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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 11, 2010 - 02:18am PT
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Barry Blanchard's article in Alpinist 29 rekindled a long ago dream, "Dragons in the Mist" is a great read. It is still a mountain I'd like to climb, it is still a passion that burns, I just might not be able to find a way to do it...
My first attempt was in 1985 on the second half of a climbing trip Mike and Lawrence and I made to Canada. It was our first journey, and we went to the then mythical Bugaboos and climbed until the weather wouldn't permit anymore climbing. Sitting around in the "Conrad Kain" hut we hatched a plan to go and do the only route we were familiar with, The Wishbone Arete, one of the "50 Classic Climbs in North America." Fellow climbers in the hut thought that maybe we should consider the SSW Ridge, which would give us a better chance at summitting...
On the drive up we stopped in Jasper on our way up 93 to Mt. Robson Provincial Park to see if they had a description of the approach. They did, and we xeroxed it... looked like a 45º line on the picture, we knew it couldn't be that steep... our plan was to go up to the Forester Hut (which we learned about from the guide in the library) then traverse across the Great Couloir. Of course this left our options to do the SSW Ridge too.
The 50 Classic Climbs in North America has a well earned reputation for sandbagging. There are still routes that have not seen a second ascent in that list, first published in 1979 now more than 30 years ago. We were just learning of the understated nature of the route description in Kruszyna & Putnam's The Rocky Mountains of Canada guides.
As you drive into the area you are aware of this massive snow mountain, Mt. Robson, "The King." A rather subdued breakfast at some delightful restaurant next to a serene river quieted our anxiety somewhat. We finished up and drove out to the Provincial Park and had a look, our first look
And as the mists parted we see our objective, the right hand ridge of the prominent "wishbone" feature
Not knowing what we would find at the hut, or even if we would find it... we took up the kit we'd need to spend a few days. Somehow getting ready in the parking lot seems to be a universal part of climbing, and here we are spread out and packing up.
On the hike in, the views are spectacular, and we strain to see our approach.
We had neglected to read the important sentence in Kruszyna & Putnam "in dry years there is seldom water on the arete or approaches to it" and took a quart of water each, assuming we'd find some. We had also no topographical map to see just what the approach was going to entail. Only later did we find that it is about 5000' up and 5000' in once you get started going up.
Lawrence keeps saying over and over again "this can't be the way" and it seemed that every time he complained we'd find a piece of tape marking the way. Up through the forest and onto a long, dry, steep rubble field. We stopped as some point to lick wet rock, perhaps dripping a bit of water.
Eventually we got to the hut. The Japanese climbing team established there had tea ready for us as we arrived. Mike and Lawrence sitting out in front of the hut.
This is truly a butt kicking approach. Somehow we convinced ourselves that we'd try in the morning, up the SSW Ridge. The approach had quenched our appetite for The Wishbone and in the logic of youth we'd go up the "easy way" first, then come back sometime and pluck the brass ring.
The morning wasn't too bad, but we had slept in due to the previous day's exertions. We started up late, but you could see the whole route, seemingly to the top.
Just scrambling on rubble, then a short technical section to get around the ice field and a long snow walk to the summit. How hard could it be?
It is a phantasmagorical place to be, and it never ceases to astonish me how putting one foot in front of the other can get you to some amazing places. If you look hard at this picture, you'll see the rectangular top of the hut down the ridge.
By the time we reached "Little Robson" the clouds were closing in... and at some point some avalanche debris came down from the south face above, slithering its way down some ice chute off to our right. But we couldn't see where it had come from. We weren't about to go up and check it out. Now Lawrence was pleading a little "let's go up a bit higher and see." The clouds suggested otherwise. It was late August, and a big snow had hit, the storm that chased us out of the 'Bugs cut off our hopes here too.
Lawrence catching a last look of the cloud ceiling, straining to see blue sky. Mike and me, "the old guys," were having none of it.
Down the ridge. There is always hope, but back then we thought we'd be back soon enough.
The next day we were tired and sore from the previous two. The weather didn't look any better and we hadn't brought enough to wait out the weather. It was the end of a long trip, and we had to drive back to New York and get back to work...
The descent had it's moments, the beautiful turquoise lakes, we could appreciate it with gravity helping us down.
