Victoria Peak II

Mountain height:                2587 m
Elevation gain:                   approx. 1200 m
Ascent time:                       5:30
Victoria Ridge traverse
    and descent time:          6:20

As a general rule, Mark and I stay away from the Castle Crown and Waterton areas when they are snow-covered – why let a blanket of snow ruin views of all the amazing colours and varieties of rock? However, since snow cover, almost without exception,

enhances the scenery throughout the Rockies, we decided to head down south to check out one of our favourite areas, in winter-like conditions. This was also an opportunity to repeat two of my favourite trips: Victoria Peak and Victoria Ridge – both completed with Linda Breton.

There was not as much snow on Victoria Peak as we were expecting and therefore we hoped the ascent would be fast and easy. Naturally, the remaining snow did dramatically enhance the scenery throughout and fortunately didn’t completely cover the astounding colours of rock.

The one significant trade-off, when compared to the autumn ascent of 2004 with Linda, was the absence of stunning yellow leaves of trees and larch needles that made for some stunning colour combinations. Doing the ascent in late September, after a major snowfall, with a clear sky would provide unparalleled visual splendor!

The first part of the ascent was easy, but as soon as the snow appeared things became more difficult. Snowshoes were sufficient on the lower slopes – crampons and ice axes mandatory on the upper slopes. In order to avoid some fairly steep snow slopes, we traversed over to the right side of the mountain. We soon reached a steep and exposed, but short rockband that might have required a rope.

We had one, but wanted to avoid taking it out if possible, so we traversed back towards the centre. A couple of potential routes were unfortunately choked with steep ice. In the end with had to take out the rope and belay each other up the steep snow we were trying to avoid. Thankfully, that was short-lived, and quickly we arrived at a point just below the summit. The last section was a little tense, on very steep and deep snow, but several large rocks provided good belay points. Not surprisingly, the staggering variety of rock and colour kept our cameras out of their cases throughout the ascent.

Unfortunately,

because of the snowy conditions, reaching the summit took 2 hours longer than expected and we had to concede that we would not have enough time to traverse the long distance to the summit of Victoria Ridge. Of course, we would at least try the first part of the ridge and after enjoying a wonderful snow-filled panorama, we started down the completely bare southwest ridge of the peak.

In May of 2006, after completing the north section of Victoria Ridge, Linda and I had declared it to be one of the best ridgewalks ever. Would this repeat trip confirm that assertion??

Yes….. and in a big, big way! The colorful ridgewalk was even more breath-taking, as lingering cornices lined the precipitous, snow-plastered east face, while the actual ridge was almost snow-free – again, just enough snow to improve the views, but not enough to hide the colorful rock. I warned Mark that this was an interesting ridgewalk, but he was still flabbergasted by some of the remarkable terrain and scenery (as was I).

At 6:20 pm, we had to bail. We could have completed the traverse, but that would have meant several hours in the dark on return. Since the valley below was not snow-free, trying to follow the trail out by headlamp might have been very difficult.

A truly magnificent day out. Even though I had completed almost all of the trip on two previous trips, I’d have to call this day one of our most enjoyable days ever in the mountains.