Mount Victoria (north)

Mount Victoria (north summit) – August 6, 2005

Mountain height:       3,388 m (11,113 ft)
Elevation gain:           1,660 m
Ascent time:              8:05
Descent time:            6:20

Mountaineering with Mark and James Wright.

Talk about getting thrown into the fire! Previous to the day’s attempt of the North summit of picturesque Mount Victoria, James’ only other mountain experience was an ascent of Mount Rae, via the Kane scramble route, with Mark, Holland, and Dan, two weeks earlier. Apparently he enjoyed that experience very much and therefore eagerly accepted the far greater challenge of a glaciated 11,000er.

We got the usual mishap of the day out of the way, right away, when I left my crampons at home. We therefore had to wait until 9:00 am, in Lake Louise, so I could rent a pair from Wilson Sports - another great alpine start of 9:15 am from the parking lot. After an enjoyable and scenic hike to the foot of the glacier, under perfectly clear skies, we roped up and stepped onto the glacier. What started off quite tamely, quickly turned into the often awe-inspiring and sometimes frightening lure of glacier travel, as gaping and twisting crevasses scoured the landscape. They may be dangerous, but glaciers and crevasses are the one of the many unbelievable wonderments of nature – each completely unique, mysterious, and deadly. I have yet to be on a glacier that didn’t incite complete awe in me – fantastic!

Although, one or two crevasses did require small diversions and extra care to get around, the glacier travel was straightforward and fortunately, James was not called upon to employ one the potential lifesaving techniques that we hurriedly tried to teach him on the walk up (a day later, I’m sure he doesn’t remember a single thing we said – I should stick to teaching math and music). Halfway up the glacier we ran into another party making their descent. They soberly informed us that the summit was still about 4 and a half hours away. This was not good news as it was now 1:30 pm and the considerable heat was softening the snow rapidly. Nevertheless, collectively, we thought we could make better time than 4.5 hours and therefore continued on (in truth, I thought we had a glacier’s chance in hell of getting anywhere near the summit!).

The second part of the trip involved scrambling up the fairly long black rockband, with stretches of steep snow interspersed, to the Victoria/Collier col. Some of the terrain was quite steep and I was immediately concerned that the descent might be very tricky. The view from the col was outstanding and, as well as far too many stunning peaks to mention, included a beautiful view of the snowy ridge towards Collier.

Part three consisted of a somewhat exposed snow ridgewalk to a rock step, ascent of the rock step, and then easier terrain to the summit. The ridgewalk was exhilarating, sporting significantly drop-offs on both sides, the rock step actually quite easy, once I got over my initial fear of some intense exposure on the left side, and the final push to the summit, again easy, although since we had ditched our mountaineering boots, in favour of our approach shoes for the rock step and summit, we were all a little unnerved about the return – an involuntary glissade on these slopes would send you hurling down the awesome glaciated and fractured north face of the mountain. We arrived at the summit at 5:30 pm, needless to say, to a stunning panorama. The long ridge towards the south summit of Victoria was particularly breath-taking.

Throughout the ascent, Mark and I were thoroughly impressed with James’ performance. He had no problems with exposure and glacier travel, was not in the least apprehensive about tackling more difficult terrain, endured a long and very physically strenuous ascent, and very much appreciated the awesome beauty of the area. Having never rappelled, James was obligated to do so, on descent, and again had absolutely no problems – a naturally-gifted mountaineer!

Due the lateness of the day, our summit stay was short. The first part of the descent was slow, but easier than we were expecting. The same can be said of the black rockband. We happened upon a rappel station halfway down, but actually found an easier descent route (than our ascent) and were able to downclimb the whole band. The remainder of the descent was much faster, but we were still all thoroughly exhausted by the time with made it back to the car at 11:45 pm . Another absolutely magnificent day in the mountains, with fantastic company (and James and Mark weren’t bad either!).