- Joined
- Jun 25, 2012
- Messages
- 4,429
Here, within, I post this years-past trip up the long admired and long aspired Canadian Rocky summit called Mt. Edith Cavell. Calling this a hike to put it in this BCP hiking forum is a little misleading but there is no other real BCP forum that it fits in better. And besides, I know people that have hiked it and we only used a rope for about 100' of climbing.
That said, caveat emptor. It is not your beginner's hike or rock climb. See the trail guide and look at the pics and ask questions.
Mt. Edith Cavell.
East Ridge, III 5.3, weather possible, nay, likely. First climbed in 1924 by one of my heroes, Conrad Kain.
http://www.summitpost.org/mount-edith-cavell/151108
This hike was part of a 10 day trip to the Canadian Rockies in which we had our eye on many objectives. As usual our appetite was bigger than our stomach and this peak was one of the few accomplished before heavy weather set in. Welcome to the Canadian mountains.
Our objective taken from the approach. The left skyline to the ... wait, isn't there a summit up there somewhere? I kept whining to my friend Jeff that I didn't like the looks of this weather. That I don't like climbing up where I can't see. That the descent was over the top and going down the other side. That...that... that... He would have none of it and shamed me into harnessing up at the bottom of the ridge in this view. In drizzling rain. The good news is that we heard no thunder. The route simply climbs the ridge to the top. The route finding is easy - if it wasn't for that cloud thingie.
The view from a few hundred feet up the ridge. Squint and you can see the parking lot and trailhead. The Canadian Rockies are so..... developed. I am NOT kidding.
Another few hundred feet up friend Jeff ecstatic that we had nearly summitted - and in sunshine!
Until we climbed up another hundred feet and saw this. The summit was really a false summit and the conditions became "full-on" and in the fog. I tease him about this premature celebration ever since that time years ago and I will until I die or he doesn't like it anymore.
The route turned out to be really, really pleasant. It never rained hard on us enough to saturate the rock to make it slippery and we only pulled out the rope for one hundred foot section that we would have soloed in good conditions. Jeff climbed in mountaineering boots and I in approach shoes. It was pretty solid quartzite - kind of like climbing Devil's Castle here in the Wasatch of Utah. As compared to the imposing north face which is supremely rotten and supremely near-vertical. For the armchair climber (me) try reading the account of Fred Beckey and Yvon Chouinard's account of that first ascent.
Jeff on top.
Me, on top. Grinning because I have put out of mind that I have never been here before and I have no f'ng idea which way to go down and we can't see 50'. I know one direction is that vertical, thousands-of-feet high face. Can't show the wrong emotions in the hero shot though.
The view once we were breaking out of the fog and drizzle on the descent. Turns out route finding wasn't all that tricky and once we got through minor cliff bands there was a climber trail in the rotten, shattered shale. One thing has always struck me standing on top of a Canadian peak. You look in any direction there are high mountains into the distance. Sure, you can do that in the Winds. Sure you can do that in the Sierra. In the Canadian ranges you turn and rotate 360 degrees and that observation is still true in nearly every direction.
Descending the first 1000'. I am feeling better now obviously.
The walk off had to be a walk around - the whole peak - to get back to the car since we went up and over and down the backside. This turned out to be the crux. Because we were tired. Because we were over-spent from relief, because even though we had carefully prepared each piece of gear and each article of bad weather clothing neither of us had thought to bring bug dope and we got bit to bloody pieces by the mosquitoes on the multi-hour walk out.
Still. Highly Recommended. THE END.
That said, caveat emptor. It is not your beginner's hike or rock climb. See the trail guide and look at the pics and ask questions.
Mt. Edith Cavell.
East Ridge, III 5.3, weather possible, nay, likely. First climbed in 1924 by one of my heroes, Conrad Kain.
http://www.summitpost.org/mount-edith-cavell/151108
This hike was part of a 10 day trip to the Canadian Rockies in which we had our eye on many objectives. As usual our appetite was bigger than our stomach and this peak was one of the few accomplished before heavy weather set in. Welcome to the Canadian mountains.
Our objective taken from the approach. The left skyline to the ... wait, isn't there a summit up there somewhere? I kept whining to my friend Jeff that I didn't like the looks of this weather. That I don't like climbing up where I can't see. That the descent was over the top and going down the other side. That...that... that... He would have none of it and shamed me into harnessing up at the bottom of the ridge in this view. In drizzling rain. The good news is that we heard no thunder. The route simply climbs the ridge to the top. The route finding is easy - if it wasn't for that cloud thingie.
The view from a few hundred feet up the ridge. Squint and you can see the parking lot and trailhead. The Canadian Rockies are so..... developed. I am NOT kidding.
Another few hundred feet up friend Jeff ecstatic that we had nearly summitted - and in sunshine!
Until we climbed up another hundred feet and saw this. The summit was really a false summit and the conditions became "full-on" and in the fog. I tease him about this premature celebration ever since that time years ago and I will until I die or he doesn't like it anymore.
The route turned out to be really, really pleasant. It never rained hard on us enough to saturate the rock to make it slippery and we only pulled out the rope for one hundred foot section that we would have soloed in good conditions. Jeff climbed in mountaineering boots and I in approach shoes. It was pretty solid quartzite - kind of like climbing Devil's Castle here in the Wasatch of Utah. As compared to the imposing north face which is supremely rotten and supremely near-vertical. For the armchair climber (me) try reading the account of Fred Beckey and Yvon Chouinard's account of that first ascent.
Jeff on top.
Me, on top. Grinning because I have put out of mind that I have never been here before and I have no f'ng idea which way to go down and we can't see 50'. I know one direction is that vertical, thousands-of-feet high face. Can't show the wrong emotions in the hero shot though.
The view once we were breaking out of the fog and drizzle on the descent. Turns out route finding wasn't all that tricky and once we got through minor cliff bands there was a climber trail in the rotten, shattered shale. One thing has always struck me standing on top of a Canadian peak. You look in any direction there are high mountains into the distance. Sure, you can do that in the Winds. Sure you can do that in the Sierra. In the Canadian ranges you turn and rotate 360 degrees and that observation is still true in nearly every direction.
Descending the first 1000'. I am feeling better now obviously.
The walk off had to be a walk around - the whole peak - to get back to the car since we went up and over and down the backside. This turned out to be the crux. Because we were tired. Because we were over-spent from relief, because even though we had carefully prepared each piece of gear and each article of bad weather clothing neither of us had thought to bring bug dope and we got bit to bloody pieces by the mosquitoes on the multi-hour walk out.
Still. Highly Recommended. THE END.
Last edited:
