was obviously the safe, and thus theoretically correct, decision to make. The day was clear, and perceived by us to be rapidly warming. Our descent was going to be more complicated than we originally thought, exacerbated by our decision to bring only a singe rope, thereby reducing each rappel to a maximum of 35m. Consequently, our descent time through several hundred meters of loose rock and snow would be tediously slow, and dangerous should rocks start to fly. The day did not warm – it cooled, in fact – even the snow stayed solid right up until the bergschrund of the north glacier (isothermic slush at that point), and not a single rock was heard to whistle past.

Scotch and copious amount of food were consumed back at the Hind hut that evening as we recounted that morning’s events and looked forward to humping our only slightly more svelte packs out the 30km to Mt Shark. With the juxtaposed exceptions of a serac release down the gully next to ours that had our fight-or-flight responses firing (neither of which does much good in the face of a hundred tons of ice falling on you), and freshly baked bread with butter and homemade jam offered by the staff at Assiniboine lodge, our return trip was unremarkable in its uncomfortable monotony. Still, I think this won’t be my last trip to Assiniboine.

 

The Route:

 

 

A few more shots can be found on my web album:

Assiniboine_June