Len has described Part 1 of this Lake Louise Classics trip, which was based out of the Abbot hut. The following describes the second three days of the trip which took place in the Valley of the 10 Peaks near Lake Louise.

After two great summits in two days, we had descended back to Lake O’Hara via the Huber Glacier and Huber ledges. Back at the Outpost in Lake Louise we said farewell to Len, Roy and James over a beer.

Lake O'Hara Trailhead

After a night at the Alpine Club Hostel and a short drive to Moraine Lake, four of us, led by our guides, Paddy Jerome and Jason Billing, struck out with re-filled packs for the Neil Colgan hut, (apparently the highest permanent structure in Canada), the route is said to be an excellent mountain day, and it was!

The lake-shore was relaxed, with folk exploring, some photographing the views, one of which was an area high above us of mountains and glacier that we were aiming for.

Getting ready for the "Perren Pitch"

T-shirted and with water stops, we moved up steadily and after an hour or two were at the foot of the cliff, “The Perren Route”. Paddy and Jason carted the packs to a location at the base of the cliff below a belay point. Then we were seconded up the steep rock pitch further left, about a 5.8, but with a chain if you wanted something extra to pull on.

This pitch was followed by a well protected traverse along a cliff-band. Bryan hadn’t done a climb or a traverse before so got two firsts in an hour. Then each pack was tied at the base of the cliff by Jason and rope-hauled up by Paddy.  We reloaded at the end of the traverse and continued up a couple more fun, low-grade rock pitches to the Faye glacier.

Glacier Hike up to Neil Colgan Hut

Now we had our first clear views of Mount Fay and Mount Little.

After another 45 minutes we were at the hut, a neat place, with an outhouse that stands in all its finery on the saddle between the hut and Mt Bowlen. They have taken no chance of it lifting off, with guy-wires tensioning it to large plastic barrels of rocks.

The hut is fun, a bit like the Scott-Duncan or Balfour and small enough to get to know everyone there. It also has a sun deck, which, with no wind during our stay, we made good use of later in the afternoons.

That evening some of the group saw a large area of smoke that appeared to be above Prospector’s Valley to the southwest, beyond Kaufmann Lake – a biggish BC forest fire, glowing through the night and which the following day we could smell. It was a warm thunderstorm night, probably not assisted by the fire, although by 5 am the next morning the weather was clear again but very warm, as Paddy and Jason had a careful look at the snow, concluding the traverse of Faye would be spent post-holing, with both hassle and safety issues. So it was back to bed and then at about seven, up to climb the closer, rock-dominated Mts Little and Bowlen – both good viewpoints.

Neil Colgan Outhouse

Mt Bowlen is a short ascent from the hut and has good views out across to Mount Temple and Eiffel to the north and Wenkchemna Pass to the west.

Route up Mt Little

Mt Little is bigger. Paddy, Bryan and Alan had found a lot of loose rock on the lower ridge, so Jason, Liz and myself used the lower snow slope on the northeast flank instead.  We had some short-roping over the upper rock section, then were greeted by great views across Faye and in the other direction, across the wide glacier to the south. There are another whole bunch of peaks across there, including Mts Perren and Tonsa, which another party from the hut were aiming for.

View of Mt Fay with Ominous clouds above the peak

By the second evening we had got to know everyone at the hut and there was a lot of chat, jokes, swapping of stories and suggestions for other trips. It was a good evening with great company, whom I like to think I will meet again, possibly on some of the routes they suggested.

And food – I nearly forgot the food. Yamnuska cook most of their evening meals for trips in-house then put them through their own dehydrators. We had experienced this a couple of years ago with Yamnuska on the ski traverse of the Wapta Icefield and this was again, delicious, real food. My favorite of Yamnuska’s is a butter lentil curry, although I’ve been told by friends that the lamb curry is stunning.

On the final morning we did a short round-trip to a viewpoint hill to the northwest, from where there’s a view of a possible Moraine Lake-Wenkchemna Pass–Opabin Pass–O’Hara backpack. From the viewpoint we watched a blue-black storm edging nearer, deluging Wenkchemna Pass with rain. We made our way briskly back across the glacier, but the storm, as through the whole trip, missed us, leaving us in the sun again, as we headed back down the Perren route, the drive to Canmore and farewells again with new friends over ice-cold beers and sodas.

Sunset View from the Neil Colgan Hut

I had wanted to climb Athabasca for more than a decade. For one reason or another potential climbing partners became fewer and fewer, either having given up climbing mountains or had already been up this one. This year I wanted to make a big effort, not knowing if I could still climb a `biggy` after three years of abstinence from the high mountains. The only safe option was to hire a guide.

Looking out at the sunrise, base of the North Ridge.

