Andromeda- NW Shoulder Direct Questions?

[Fuggedaboudit]

Hello. I am thinking about this route. Has anyone done it in the last few years? With the recent warming is it still predominantly an ice/snow route or is it more mixed now? Would you recommend late August early Sept (when I am thinking of going)? What is the approach time from the climbers parking lot to the base of the climb? How would you rate the difficulty of this climb against say the North Ridge on Athabasca or the North Face of Assiniboine (winter conditions)? Assuming you would belay anything WI3 or higher, or any climbing on slopes over 50 degrees how many belayed pitches are involved? Are there any fixed (pitons) belays?

 

I live in Brooklyn which by no means is a climbing mecca. Some of these questions may seem silly to the reader but its hard for me to get a sense of what this climb is like from summitpost or "Suspected Alpine Climbs in the Canadian Rockies". Dont have lots of climbers with experience I can reach out to in my hood. I've seen the mountain from afar but only up close from the AA col/Andromeda Strain side.

 

Thanks in advance!

[DirtyHarry]

seems like late september or even october are getting to be the time to do those type of routes in the Rockies. We went there two summers ago, mid August, and it was too warm to climb A-strain.

[wfinley]

I can answer some of your questions. I haven't climbed the NW Shoulder - but climbed Syladder on July 11th 2001. It was total step kicking for almost the entire route. It took us 3 hours to reach the base of the route from the parking lot. However - if you're going any later give yourself an extra hour because you'll probably have to do a bit more route finding then we did to gain the glacier.

 

Also - If conditions are good downclimb Skyladder and save yourself alot of pain... the nomal route down is a drag.

[genepires]

Did skyladder in august years ago and I would NOT reccomend going down that route during that time of the year. We had lots of rock fall from a bit of exposed (melted away snow) terrain above the ice face. You would be dodging those rocks especially inthe afternoon.

The "selected book of lies" descent is crap. epic in the making.

We did a long glacier descent to the north (I think) and then came back on the main glacier with all the tourist bus. Way long but managable.

Haven't done it but it seemed like v thread rapping down the north face/bowl ice route would be a quick, reasonably safe way to get to the base of skyladder or any other route on andromeda.

If skyladder is all snow covered, then that would be a good one too.

 

Last time I looked at the route in question was many years ago but it seemed to have melted out alot from the guide photos. Would expect it to be less ice this summer than the photos.

[wfinley]

The "selected book of lies" descent is crap. epic in the making.

We did a long glacier descent to the north (I think) and then came back on the main glacier with all the tourist bus. Way long but managable.

I wish we had known that! We descended the route described in the book. I recall rap stations that were large stacks of loose blocks wrapped with webbing. If we had wanted to we could have knocked the entire rap station down in 3 or 4 kicks. We cursed the book the entire time. Ahhh... good memories!

[G-spotter]

There is some info in this thread that, while more pertinent to Athabasca than Andromeda, is still relevant, especially to somebody like f'gedaboutit who is from Noo Yawk.

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php?Number=452797

 

Both Atha and Andro see a lot of accidents these days. Partly cause they are popular objectives next to the road but also because they are huge piles of frozen shit that are slowly thawing. Note that the accident occurred August 15.

[DirtyHarry]

When Rolf and I were there two summerd ago, some dude was killed by a falling rock or chunk of ice the day before we got up to the Parkway. I think they were on Athabasca too. Sounds like a similar deal to the unfortunate incident Dru linked to.

[Fuggedaboudit]

Thanks a lot to everyone who posted. Have been to the Icefields twice in September, but never in August, and based upon what I've now read, will look at mid-Sept to late September. The August 15 2004 accident happened at 11AM which is sobering because I wouldnt think of that as being late in the climbing day. Quite to the contrary, before reading your posts I would have assumed that if we were off the route on Andromeda by noon in the middle of August we would be ok. Now I'm thinking that noon in the middle of August does not sound as good as noon the middle of September. And I'm thinking noon doesn't sound as good as 10AM.

 

I've since learned that the estimated time of actual climbing on the NW Shoulder Direct is supposed to be 4-6 hours so we'll try to be at the base of the route 5AM. About the only climbing skill I excell at is getting up early. Hopefully that earlier than originaly planned start time in September will cut down on the objective hazzard.

[jordop]

Current conditions are good for insomniac alcoholics. Climb during night, drink during day

[jmckay]

I haven’t climbed NW direct personally but have looked at it quite a bit. It is the only route on the mountain that I have not climbed so it is sort of a “closing the chapter thing with me”.

I am not sure that I agree with the late or early fall thing but it certainly can be climbed at that time of year. It is a snow route for the most part and I think that I would be doing as a late spring climb when the snow is well consolidated. It seems that the snow makes the climbing a lot easier and reduces the rock fall hazard considerably.

It seems that your window of opportunity is short lately and the time from when there is to much snow and there is two little snow is maybe three weeks at best. Also you want to start early if there is a great amount of snow, from what I have heard from friends is that it is a spooky place when the snow goes funky on you.

 

The descent has caught a lot of people off guard and in bad light they often mistake the south ridge for the way off. Remember that you turn left and follow the summit ridge for quite a ways (S. then turns E or NE then heads south again finally turning east on the final leg) 30 to 40 minutes before it turns south. Follow the summit ridge to the very last couloirs, if you go another 50 to 60 meters you will take a fall into the AA basin or hit the col itself.

[Fuggedaboudit]

Thanks McKay, appreciate the insight and descent advice. Late spring opens up a whole other set of trip possibilities I hadnt even thought of, might be better for some of my buddies than this fall. Which means I can do something bigger up there this fall! But first I've got to finish a certain northern aspect problem on Washington's ugly crumbling boil. I will reach out to you and your website this summer. Thanks again your input on this site.