The feet took a beating, here we tend to our wounds after getting down and before walking out to the car.
Whenever I've been weathered off a peak, I have to glance at it all the way back to the car, just to make sure it doesn't peek out of the clouds...
Probably had we been more experienced we would have gone for it. Who knows how that would have turned out... the mountain is notorious for the weather, read Blanchard's article for more of that.
But it still has the feeling of something that could have been, some long lost love between which fate intervened.
I was back in 1995, that was an El Nino year, and no one had summitted that summer, we got to look at that giant snow mountain and wonder if there would ever be another time.
Even now, the embers of the desire to climb Mt. Robson are alive... how hard could it be?
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MH2
climber
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Jan 11, 2010 - 03:15am PT
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You're already in good company just by failing on Robson, Ed.
I don't know if any of the other old-timers here ever met Timothy Mutch, Brown University geology prof, who did a couple FAs at the Gunks with Jim McCarthy, got to 25,000 feet in the Himalaya, made regular trips from the East to the Canadian Rockies (a powerful influence on his imagination), tried Robson several times, and chaired the team that built the first camera landed on Mars.
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Jan 11, 2010 - 10:59am PT
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Great report Ed!
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Jan 11, 2010 - 11:08am PT
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I only saw it from the road and it looked REALLY BIG
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Jan 11, 2010 - 11:39am PT
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Thanks Ed that was fantastic. I have also had a long burning desire to climb the little giant. It was to be the first mountain I would climb when I got back from Africa. Unfortunately a bad accident buckled my leg backwards so violently that my foot split my lip. Never made it to Robson but the desire still burns. Barry Blanchard's article in Alpinist 29 really got to me. Again thanks Ed for the fabulous adventure.
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Jan 11, 2010 - 11:46am PT
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One of my great regrets in climbing. Back in the early 60s while still in high school, some in the Rock Climbing Section in San Diego got the idea of climbing Robson. I got invited because I was in pretty good shape although I had minimal experience (had climbed Rainier). I assumed that the others knew what they were doing. Now knowing a little more I realize they didn't.
The chosen route was Robson Glacier, Snow Dome and Kain Face. On our third day a line was chosen taking a very direct line toward the Dome. This immediately led into an ice fall with ten storey seracs. After almnost all day we had gone 1/4 mile and went back to our previous camp on the glacier. The following day the weather continued good so we did a nice satellite peak, Resplendent. By now we were running a little low on food, so we hiked out with the idea of going up the SW Kinney Lake route. Replenished, we made it up to the hut. The following day the weather turned and our project was concluded.
In all we squandered 8 perfect days. In this period the first ascent of the Emperor Ridge was done. Apparently there have been years Robson was not climbed at all and one year the only ascent was the first winter ascent.
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pc
climber
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Jan 11, 2010 - 11:54am PT
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Thanks Ed. What a great Monday morning read. Beautiful place. I've only seen it from the train a couple times.
pc
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Jan 11, 2010 - 12:25pm PT
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Great story, that is an impressive mountain. The hike up the Valley of 10,000 Waterfalls is one of the most impressive hikes I've ever taken. Amazing scenics at every turn, and not just of Robson either.
Camping at the lake at the base of the glacier was unsettling. All night long there were huge ice chunks falling off of the serac and who knows where else, making a caucophany of crashes throughout a mostly sleepless night. The thought of being up there does not compute in my mind.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Jan 11, 2010 - 12:32pm PT
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Amazing story and pics, Ed!
I've always wanted to visit both the Bugs and try
Robson. . .
Who knows, we're still relatively 'young'!
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mtselman
Trad climber
New York, NY
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Jan 11, 2010 - 12:34pm PT
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A friend of mine and I did a quick trip to Canadian Rockies in September of 2007. We "warmed up" on the North Face of Stanley peak (Kahl's route) and then spent a few days getting to and climbing mt. Robson via Kain Face.
Photos from that trip are on my photography page at:
http://public.fotki.com/mtselman/mountains/canadian-rockies-2007/
Here is what my partner Alex Maznev wrote about our trip:
The north face of Stanley Peak can be seen from highway 93 as you drive from Banff towards Bugaboos. It has a number of moderate ice routes and a short approach, good for acclimatization. The Kahl route is a wide face going almost directly to the summit, and this time of the year it was all solid ice, with just a thin snow cover in places. According to the guidebook it's a very popular route, but we saw no tracks and the most recent entry in the summit register was from mid-August.
