Mount Mistaya

Mount Mistaya

August 23, 2008

Mountain height:         3095 m
Elevation gain:            1500 m
Ascent time:                6:00
Descent time:              5:00

Scrambling with Mark and Cal.

Given its strategic location on the Wapta Icefield, this is one ascent we wanted to do on a perfect weather day and the forecasts showed that to be the case (probably!). I had a terrific route description from Eric Coulthard, Marko Stavric had done the ascent solo the previous week, and Cal had been to Caldron Lake a few years earlier. All the ingredients for a perfect day seemed to be in place.

Well, for our ascent of Mount Rose, a few days earlier, I stated that, “It’s amazing how you can enjoy a trip in bad or less-than-perfect weather if you’re expecting it.” It’s also amazing how bad weather can totally ruin a trip if you’re not expecting it, and this was the case for the day. In fact, the weather wasn’t that bad, the sky becoming overcast in the afternoon and the cloud ceiling was quite high. The overall trip was very enjoyable. It was just disappointing to see all the shapely, snow-blanketed peaks of the Wapta Icefield back-dropped by a sheet of whiteness instead of a beautiful, contrasting blue sky.

All started well, under clear skies. Cal guided us easily to the peaceful and beautiful environs of Caldron Lake. We opted to take the shorter of two routes suggested by Cal and Eric and started up what appeared to be a permanent snow field. Neither map I had access to depicted a glacier on this slope, so we proceeded unroped. The ascent was easy on good snow, but as we gained elevation, clouds started to pour in from the west. This was terribly disappointing.

The upper slopes were quite a bit steeper and so we ventured left onto loose rock and rubble. We gained the ridge south of the summit to see nothing but high cloud all around. Of course the view would have been stupendous with a clear sky. We continued easily to the summit and took a long break. Cal shared with us a box of SMARTIES – one of the only sources of interesting colours, since the sky remained overcast. Nevertheless, the array of familiar peaks in every direction was fantastic.

In truth, the conditions could have been much, much worse. However, the mountains, for Mark and I, will always be about scenery before summits, so we tend to get very grumpy when the weather unexpectedly takes a turn for the worse, in such spectacular surroundings.

The decent was easy though not fast, due to the 250 vertical metres of elevation that must be regained back to the parking lot. Overall, a good day that could have been unbelievable.