As I staggered up the final few feet of rock, wet with melting snow, onto the summit ridge of Athabasca I had a smile on my face!  I had done it!  Eleven hours earlier at 0315am, my guide Tim Auger had started us off on the ‘SnoCat’ road up to the Athabasca glacier. We had not eaten nor drunk more than a drop or two of liquid during this marathon ascent. Well I must confess I did manage to take a bite or two from a Power Bar, which I had surreptitiously stored in my anorak pocket, whilst Tim was tying us into some bomb-proof protection on the climb!

Tim had called me at the hotel in Banff a day or two before we set off to tell me that he wanted to try a route he had not done before. Although he had climbed the mountain many times by various routes, this route was supposed to be more interesting.  As he outlined the route, saying it would be a round trip of about 12 hrs (just within the guidelines of a typical ascent between 9 & 12 hours according to the Yamnuska descriptions), I replied that I had not done much ice climbing in some years. No problem for him! He said it would involve front-pointing but that he would bring along all of the required equipment. I was only armed with an ice axe, some slings, a cam or two and nuts.

Summit still a ways up!

We camped at the Columbia Icefields Campground the night before the climb, not putting on the fly sheet but then it did sling it down with a heavy shower during the evening, when I was obliged to crawl out of the sleeping bag and put it on. We rose at the unearthly hour of 0145 hrs to a starry night, ate some cereal with a cup of tea and off we went.

At the parking lot, we met another party of climbers, one of whom was a fellow Yamnuska guide, intent on doing the ‘Silverhorn route’. Tim mused that our combined ages were more than triple the combined ages of the three young climbers. Yes, quite.

Rose-fingered dawn (Homer!), arrived three hours later after trudging with headlights across the moraines to the glacier and reaching the junction for the Silverhorn route and the north face routes. Our superior number of years, supposedly slowing us down, had not slowed us behind the young’uns. We said cheerio and continued beneath the overhanging seracs of the north face and crossed the ice avalanche path as erringly as possible to reach the foot at the lower edge and start of the north ridge. Our route lay on the ice and snow face adjacent, thus avoiding the saw- teeth rocks of the ridge. Out came the protection with the loan of a pterodactyl ice-axe for me to accompany my worthy, yet light-weight, ice-axe.

Tim Auger getting ready to lead a pitch onto the ridge

Up climbed Tim front-pointing to lead out on well over a hundred and twenty feet of rope with ice-screws judiciously placed after scraping away several inches of soft snow. It was light enough from a sunny blue sky, yet we were still in the shadow on the west side of the ridge, with the summit above, seemingly close. Dark clouds lay brooding to the north with a haze from forest fires in B.C. obscuring the views; to the south higher billowing clouds were lingering, not quite as threatening. It seemed the gods were with us that day as the summit, always tantalisingly close, remained in the sun throughout our climb. But the dark clouds always threatened on the horizon.

Crossing one of the rock bands on route to summit

I was quite mesmerised by the silhouettes, of the three climbers who were rapidly approaching the summit in the sunlight a couple of kilometres or so away, on the Silverhorn route. Tim and I were moving slowly but methodically, pitch by pitch, mostly on the face and switching between rocks jutting out from the face. A few pitches later the ice/snow slope led us up to the ridge proper. Now we were able to look over the ridge and to the east, just as to the north and south; clouds and heat haze everywhere. As we edged up, Tim patiently ensuring our safety, I was able to relax at the belay stations, aware of the steep slope below us and watch other parties move up the Silverhorn.

Heading up the Scottish Couloir

Tim said to me once I was safely anchored on belay, that he now needed to seek out a traverse onto the north face. We correctly found the traverse, protected by at least two pins, in-situ, and were able to follow up the so-called couloir for a few dozen feet of+60° ice/snow, to climb back out onto the ridge. As for the couloir, well I have climbed much longer ones on Ben Nevis, Scotland, so I am not convinced that the variant is as useful as some say, to avoid some of the ridge.

View from half way up the route

Ahead lay a steep but stepped wall of rock, running in water from the melting snow of the ridge above. Once on top it was a few minutes of short roping and we were on the final snow slope and the corniced summit ridge of Athabasca. Our feet sunk into the soft snow making for slow movement. No rest for the wicked as they say, as we crossed it and down to the notch between the true summit and the Silverhorn summit where we were able to finally rest, eat and drink.

Heading up the last steep pitch before the ridge

As we rested, snow flakes fell, and the sun disappeared. But the threat of a shower did not last long, not until we were well on our drive back to Banff.

A half hour later we began a rapid descent lasting just over two hours via the AA col, to arrive at the car completely knackered, a round trip of 14 hours. The muscles of the thighs and legs were quite aching.

I remarked to Tim that I thought that despite our ages we were not such a slow party; he demurred on that one but as I pointed out not many parties would descend that much faster.

