Jump to content

[TR] Mt. Robson- North Face 8/14/2004


Colin

Recommended Posts

Climb: Mt. Robson-North Face

 

Date of Climb: 8/14/2004

 

Trip Report:

I climbed the North Face of Robson on Saturday, after biking/hiking into the Robson-Helmet col on Friday. Descent was made by the Kain Route. I didn't have a watch and so I don't know times of specific parts of the trip, but I left the Robson-Helmet col at sunrise and got back to the trailhead at 8:15pm.

 

The approach rock buttress is tedious, but there are lots of cairns, so routefinding is easy. The glacier from the top of the buttress to the col is very broken up, and some tricky navigation is required. The North Face is in good condition - icy enough for good sticks the whole way, but soft enough to rest one's calves often. On the upper Emperor Ridge I traversed on the north side for about 200 ft. The Kain route seemed fine as well, but had one large crevasse/bergsrund that will provide a bit of difficulty. Getting from the base of the Kain route back up to the Robson-Helmet col is straightforward, but puts you under a large cornice for the last 200 ft.

 

Gear Notes:

-30m rope

-2 screws, 2 pins, runners, harness

 

Approach Notes:

-Take a mountain bike (one can bike the first 7km)

-Hike in a pair of tennis shoes. Not only will they be more comfy, but you can ford the river in them (crossing barefoot was quite painful).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 68
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

That's pretty amazing to solo that climb and get all the way down and back past snowdome to the trailhead in about 14 hours! Most parties take 4 days for the entire thing in perfect weather, 3 days on what you did in a single daylight push. Congradulations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can only bike the 1st 7km (campground at Kinney Lake). If you go light as Colin you can ride a bike. most parties laden with 45-50lb packs will not chose to ride the 1st 7km cause you ass would swallow the seat and post.

Some single track.

 

Nice work Colin!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"most parties laden with 45-50lb packs will not chose to ride the 1st 7km cause you ass would swallow the seat and post"

 

This is true, but when we did Assiniboine we took bikes for the first 11 miles. From the trailhead we had regular rear bike racks that we were going to strap our packs to but they were too big and cumbersome to stay in place. We carried them on our backs but it's very hard to control a bike on rough terrain with 45lbs. swinging around on your back.

 

On the trip back we got smart and took all the heavy stuff and put it in a sleeping bag sized stuff sack on each bikes little rack. Made ALL the difference. With only 25/30 lbs on the back it was a cruise. On the Assiniboine trail it was 11 miles downhill back to the car, made it in about an hour.... sweet. There was even a bike rack to lock up to where the bike trail ended on the approach.

 

Now when I go to Canada for a long road trip I take a bike. Many approaches allow them, it's a lot better than in the states.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...