[TR] Canadian Rockies - mount Victoria, mount Louis, mount Athabasca 7/26/2016

[Alex789]

Trip: Canadian Rockies - mount Victoria, mount Louis, mount Athabasca

 

Date: 7/26/2016

 

Trip Report:

Canadian Rockies - summer 2016

[Alex]

Good job you guys. The Rockies have some great climbing but takes some getting used to! I have very fond memories of N Face Athabasca that is a great climb and good job Luida for taking that pitch.

 

I would recommend E Ridge Edith Cavell next outing for you.

[AlpineK]

Edith Cavell is different these days or ever since the road to the base of the mountain was swept away.

 

I'm a little bothered the closest I ever made it to Victoria was cragging at Back of the Lake.

[kascadia]

We climbed Skyladder in August one year and another year through there at same time it was melted out (although not as badly as that, that's pretty bare). Too bad, it was amazing alpine ice when we got it.

 

Really nice shots, the Canadian Rockies are amazing, if not entirely glued together very well. . . .

Edited March 12, 2017 by kascadia

[Bigtree]

I enjoyed that TR. Looks like great fun. Will have to get up to that area of the Rockies one day.

[AlpineK]

We climbed Skyladder in August one year and another year through there at same time it was melted out (although not as badly as that, that's pretty bare). Too bad, it was amazing alpine ice when we got it.

 

Really nice shots, the Canadian Rockies are amazing, if not entirely glued together very well. . . .

 

Recent pictures of the Skyladder are depressing. I climbed it 1982. The thing was solid ice without even a hint melting in July of that year.

 

That's one of many signs of what kind of influence Climate Change is having.

[seano-]

I did it in early August 2014, and it was a bit desperate getting across the glacier and bergschrund onto the route, but I didn't have to climb bare dirt. The Athabasca Glacier's retreat is amazing and depressing, with many routes having changed beyond recognition. To think it reached all the way across the valley to the highway 150 years ago...

[wfinley]

Here's getting onto the glacier in July 2001. I recall getting onto the glacier to be a pain but the bergschrund was a nonissue. I always just assumed the guidebook author deliberately left off key portions like "how to access the climb" and "how to get off the climb" so you could have an adventure. We found the route to be pretty straightforward compared to the access and descending to the AA col.

 

[seano-]

"An adventure, they said..." I, too, was expecting an easy dismount to the A-A col, but downclimbing that out-sloping Canadian choss (snow-covered for me) was sketchy business. The descent was definitely harder than the climb.

 

Nice site, BTW. I've enjoyed comparing similar pictures 13 years apart.

[kascadia]

We climbed Skyladder in August one year and another year through there at same time it was melted out (although not as badly as that, that's pretty bare). Too bad, it was amazing alpine ice when we got it.

 

Really nice shots, the Canadian Rockies are amazing, if not entirely glued together very well. . . .

 

Recent pictures of the Skyladder are depressing. I climbed it 1982. The thing was solid ice without even a hint melting in July of that year.

 

That's one of many signs of what kind of influence Climate Change is having.

 

We did it in ~1991 and the quality was memorable. No problems getting to it and the schrund was just starting to open up. Getting out was an adventure through that maze of crevasses, and getting down to them was rather nasty, too. I distinctly remember gingerly crawling across one or two that were about a crumbling inch wide. . .

 

Yeah, don't have to be a weatherman to see which way the wind's blowing. . .

 

Edited March 19, 2017 by kascadia