Toyohashi Alpine Club
Mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies
Mt. Edith (2554m) South Ridge
August 1997
Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Report by Darren DeRidder
Party: Iain Williams, Darren DeRidder
Mt. Edith is a peak near Banff with a number of routes on it, all of which are technical rock-climbing routes, except for the scrambling route up the west side, which serves as the descent route for all climbs. Located next to Mt. Cory near the Fireside picnic area at the junction of Highway 1 and Highway 1A, it is just south of Mt. Louis, another popular rock climbing peak with more difficult routes. On Edith, there is the South Ridge, which is a technically easy climb at 5.4, the scrambling route which doesn't require any technical climbing but is a bit exposed in a few places, and then a few routes that are just plain hard and involve about 300 meters of climbing at the 5.8 to 5.10b level. We decided to try the 5.4 route up the South ridge. It is a popular route but also rather difficult to find. Some people end up abandoning their attempt before they even start because they are unable to find the beginning of the route. The routes are described in Sean Dougherty's guidebook, Selected Alpine Climbs in the Canadian Rockies.
Before our climb, we registered with the warden's office in Banff just in case. Then we took off to Two Jack Lake campground near Lake Minnewanka. Instead of Two Jack campground they should have called the place Two-gazillion Mosquitoes campground. At our campsite the mossies were out in swarms. The smoky fire I kept fanning helped keep them away a little, but only as long as I was sitting directly in the smoke, and then I couldn't see or breath. Iain, who is from England where they don't have mosquitoes, thought he was going to be eaten alive. We liberally applied DEET insect repellent but they would bite through clothes. Iain got his new tent set up in a flash and after some soup and coffee and snacks (mixed with mosquitoes) we got in the tent and commenced a merciless search and destroy mission for any mosquito that had chanced to wander in before we got the bug-screen zipped up. It was quite exciting.
The next morning the mosquitoes were still out so we just got out of there as fast as we could and drove to Fireside picnic area which is just up Highway 1 toward Lake Louise. We got our gear sorted there and started out on the trail for Edith Pass at about, oh, 8:00 I guess.
The mosquitoes weren't too bad as we marched through the cool forest, heading East towards the mouth of the valley that leads to Edith Pass. We passed the junction to Cory Pass, had a brief discussion about the approach, and then continued up towards Edith Pass. There was some uncertainty about the approach and where we were supposed to break off from the main trail. The book (Dougherty's "Selected Alpine Climbs") gave an approach for all routes on Edith, and there was some more detailed info on the approach to the south ridge route as well. A two-log bridge on the approach trail was mentioned. We came to the two-log bridge, just before Edith Pass, just like the book said. Feeling good to be on track, we carried on up for about 500 meters, measuring by counting steps. I counted out about 600 steps and we came to a trail breaking off to the left up an avalanche slope below the south ridge of Edith. So following that, we came to what we thought was the right spot. We just kept going up, and repeated efforts to figure out where we were by looking at the photograph in the book didn't help at all. There were tracks, so we followed those. And pretty soon we were getting up on the ridge, up a scree gully, and this sort of broke off to the left, like the book said. We saw a tree with a piece of red tape on it, and that was all we needed.
We roped up and I took the first pitch. Moving off from the tree with tape, I went up an initial steep bit protected with a nut and then up further over loose rock with no available protection to a wall with a horizontal crack into which a piton had been hammered. There was a sling through the piton, and I clipped this. I was a little vexed by the lack of pro, so I just made a belay at the piton, putting in a friend as well, and brought Iain up. He took the next lead. Initially, the ground to the right see med easier and he led off that way. Even though there was a small step above me, I looked up the "crest" of the ridge and seemed to see a line that would take us nicely up. I told Iain to bear left, but he was onto an obvious line of his own. When he brought me up I saw he had moved into a definite groove on the right-hand side of the ridge.
The groove seemed to follow along just below the ridge crest up as far as we could see. Climbing up this involved scrambling over very bad rock, which broke off all over the place and didn't provide any protection at all. For several pitches we worked our way up this, swinging leads and setting up belays whenever we could get any decent pro in. For a couple of the pitches, we didn't get any pro in at all. And at least one of my belays was very dodgy. I believe it might have held if I had sort of... sat on it and prayed, or something. Anyway, the climbing wasn't very hard, and usually in the places that were steeper, there was a place to put some protection.
At the belays, sitting on the rock and facing outward, looking back down the ridge, the views were just amazing. Iain came up over a bulge in the rock, and I sat there looking at him climbing - behind him was the strangest backdrop. Not sky, but ground. The ground was behind him. Or I should say below him. I was looking down passed him at treetops far far below. I realized that we were gaining a lot of vertical height.
We had to be careful with all the loose rock about knocking loose bits down on each other at the belay, or on the rope between us. It was inevitable that some pieces should come down though, since the rock was loose in so many spots. As we neared the top of our "groove", the angle seemed to get steeper. The wall on our left, which separated our groove from the ridge crest, rose up higher. On our right the mountain dropped away in a very impressive vertical rock face. It seemed like we were nearing the top of our groove, and I was just hoping it would deposit us onto the top of the ridge. Iain had the pitch. He moved up over steeper, blocky rock and then was out of sight as he climbed to the left. The rope moved through my hands quickly and I knew he was onto easy ground. A second later Iain called down, "That's it. We're on the ridge."
