Hello again!
“Cumbre o muerte” (summit or die in Spanish) was our farcical war cry when we were climbing. Disclaimer: we carefully analyze risk before making any decisions in the mountains. On the back of that terrible sound phrases, this newsletter is a super exciting 2 weeks in 1 update that lets me catch up to my latest trip and lets me share with you some of the most gorgeous views that I have seen in the last few weeks.
When it comes to outdoor endeavors, alpine climbing takes the number one spot in my mind. When the alpine adjective is added to any uphill discipline, the goal becomes the summit and the journey can become complex because it may involve a combination of different skills to make the summit happen. Reaching the ‘cumbre’ (summit) is an indescribable feeling similar to a runners high with breath taking views and is something worth chasing!
Multi pitch rock
One of the core skills required for any alpine trips is multi pitch rock climbing. Multipitch climbing involves rock climbing over multiple pitches (duh). A pitch of climbing is defined as a length of rope (60 or 70m) typically but can very often be less than that full length to find good spots to set up your anchor and belay stations.
We had two days of multi pitch climbing in our schedule and the first day was done at this place called Kid Goat. Its a pretty great spot with some easy routes which are bolted allowing us to do some multi pitch sport climbing. Multi pitch sport climbing is a relatively secure way to practice your rope systems and gain confidence with your climbing ability.
We climbed a route called Gray Waves which is an old school 5.8. Back in the day the hardest climb ever was a 5.9 and humble rock climbing pioneers at the time often climbed these relatively hard routes but gave a 5.8 rating because they didn’t feel it qualified to be a 5.9. So old school 5.8s can feel like a 5.8, all the way to a 5.10 or higher.
Not many pictures from this little adventure but a fantastic day out with good views of Mt Yamnuska nearby!
Mt Yamnuska standing tall - Yamnuska Mountain Adventures namesake!
The second day of our multi pitch was climbing at EEOR (east end of Rundle) and involved a combination of three different routes: Hot Fuzz (5.8, 2 pitches), Sharknado (5.9, 4 pitches) and All that Chas (5.10b, 2 pitches) for a total of 8 pitches of climbing. We had some fantastic weather and some great views with some pretty solid climbs that left me feeling quite accomplished. I suspect that these routes are easy for their grade!
Our guide Larry let us lead the entire way!
Majestic Ha Ling enroute to the top of the climb
Panoramas from the top!
Alpine rock
For the real deal we climbed the west summit of Mt Baldy. The route traverses a ridge that goes straight to the summit. It’s a fantastic line with awesome views all along. The pitches were quite spicy at points and the exposure got to me when I was leading certain pitches of the climb. The climbing itself was easy though and the climbing was just absolutely fun.
The top of the ridge from the summit
A real panoramic view from the summit. Beautiful!
Steep and spicy descent!
Alpine mountaineering trip
We headed up the ice field parkway for trips to the glaciers, practice our rescue skills and do a summit push to test out our skills.
Our mental tenacity was tested for the first few days with torrential rain while we practiced our rescue skills and did some glacier walking. It soaked us to our bones and rethink why we do this in the first place. Definitely quite a low point on my trip was getting ready the next day with wet clothes knowing fully well that we will be rained on again.
Views views views while we practiced
Crevasse rescue practice
In any case, the weather did improve dramatically to give us some perfect “cumbre” weather. We did some practice of multi pitch systems on the glacier with some alpine ice climbing and enjoyed some awesome glacier views as well.
Looking up at ice the scary ice falls
Beauty and danger sometimes go together?
Belaying up the alpine faces of the ice fall
For our final full day we did a summit push to A2. A2 is a sub peak of Mt Athabasca with some technical rock climbing near the summit. Our guide for the day was Cherring Sherpa who has summited Everest 4 times and just an all around badass. We woke up early around 4 am to get out and climbing before the snow softens and make travel difficult. We travelled up the glacier leading the way, attempting to dodge crevasses, rock fall and ice fall. It was steep and definitely took my breath away both with the exertion required and the beauty as well :)
The summit was beautiful and the walk back in slushy snow was horrendous with our legs post holing the snow the entire way back. I even fell into the lake at some point because I lost the track and ended up on the ice on the lake which fell through! Regardless, each moment was awesome and part of the experience that I wouldn’t take back.
Doesn’t look like it, but this is team orange (Pat, Aidan and I)! Three of us wear the most orange jackets out of anyone on the trip. Often we look like we got a memo to color coordinate.
Noah was my climbing partner along with Cherring who led us!
Cherring was an absolute boss!
Ascending the steep glacial faces of Athabasca glacier
Oh! And I experienced one of the best sunsets that I have ever experienced. Here are some attempts to capture its beauty:
Standing there watching the sun set over the mountains made me feel grateful about being there, melancholy about missing my family and friends and optimistic about being the mountains more all at once. It’s good to stop and smell the roses once in a while.
The alpine mountaineering trip flew by for me because I was having an absolute blast the whole time, even when I was standing soaking in the rain and standing knee deep in the freezing lake.
That concludes our penultimate trip of the mountain semester. I am now prepping for the last trip - the mountain expedition which is student led for the most part and combines everything that we learned into one action packed trip.
Hope everyone is doing well!
– G