Kain Face on Mt. Robson has a long approach (and the trail starts at 800m, while the mountain is almost 4000), but it's totally worth it: the trail is very nice, passes by magnificient waterfalls, and the view of mt. Robson from Berg Lake is totally breathtaking: on a sunny afternoon the mountain is a mirage floating in the sky, its summit more than 2km above the lake.
The climb itself takes two days: the first day you climb to a plateau on top of a round buttress called the Dome, and the next day from the Dome to the summit. As on Stanley, there were no tracks and no traces of tentsites on the Dome. We thought there were just two of us on this big mountain, but when we went to the summit another party of two showed up. The Kain Face itself is a steep snow slope presenting little difficulty, but the ridge above it had a lot of ice and even a short vertical step. The other party took a different route between the seracs on the south face which we used for descent - it was mostly snow with just a short section of ice but we were passing under some overhanging seracs which you can see in the pics.
The weather was great the whole time: just once we had very light snow, and one afternoon with thunderstorm and rain, otherwise day after day of unbelievably perfect weather. I wish everybody to be as lucky when you head into the mountains. **
The scariest moment of the climb:**
We are hiking in along a beautiful trail passing some amazing waterfalls ("Emperor Falls") and by noon we reach Berg Lake. From here we have clear views of the whole mountain. We are leaving our approach shoes (read "sneakers") and some extra food at a hut a heading towards a glacier. At first the glacier is pretty flat but in a couple of kilometers it is interrupted by a huge ice-fall and here we need to cross over to a moraine and head up some slabs and rocky steps to the bivy sites under a rocky formation called "Extinguisher". We spend some time navigating the glacier crevasses and after an hour or two gaining a moraine ridge. The weather is slowly deteriorating and a light rain starts to fall. But we are finally close to our planned bivy spot. At that point we run into an unexpected obstacle. A huge animal seem to be moving around the bivy site.
Our dialog goes something like this:
 I have a 20/20 eyesight and I am absolutely sure it's a bear. Hey, I can even see it's huge snout.
Aha, and what's it doing so high up? You think it's searching for food there?
I'm telling you - it's looking straight at me!
Could be a goat...
Yeah, right, "a goat"... Look how slowly and smoothly it moves. And the legs, look at all the fur on those legs. I've seen goats in my life and it's nothing like that.
Agree... Looks too big for a goat.
We take position from which we can observe the animal and we are waiting to see where the beast will go. But the beast is in no hurry. It strolls around the bivy sites and then decided to lay down "to keep an eye on us".
Meanwhile visibility drops, the rain picks up and we need to move before it gets dark. A decision of a controlled return back into the valley quickly grows into a panicked retreat trying to beat the rain and the oncoming darkness. This was the lowest point of our trip.
The next day the sun was shining and we went back and climbed the mountain.
As for "the beast" - a local ranger later told us that mountain goats grow pretty big in these areas and showed us a couple of photos...
Photos from the trip are at:
http://public.fotki.com/mtselman/mountains/canadian-rockies-2007/
--Misha
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 11, 2010 - 03:09pm PT
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Went by it on the train in the early 1970s, en route to a scout jamboree in Alberta. Impressed.
Attempted it in 1977. Hiked in the rain to Berg Lake. The rain stopped. Then it started snowing. That's as far as we got.
Several other times have been in the vicinity.
Has anyone here gotten up it? Anguish maybe?
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bmacd
Trad climber
British Columbia
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Jan 11, 2010 - 04:03pm PT
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I dimly recall the doomed epic organized by Peter Chrzanowski aka Chernobyl Pete to Ski the North face of Robson.
One guy lost a hand into the rotor blades of the helicopter.
I can't find much about it on the net, but it was a true gong show as I recall.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 11, 2010 - 04:07pm PT
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Mike Sawyer, I believe.
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local
Social climber
eldorado springs
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Jan 11, 2010 - 04:31pm PT
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I've climbed Robson twice in two tries, and consider myself very lucky to have gotten up it at all. Good fortune, solid partners, and great weather.
