Ruth and I have been really busy recently, with the last week being perhaps the most jam packed yet. So here goes ...Somehow between fighting off the lassitude each morning and attending the ‘mountain culture events’, we managed to get some good routes done. The highlight was probably doing a route called The Grand Wall. This is a world famous climb, and probably justifiably so. It climbs perhaps the most impressive wall at Squamish, and includes the infamous ‘Split Pillar’ pitch. I tried to take pictures of this pitch when we were on the climb but it’s not really possible to do it justice from these angles. If you want to know why this climb is famous you should check out this: http://www.rockclimbing.com/photos/Featured/Simon_Carter/Split_Pillar_95727.html .
Pretty cool, eh?
As it turns out, the Grand Wall isn’t actually as difficult as its reputation would lead you to believe. It is a lot of fun though!
We climbed the Grand Wall last Monday. It was our last route before leaving Squamish. To put things in perspective, we only really went to Squamish and Skaha because summer had not really arrived yet in the high mountains. At this time we decided that we were going to back into the Rockies to take another look, so we drove for 2 days to get back to Canmore in Alberta, on the back of what looked like a developing period of good weather. We had a few ideas in mind, but gradually settled on a plan as we crawled along the Trans Canada Highway yet again, and could see how the forecasts developed and what the mountains were looking like as we passed them. We decided to have a go at climbing Mount Assiniboine.
Mount Assiniboine is one of Canada’s most famous and iconic mountains. It is known as ‘The Matterhorn of the Rockies’ because of its striking appearance (see the picture above). It is also quite a long way from any roads – about 20 miles into the wilderness to get to the bottom of the mountain.
To cut quite a long story as short as I can:
Our plan was to walk in to Mt. Assiniboine, climb it by its North Ridge, and walk out again within a 4 day period, carrying with us everything we needed to be an independent mini-expedition. This is exactly what we ended up doing...
On day one it took us just over 6 hours to walk in the pissing rain into a place called Lake Magog, near the base of the mountain where we were to spend the first night camping. Also located here is The Assiniboine Lodge – a sort of surreal hotel in the wilderness, where those with very deep pockets can be flown in by helicopter to be wined and dined and taken on day tours around the wilderness trails. Here we talked to a bloke called Sepp Brenner – a silver haired mountain guide from Switzerland, and proprietor of the Lodge. Sepp has climbed the mountain more times than anyone else, and is a really good bloke. He told us that there was still a lot of snow on the mountain (we couldn’t actually see it then because it was completely obscured in cloud), and that the mountain had not yet been climbed this year! Lots of teams with professional Mountain Guides had cancelled their trips so far.
I will admit to thinking “oh shit!” at this point.
Given that Ruth and I both must have looked like slightly pathetic drowned rats at this point, Sepp understandably looked at us slightly suspiciously and quizzed us a little. But, he pulled out a weather forecast which was exactly what Ruth and I had previously seen – good weather arriving the day after tomorrow. Sepp also gave us some tips on our route up the mountain, which were to be really useful.
It continued to rain all night and we got a pretty good soaking in our tiny tent a couple of kilometres further on from the Lodge. We had decided that we were going to stick to our original plan, and so used the next day to climb to a hut at the foot of the North face of the mountain. The clouds even lifted momentarily that morning to give us a look at the mountain – this is the top picture on this blog. You can use your imagination to decide what we were thinking when we saw it!
Ruth and I got to the hut by mid afternoon. At this point two things happened which I think kind of consolidated our plans: the weather cleared exactly as forecast; and we were joined in the hut by two other climbers – a single Mountain Guide and his client who were going to attempt the same route up the mountain as we intended to climb (they had flown in by helicopter earlier that day). It was a boost to know that we wouldn’t be alone on the mountain.
I’ll save the blow-by-blow account of climbing the route for those of you who might understand what on earth I’m talking about. In brief, we left the hut by 4 am the next morning to start our attempt on the route. The weather was perfect: there was no wind, the stars were out, and the snow was frozen hard. We were past the guide’s team by sunrise, climbed probably faster than we’ve ever climbed as a team, stormed the ridge via a detour on the North face, and were standing alone on the summit before 9 o’clock in the morning – the first to summit Canada’s iconic Mount Assiniboine in 2010! Check out the pictures...
How’s about that then?
The descent back to the hut was down pretty much the same line as we had climbed up. It was pretty arduous ridge descent work (something Ruth and I seem to be making a habit of?) It took much longer to get down than it did to climb up the thing, and involved a lot of abseiling and down-climbing. Overall, we took about 12 hours for the climb ‘hut-to-hut’, which I think is pretty darn good given the condition of the mountain.
The next day we descended from the hut back down to Lake Magog, dropped in at the Assiniboine Lodge to pay our hut fees (they were very complimentary and gave us lemonade to drink), and then pressed on and walked the whole way back to the road head. It took us 10 hours with only the briefest of stops. We were totally ******* [insert word meaning ‘very tired’].
So there you have it. The Grand Wall at Squamish and the first to summit Mount Assiniboine in 2010, walking in and out, all within one week.
Does this excuse us for not having updated the blog recently Sheona? ;-)
We are in Canmore trying to recover at the moment. Our feet look a bit like they’ve been worked over with a steak tenderiser, and they hurt. The weather forecast is superb. It looks like summer has finally arrived.
Innes
Photos in order from the top (but sort of in reverse chronological order – sorry Squamish, but you get the bottom of the listings!):
1. Mount Assiniboine seen from the Lake Magog on the morning of day 2. From this perspective the North Ridge takes the direct line up the front of the summit pyramid, between the shadow and the vapour trail.
2. Ruth packing our kit at the car park before starting the walk into Assiniboine (before anyone asks: no, we didn’t take the bouldering mat!)
3. Ruth on the lower section of the North Ridge, Mt Assiniboine, taken about 6 am.
4. Ruth on the upper section (approaching the Grey Band if you want to check it out) of the North Ridge, Mt Assiniboine.
5. Summit cornices, Mt Assiniboine.
6. Assiniboine summit 08:43 hrs, 24th July 2010 – mark one up for Team UK ;-)
7. A bull Moose. I was really pleased to see this geezer on the way into Assiniboine. He was bloody huge despite being relatively young, I think, judging by his antlers.
8. The Grand Wall, Squamish. Not so big really, but a nice piece of rock and with a cracking good route up it.
9. Ruth jamming up the Split Pillar pitch of the Grand Wall. If you look really closely in the top left you can see another climbing team starting up the wall.
10. Ruth emerging from the squeeze chimney finish to the Split Pillar.
11. Ruth negotiating the Bellygood Ledge on the Grand Wall. If you want to know why Ruth is in this position, and how the Bellygood Ledge got its name you’ll need to try and get across it yourself!
12. Ruth looking burly on the Squamish boulders.
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