The groove seemed to follow along just below the ridge crest up as far as we could see. Climbing up this involved scrambling over very bad rock, which broke off all over the place and didn't provide any protection at all. For several pitches we worked our way up this, swinging leads and setting up belays whenever we could get any decent pro in. For a couple of the pitches, we didn't get any pro in at all. And at least one of my belays was very dodgy. I believe it might have held if I had sort of... sat on it and prayed, or something. Anyway, the climbing wasn't very hard, and usually in the places that were steeper, there was a place to put some protection.
At the belays, sitting on the rock and facing outward, looking back down the ridge, the views were just amazing. Iain came up over a bulge in the rock, and I sat there looking at him climbing - behind him was the strangest backdrop. Not sky, but ground. The ground was behind him. Or I should say below him. I was looking down passed him at treetops far far below. I realized that we were gaining a lot of vertical height.
We had to be careful with all the loose rock about knocking loose bits down on each other at the belay, or on the rope between us. It was inevitable that some pieces should come down though, since the rock was loose in so many spots. As we neared the top of our "groove", the angle seemed to get steeper. The wall on our left, which separated our groove from the ridge crest, rose up higher. On our right the mountain dropped away in a very impressive vertical rock face. It seemed like we were nearing the top of our groove, and I was just hoping it would deposit us onto the top of the ridge. Iain had the pitch. He moved up over steeper, blocky rock and then was out of sight as he climbed to the left. The rope moved through my hands quickly and I knew he was onto easy ground. A second later Iain called down, "That's it. We're on the ridge."
I scampered up the pitch and was on the ridge in a couple minutes too. We were standing on a flat part of the ridge, like a shoulder below the summit. It was maybe 50 meters long. We took off the rope and walked around. I looked over the end of the ridge. There was a gully filled with talus and dirt. It looked like people had in fact come up that way. I was wondering again if we had been on the right route. Whatever- we were on the ridge, and from here, we had only to follow the crest of the ridge to the summit. It was sunny and hot. We drank more water. We'd been sucking it back all along the groove. And the water was sloshing around in the bottom of our 1.5 litre bottles.
I had a look up ahead. I wasn't impressed. It looked like we had a lot more climbing to do. I was concerned about how long we were taking. The rock had been loose and the pro had been poor. There was every reason to take it slowly and carefully. But I was concerned that finding the descent route might take some time as well and have us on the mountain for too long, without much water. Anyway, the summit was up ahead, and it looked pretty far away still. It looked like we had the more serious climbing still ahead of us. Between us and the summit, which was sticking up like a turret or something, the ridge rose up in a steep rock step, then levelled off a bit before a final steep part up to the summit itself.
I let Iain do the honours of the first lead this time. He led off on steeper, but more solid rock. The next two pitches were the hardest of the climbing, but the rock was also quite a bit better. When Iain stopped and set up a belay, I climbed through, saying "Good lead!", and continued up through a chimney which provided the "crux" for me, if there was one. I imagine Iain's "crux" was the pitch he had just led. Technically, neither pitch was too hard (5.4), but it's the big height, the loose rock, the remoteness of the climb, and all those other factors that make it challenging, both mentally and physically. I came out to easier ground and set up a belay. We moved across the second flat part and found that the last rock step had a fairly easy scrambling route leading up through chimneys in the rock. I took the lead once again and moved out off the steep ground and across another flat part just below the summit. It wasn't necessary to place pro since we had now joined up with the scrambling route. The ridge fell away in a vertical rock face on the right, all the way to the valley floor and Edith Pass, and it fell away on the left in another vertical wall to the valley and Cory Pass. Just before the summit, on a flat area, the ridge became rather narrow, and I had to walk across some interesting rocks, which were rather like stepping stones, with cracks between them. The tops of these rocks were wide and flat however, so it was not difficult. Iain came up and went on past me a few meters more to the summit.
We'd done it. And the last of the climbing, from the main shoulder to the summit, hadn't taken nearly as long as I thought it would, due to the fact that our route met up with the "scrambling" route at the second shoulder. It also just looked farther than it really was.
We took summit photos and drank the last of our water. I committed the cardinal sin by spilling some. This was bad, because we still had to get down, and it was hot. There's no water to be found on this mountain. We performed the ritual of eating Mars Bars at the summit. Then we headed down.
I was momentarily confused once we crossed back over the "stepping stones" but Iain pointed out the way over to the right, and we continued down, moving back down the ridge until we could move onto the scree ledges of the west face. There was a faint path and some cairns which marked the scrambling route up the mountain. Keeping our eyes peeled for cairns, we moved northward along the scree ledges of the west face until we found a cairn at the mouth of a chimney which went down behind a large block. We were looking for what the guidebook called a "hole in the ledge". A big chockstone was lodged between the block and the wall. The chimney went down behind that. It was a hole, or a tunnel, for sure. It was easy down-climbing and pretty soon we were on a huge scree slope, heading down. It would have been nice to drop right down to the valley floor because there was a snowmelt stream there. And we were really thirsty. But the trail led along the side Mount Edith, through a forest of pine that was as dry as tinder. We practically ran down the trail, but it just kept on going and going and didn't descend much at all. We weren't getting any lower, only more and more thirsty.