For my part, at nearly 70 years of age I was most satisfied with climbing such a challenging route. And I had made a good choice to climb with Tim Auger. But whether or not I have the stamina or the will to make an elevation gain of 5000 ft or more or to climb for more than 12hours at one go, I need to think about it again. I know I can do it but the years take their toll!

I later learned that our climb turned out to be a variant of the north ridge, first climbed in 1898, now rated as 5.5 in S. Dougherty’s guide book, being the first ascent of the mountain.

Martin Taylor on the summit of Athabasca

MartinTaylor

Stunning views from Mt Temple

Scott wanted to take his hiking skills up to the next level, so it was off for a couple of days of instructional scrambling. The two days that we had together we decided to scramble up Mt Whyte the first day and then Mt Temple, one of the 11,000er peaks, the second.

Making that switch is always exciting because it then allows for some more exciting possibilities in the mountains. We were able to get to some very interesting vantage points, as the photo’s speak for themselves!

Peaking out on Mt Whyte - Lake Louise

Scott had his doubts to whether or not he had it in him. But with a little coaching on pace setting, risk management and route finding, we found ourselves standing on top of some classic peaks around Lake Louise, reflecting on the beauty of Life.

Scott on the way up Mt Temple - photos N. Rapaich

Thanks Scott for a couple of great days out in the mountains!

Nicholas Rapaich

“Each year we show our support for the Alpine Club of Canada and the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides by sponsoring this event that celebrates those guides who have completed their certification testing” says Len Youden, Yamnuska’s General Manager.  “This year Yamnuska’s senior guide Grant Meekins will be recognized for having completing the highest level of certification and we couldn’t be more proud”.

In addition to our sponsorship we have donated a spot for our summer 2011 Intro to Mountaineering to the silent auction.  We hope you can join us for this fun evening at the Rim Rock where Patron Pat Morrow will be honored for his lifelong commitment to climbing and the mountain environment.

After a 35 minute lung busting approach, we geared up and blitzed to the summit.   At 9:45am we were sitting on the summit enjoying the views of Canmore, having a conversation with a couple of recreational climbers that followed our tails the whole way up.

I think that was the fastest ascent of the peak I’ve ever done with a guest. It was also nice to be on top first as we counted 88 hikers on the way down. What a great climb, thanks Robert!

Robert high on the face of Ha Ling looking down on Canmore - photo by Nick Rapaich

Climbing with the sun on Mt Victoria

I was fortunate enough to do the first three days of our intermediate mountaineering program the Lake Louise Classics. This incredible group of people combined with some favorable alpine conditions had a very successful trip into Abbot Pass.

Approach to Abbot Hut - photo Roy Millar

Everyone on the trip were ‘Yamnuska Alumni’ and not only did it give me a chance to get out for some fun but to also connect with dedicated guests. So Chris, Liz, Allan, Bryan, Roy and I, along with Yam guides James Blench, Paddy Jerome and Jason Billings left Canmore and headed for the bus to Lake O’Hara.

Four hours later this energetic group arrived at the Abbott Hut admiring the next day’s objective of Mt Lefroy. The Abbot Hut is the second highest permanent structure in Canada at almost 9600 ft and from the hut you can see clear to the top of Mt Lefroy. After some refresher training in short roping and anchoring techniques, we enjoyed a delicious Yamnuska prepared meal and went to bed for our 4am wake up.

Here is a hint: When staying in Alpine Club Huts, bring a set of earplugs. We shared the hut with another group… one of whom was a champion snorer and even those of us with earplugs had a broken sleep at best.

Stepping up the Rock Bands on Mt. Lefroy

Pushing to the Summit of Lefroy

However, our keen group was wide eyed when we started our climb at 5am and although it was 5 degrees Celsius at the hut, we enjoyed excellent snow and ice conditions on the mountain. On the way up, the group moved very well together in 3 rope teams as we watched the full moon setting to the West and an alpine sunrise over the peaks of Banff to the East. The view alone was an amazing sight but this ambitious group of climbers knew that the day would offer even better views at 11,230 ft from the top of Mt. Lefroy. At 7:30am we were not disappointed as everyone topped out to enjoy blue skies and see as far as the Bugaboos and the Columbia Icefields. High up on this majestic peak it sure felt like we were standing on top of the world!

View from the Summit of Mt Lefroy - Roy Millar

The beauty of an alpine start is that you get an afternoon nap! We all came back for a well deserved rest and planned our next day’s objective over dinner, scotch and brandy. Given the previous few days’ unsuccessful summits of Mt Victoria, we were naturally concerned about warm weather and snow conditions. James, Paddy and Jason decided that a 3am wake up with a 4am departure would be our best shot and instead of returning to the hut for our descent back to Lake O’Hara we would carry all of our gear to the top of Mt Victoria and descend the Huber Ledges. And that is exactly what we did!