The first time was in 1970. Three of us, with two girl friends, and two dogs hiked to Berg Lake in a day. We had our gear toted up by the horsepacker. Now that was backpacking!
The three of us were pretty much Colorado rock climbers, and had never been on anything like Robson, but I'd studied up on Freedom of the Hills and figured that we could manage things if I could just remember the diagrams about glacier travel and rescue. The next day, on the lower part of the glacier, we encountered our first hidden crevasses. I went in up to my waist, and when I kicked my legs I couldn't reach the crevasse walls. After I crawled out, I insisted that Paul keep the rope tighter between us, which he was not inclined to do, thinking all the fuss was unwarranted. When I changed places with him, he quickly understood the meaning of a tight rope. We camped on the Dome and front pointed our way up the Kain Face the next day, using our new Choinard piolets and crampons. It was spectacular but pretty reasonable climbing. It was a great trip, and the first of many big peaks we'd do.
When we got back to Boulder, we met a guy who had tried the Kain multiple times. He couldn't believe that such newbies could get up the first try. He'd been using old school techniques on his attempts - namely chopping steps. He was pretty bitter that the torch had passed, and that 'cheaters' could get up his prized and elusive peak, relying on equipment rather than hard won experience.
In 1976, I went back with a couple of the lads. We third classed up the North Face on perfect ice with our sunglasses on; the sun was just arcing over the top of the face, then roped up for the Emperor Ridge to the summit. We descended the Kain on 'dispos-a-tube' conduit anchors, and over the Helmet Col to camp.
When we got back down to the lake, we were surprised by a helicopter landing right out front of the chalet as we were lounging on the porch. A Parks Ranger, Mountie, and the pilot got out of the bird, and approached us as we descended the steps to see what was up. It was kind of like the scene at the OK corral, with us looking like the bad guys, scruffy and unkempt, and the officials starched and pressed. When we got within 20 feet or so, somebody cracked up - the one thing we all had in common was that everyone was wearing Ray Ban Aviator glasses, (although ours were bent in the middle to make them cool). We all got a good laugh and it really broke the ice. They went off to look for a lost hiker and flew off that afternoon. The bonus was that the pilot, who had hauled our gear up for a very reasonable price, agreed to haul it down along with the propane bottles from the Chalet. For free.
Those two trips have to be among the most memorable I've had. Every time I've thought about going up there again, I've figured that my luck wouldn't last for a third time.
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dipper
climber
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Jan 11, 2010 - 08:46pm PT
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To the top of the heap, for a moment at least.
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Jan 11, 2010 - 09:04pm PT
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my father, les wilson, went up and tried to do the first winter ascent ( real winter, like jan/feb ) with leif patterson BITD. it was brutally cold and the two of them had no tent. it was snow caves only on that trip. they didn't summit. i'll try to get the story out of him.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 11, 2010 - 09:18pm PT
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The first winter ascent of Robson was in March 1965, by Leif Patterson, Fred Beckey, Alex Bertulis, and Tom Stuart as two separate teams. Bertulis and Patterson, and Stuart and Beckey. All via the east face. Leif told a good story about their accidentally finding a crevasse high up, which provided a cozy home. He noted in his account that there had been an ascent in winter conditions in April 1963.
http://www.americanalpineclub.org/documents/pdf/aaj/1966/Canada1966_148-162.pdf#search="robson patterson" (page 158) It includes the history of winter attempts on Robson.
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Jan 11, 2010 - 09:24pm PT
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beauty of a searchable pdf...this was a total grim ball...
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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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Jan 11, 2010 - 10:25pm PT
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Good story about a great mountain Ed. I remember coming around a corner on the highway and staring straight at a wall three times the height of El Cap disappearing into the clouds above. That's as close as I've been. Of all the things done by my old climbing buddies, one of the most impressive is the first ascent of the Emperor Face By Jim Logan with Mugs Stump. Hopefully he will see this thread and tell us something about it.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Jan 11, 2010 - 10:59pm PT
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Great stuff, Ed! Huge thanks for posting it, eh? Love the photo looking down from in front of the hut.
Local - that's hilarious about you young whippersnappers using the crampons, while buddy was still chopping steps. There's almost the exact same story in The White Spider, where the Young Bulls come charging up the icefield.
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