[TR] Mount Andromeda - Skyladder 8/8/2011

[Fairweather]

Trip: Mount Andromeda - Skyladder

 

Date: 8/8/2011

 

Trip Report:

My brother and I climbed the Skyladder route on Andromeda this past Monday and found great conditions with solid, belayed front-pointing on the lower half of the face and great picket placements. The upper half of the route was a bit icier with screws beneath crud for easy simul-climbing. The plod along the ridge to the NE summit was a bit soft, and the AA col descent was every bit as nerve-wracking as I expected. We brought only one 60 meter rope--where two would have made the AA descent a lot faster. Finding the way down off the toe of the E ridge to the rap stations is pretty straightforward--super-exposed class 2 or 3--but the descent down from the AA col proper required a combination of rappelling and face-in down-climbing on solid snow/ice. Note that on the final rappel, a single rope does not reach over the bergschrund and we were forced to waste a picket to rap the last 30 feet over the gap and onto the AA Glacier. A very fun climb.

 

Pictures:

 

Andromeda on Aug 7th:

 

The North Bowl - beginning the climb in the morning:

 

On the glacier:

 

On the Skyladder:

 

 

 

 

Topping out:

 

 

 

 

Starting the descent off the ridge toe:

 

Rapping the face/gully system above AA Col:

 

Rapping near the bottom of AA Col:

 

The T-slot anchor held. Steve expresses our sentiments regarding the AA Col descent:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Two Tools. (One Viper and one Venom, no problem)

4 Pickets

4 Screws

Should have brought two ropes for the descent.

 

Approach Notes:

Very easy/evident--but the bridge over the schrund will only last another week or two.

 

 

[Dave7]

 

what a great looking summit ridge!! Nice work

[Captain panther]

Nice work man!

[genepires]

I have heard many negative things about the descent the way you guys went. Could you eleborate more on how it goes? I heard about rap anchors of just rotten piles of rock, technical downclimbing on loose rock, and navigation issues.

 

When Alex and I went up, after hearing about the AA col way, we decided to go the opposite way and head up towards the columbia glacier, eventually coming out the way the busses go up. It was long and times the crevasses were "interesting" but we got down 7 hours earlier than another team who took the AA col way that same day.

 

You obviously made pretty good time coming down the AA col way.

 

Just by looking at the photos from the guidebook and recollection of being there, it seems like a good way down is to rap via v threads down the n face bowl. From your photos, it seems there is a cornice hanging over that right now but I think that is unusual. Without the cornice, what is your opinion on this descent?

 

Nice job avoiding an epic in the rockies!

[Fairweather]

I have heard many negative things about the descent the way you guys went. Could you eleborate more on how it goes? I heard about rap anchors of just rotten piles of rock, technical downclimbing on loose rock, and navigation issues.

 

 

It wasn't too bad, really. We thought about the South Ridge/Columbia descent, but rumours of monster hidden crevasses sounded scarier to us than the AA route. Here is the description of our single-rope descent as I recall it:

 

Walk down E Ridge from summit for about 20 minutes until you reach a dead end at a toe/buttress that hooks hard left. Walk/scramble out onto this very exposed buttress (about 1 foot wide) for exactly 60 meters. (Do NOT go to the very end of the buttress. :: ) Look down to your right (toward Mount Athabasca) and you'll notice a 3rd-class "path" that easily descends about one rope length to a cairn and a pile of tat backed up with a solid piton. Rappel from here--down a vertical wall for 30 meters to a wide ledge, then downclimb another easy 50 feet or so to a second anchor. This one is more solid. Rap into a snow couloir near its base and downclimb on easy snow to the closest corner of the AA Col. You are now at the top of the AA Col proper.

 

Find 3 solid pitons and rappel out onto the wide open 50+ degree snow/ice face until you reach the end of your rope. Pickets or screws to anchor here, then face-in downclimb two-tool traverse left across steep snow/ice--we belayed as the snow was very hard and a fall would have been bad. Your goal is to get over to the climber's left side of the face where sketchy, old-piton-faded nylon rap anchors abound--but even here a double rope is required to avoid all downclimbing. Stay on this climber's left side of the face until the last rappel--where a single rope will come up about 30 feet short of getting you over the schrund. Build one final snow anchor to rap over the schrund and you're home free. Descend the easy AA Glacier to its east margin and find the climber's path that leads back to the snowcoach road. Hope this helps.

 

 

[downey]

AWESOME! thanks for sharing

 

[genepires]

thanks for taking the time to give that detailed descent info. That is something that is really lacking in the Dougherty "selected canadian book of lies" sandbag guidebook. To bad there isn't a kiosk at the base of that mountain that someone could post this info on.

[Fairweather]

Goofing off with music, pictures/videos of the climb, and YouTube:

 

 

[video:youtube]http://youtu.be/K3_W3SRtKew

 

 

[gearheart]

Nice trip report and pics of a beautiful place.

When I lived up there (early 90's) we did anything we could to avoid the East ridge/AA col descent given its reputation for route finding fun and manky raps, so we would downclimb Skyladder, although for us routes in that bowl were usually done in May/June with more snow around. The AA col had such a bad rep (one friend had earned the unfortunate nickname "heli-rescue" from an adventure there...) we also chose to descend the relative unknown of the west side of the north bowl rather than the AA col after a May ascent of Shooting Gallery.

[trainwreck]

To bad there isn't a kiosk at the base of that mountain that someone could post this info on.

 

If you talk to the folks at the Info Centre (Adam specifically) he'll be able to walk you through the entire descent. The times I have done it, we had two ropes and made v-threads from the AA Col proper to the AA glacier. Easy peasy.

[trainwreck]

we also chose to descend the relative unknown of the west side of the north bowl rather than the AA col after a May ascent of Shooting Gallery.

 

That is the descent route for the Shooting Gallery. No one actually tops out to the East summit.

[AlpineK]

I'm not sure what it looks like these days. In the past we would avoid the first descending couloir and climb up towards Athabasca Mountain. At the third couloir dropping back down we would descend. That didn't involve rapping when we did it.

[wfinley]

Ahh... your description of the descent brings back memories I had suppressed .... I climbed it about 10 years ago and recall the guidebook had a lengthy description of the route and all of two sentences for the descent. We found the route totally straight forward but were gripped on the descent. The rap down to the col was shitty and once we reached the col we took one look at the nasty snice and opted to traverse under the cornices and snow bombs all the way to Athabasca (which in retrospect was pretty stupid). I seem to recall the rap stations were crappy and the rock less than desirable.

 

 

[Fairweather]

Nothing's changed in ten years. In fact, I think those cords in your picture are the very same ones we rapped off of--just a little less faded and worn. (Just joking.) (I think.)

[Fairweather]

Our dad hung out at the Icefield visitor's center while Steve and I climbed. He took a telephoto picture of us on the Skyladder that's kind of neat:

 

[W]

That descent description sounds almost exactly like what I recall. Forrest Murphy and I climbed The Andromeda Strain in 2001. We topped out in the dark, and having heard stories about the descent, opted to spend the rest of the night sitting on our packs on top of the route in snow flurries, 15 mph winds, and 20 degree (F) temps with no bivi gear rather than try the descent in the dark. Next morning, the descent went quickly and without a hitch but also left no doubt that our decision to do the suffer bivi was the right one. I don't really recall thinking the rap anchors were that gross, however, at that point I think we just wanted to get the hell off the mountain!

 

Thanks for the report!