We passed a couple of lost hikers and after what seemed like miles I came to the big descent which went down the front of the hill, switchbacking endlessly through the trees. Eventually I came to the grassy slopes that marked the junction of the trails to Cory Pass and Edith Pass. It was a long way down the grassy slopes. Finally I hit the long-anticipated flat trail back to the car park and walked as fast as I could back towards the car.
Iain showed up and we drank lukewarm Cokes. We headed straight back to the drinking fountain at the park in Banff and did our best to consume the entire water supply. All in all, it was a good experience even with the loose rock and I enjoyed it a lot. We were both proud of having done it. But in the future, more solid rock would be really nice. The one consolation is that in the steeper sections the rock is generally more solid, and despite loose rock, the climbing on this route is not difficult.
I had a look up ahead. I wasn't impressed. It looked like we had a lot more climbing to do. I was concerned about how long we were taking. The rock had been loose and the pro had been poor. There was every reason to take it slowly and carefully. But I was concerned that finding the descent route might take some time as well and have us on the mountain for too long, without much water. Anyway, the summit was up ahead, and it looked pretty far away still. It looked like we had the more serious climbing still ahead of us. Between us and the summit, which was sticking up like a turret or something, the ridge rose up in a steep rock step, then levelled off a bit before a final steep part up to the summit itself.
I let Iain do the honours of the first lead this time. He led off on steeper, but more solid rock. The next two pitches were the hardest of the climbing, but the rock was also quite a bit better. When Iain stopped and set up a belay, I climbed through, saying "Good lead!", and continued up through a chimney which provided the "crux" for me, if there was one. I imagine Iain's "crux" was the pitch he had just led. Technically, neither pitch was too hard (5.4), but it's the big height, the loose rock, the remoteness of the climb, and all those other factors that make it challenging, both mentally and physically. I came out to easier ground and set up a belay. We moved across the second flat part and found that the last rock step had a fairly easy scrambling route leading up through chimneys in the rock. I took the lead once again and moved out off the steep ground and across another flat part just below the summit. It wasn't necessary to place pro since we had now joined up with the scrambling route. The ridge fell away in a vertical rock face on the right, all the way to the valley floor and Edith Pass, and it fell away on the left in another vertical wall to the valley and Cory Pass. Just before the summit, on a flat area, the ridge became rather narrow, and I had to walk across some interesting rocks, which were rather like stepping stones, with cracks between them. The tops of these rocks were wide and flat however, so it was not difficult. Iain came up and went on past me a few meters more to the summit.
We'd done it. And the last of the climbing, from the main shoulder to the summit, hadn't taken nearly as long as I thought it would, due to the fact that our route met up with the "scrambling" route at the second shoulder. It also just looked farther than it really was.
We took summit photos and drank the last of our water. I committed the cardinal sin by spilling some. This was bad, because we still had to get down, and it was hot. There's no water to be found on this mountain. We performed the ritual of eating Mars Bars at the summit. Then we headed down.
I was momentarily confused once we crossed back over the "stepping stones" but Iain pointed out the way over to the right, and we continued down, moving back down the ridge until we could move onto the scree ledges of the west face. There was a faint path and some cairns which marked the scrambling route up the mountain. Keeping our eyes peeled for cairns, we moved northward along the scree ledges of the west face until we found a cairn at the mouth of a chimney which went down behind a large block. We were looking for what the guidebook called a "hole in the ledge". A big chockstone was lodged between the block and the wall. The chimney went down behind that. It was a hole, or a tunnel, for sure. It was easy down-climbing and pretty soon we were on a huge scree slope, heading down. It would have been nice to drop right down to the valley floor because there was a snowmelt stream there. And we were really thirsty. But the trail led along the side Mount Edith, through a forest of pine that was as dry as tinder. We practically ran down the trail, but it just kept on going and going and didn't descend much at all. We weren't getting any lower, only more and more thirsty.
We passed a couple of lost hikers and after what seemed like miles I came to the big descent which went down the front of the hill, switchbacking endlessly through the trees. Eventually I came to the grassy slopes that marked the junction of the trails to Cory Pass and Edith Pass. It was a long way down the grassy slopes. Finally I hit the long-anticipated flat trail back to the car park and walked as fast as I could back towards the car.
Iain showed up and we drank lukewarm Cokes. We headed straight back to the drinking fountain at the park in Banff and did our best to consume the entire water supply. All in all, it was a good experience even with the loose rock and I enjoyed it a lot. We were both proud of having done it. But in the future, more solid rock would be really nice. The one consolation is that in the steeper sections the rock is generally more solid, and despite loose rock, the climbing on this route is not difficult.
No comments:
Post a Comment