Moon setting over Mt Huber - J Billing

Everything worked out as planned and as we worked our way through the snow and rock (our group did very well climbing alpine rock in crampons) we were treated to another spectacular sunrise complete with Alpen-glow by the time we hit the first ledge. By 8:30 am the snow conditions were deteriorating but we had one of Canada’s best avalanche forecasters with us in James Blench. When I became worried about snow conditions and being swept off the side of Mt Victoria, James shared his thoughts with the group and assured us he was not concerned. I immediately felt at ease if James was comfortable!

Sunrise on Mt Victoria - Roy Millar

By 10 am we were on the south summit of Mt Victoria where we celebrated, had a short break then descended the Huber ledges. Bryan did his first rappel which we were excited to share with him and we all enjoyed the scrambling and lowering to Wiwaxy Gap and the quick trail descent to Lake O’Hara.

Heading up to the Summit of Victoria - Roy Millar

Descent from the Summit - Roy Millar

I felt honored to climb with this keen group of mountaineers and I would say special friendships have formed as we all glowed in the success of our trip over burgers and beer at the Outpost Pub in Lake Louise. We advertise this trip as the natural continuation of our Snow and Ice long weekend and our Intro to Mountaineering programs and based on how well our alumni of those programs did, I’d say that description is pretty accurate. I returned to Canmore while the rest of the group prepared for their journey to the Neil Colgan hut and more alpine climbing. I can’t wait to see the pictures and hear the stories from my new friends.

Mt Joffre - Main objective of the trip

3-Isle Lake

We decided to stay put for the day since we needed to have good weather to traverse Northover Ridge to Aster Lake. This area is stunningly beautiful so to enjoy the area we did a day hike up to Beatty Pass. This was a good decision because it snowed all day and we made our packs lighter for the Ridge walk by eating a days food.

Mt Northover & Ridge

Heading to Aster Lake

Heading towards Joffre

Fantastic views from shoulder of Joffre

Nicholas Rapaich

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At a recent board meeting, Len Youden, Yamnuska’s General Manager has been appointed to represent the Activities segment of Tourism Canmore and Kananaskis. Tourism Canmore Kananaskis is an action oriented Destination Marketing Organization (DMO), accepted and respected in travel and tourism circles provincially, nationally and internationally.

“I am looking forward to helping develop and execute on the marketing strategy for this incredible part of the world” says Len. “Yamnuska has been a member of Tourism Canmore for many years and I think our company represents the high caliber of activities and attractions that are available to residents and visitors. We epitomize ‘mountain adventure’ and as custodians of the mountains we can responsibly promote our products to people all over the world”.

In the upcoming annual strategy session, Len is looking forward to being an advocate for an increased web presence for Tourism Canmore and actively promoting the activities of our region.

On the peak, stoaked to be in the Mountains!

Another fantastic week was spent up at the Bow Hut on the Wapta Icefields last week with a strong group of aspiring mountaineers! Yamnuska Guides Nick Rapaich and Jason Billing spent the week teaching skills, summitting peaks, and keeping the group entertained with their enthusiasum and banter! The following review was submitted by one of the guests in the post-course evaluation:

Pushing towards the summit!

“This is my first course with Yamnuska but if the quality of program is as good as this one then I will definitely be a repeat customer and will recommend Yamnuska to everyone I meet. I have taken quite a few outdoor courses and Jason and Nick are BY FAR the most enjoyable and enthusiastic instructors I have had. They click very well together and it reflects in their work and on the group dynamic. The group fed off their energy making for many entertaining and memorable moments. I can say with confidence that I did not feel unsafe at any point during our week long adventure. Both guides exude confidence which is a rare quality. On the last night at Bow Hut I remember another group joined us in the Hut. I remember seeing envy in their faces as each one of them kept peaking over to look at our group. We were all laughing, smiling, and joking with one another, sharing stories and favorite moments about the day, and having a BLAST!!

Just before I fell asleep that night I remember hearing one of the group members stop Nick/Jason outside the dorm to ask what company we were with and how to get more information on Yamnuska courses which Nick/Jason provided in an enthusiastic and professional manner (Who WOULDN’T want to have as much fun as we were having?!). I’m sure you have a good idea of what I thought of the week but I feel that I have to say it again that Nick and Jason are amazing guides that present your company in a unique and very refreshing fashion. I wish I could shake their hands one more time to thank them for giving me one of the best experiences of my life! At the very least they deserve a very well earned pat on the back from you. The next time I take a Yamnuska course I am going to request that it be led by Nick or Jason.”

Greg – Calgary, Alberta