Alpine Club of Canada, Ottawa Section
Haddo Peak, Lake Louise, Banff National Park Party: Dwight Yachuk, Markus Sanchez, Andre Fink, Darren DeRidder Report by: Darren DeRidder August 15, 2003
Haddo Peak is a 3000M+ summit along the massif that divides Paradise
Valley and Surprise Valley between Lake Louise and Mt. Temple. The
summits of Sheol, Haddo, and Aberdeen all stand atop this mountain
wall. The views in this area, particularly of Mt. Temple’s immense and imposing
north face, are just amazing. Since we were given to understand that a
climb of Haddo Peak and Mt. Aberdeen could be accomplished “easily within a
day” via a “short approach”, a glacier walk involving “nothing too
technical”, and a straightforward descent by “easy scrambling”, we trustingly
started out from the Lake Louise parking lot at 6:30 a.m., a bit late for an
alpine start, but reasonable within the context of our objective. Three hours of hiking brought us to the summit of Fairview Mountain,
where we discovered our true course lay not over the summit of this easy
peak, but around it’s southern flank. Climbing up the scree Undeterred, we proceeded to
drop back into surprise valley and work our way up the moraines to the base
of the Aberdeen glacier. It was a Martian landscape of yellow,
crumbling rock and a hazy, smoke-filled sky. In this dry and
monochromatic environment our perception of scale evaporated and we slogged
on until the steep face of the glacier appeared above us. The emaciated glacier Hanging precipitously on the eastern slope of Mt. Aberdeen, the
emaciated glacier, bereft of it’s snow cloak, appeared steep and dirty with
the remnants of rockfall littering its sides. Gone was the glimmering
white snow ramp which would supposedly take us to the top with a mere two
hours of pleasant step-kicking. Disgorging our packs produced four ice
screws, and after climbing unroped up 45 degree rock-encrusted ice, we
employed them gladly as Dwight attacked the 60 degree glacier above for about
four pitches. With each pitch we became more aware of the size of
the glacier over which we moved. Andre leading the snow pitches The middle portion of the glacier was level enough to allow for
roped, unbelayed climbing around numerous crevasses up to the final
icefall. The bergschrund The bergschrund up close and personal Above us, the ice rose
steeply to buttresses of rotten rock on the left, and on the right to
overhanging seracs that dominated a chaotic array of crevasses and ice cliffs.
Surveying the route from below, the only possibility to advance
appeared to be to sneak up on near vertical ice between the rock
buttress and the overhanging seracs, or to exit into a horribly loose system
of rock gullies on the left. Lacking rock gear, the choice was
obvious. Once again, Dwight demonstrated his ice climbing ability by
gaining the top of the rock buttress via the steep ice face and soon had
the rest of us alongside, gazing towards the Haddo / Aberdeen col a few
hundred yards above and to our left. Andre ran the rope up the snow
slopes above and the rest of us followed through to the col. Gaining the top of the glacier Approximately 12 pitches of poor quality ice on a rapidly melting
glacier had gotten us through the crux of the climb. At 4:30 in the
afternoon we scampered easily to the bare summit of Haddo Peak. Mt.
Aberdeen beckoned us only a few hundred easy meters away, but we needed to
descend quickly while the daylight lasted. Andre peaks Darren peaks Markus peaks Downclimbing was an exercise in faith as steep scree runs dropped
over cliff bands below. Scree-skiing carefully downwards, the team
followed as Markus picked out the route through gullies and down
snowfields. One rappel brought us nearly to the base of the cliff
bands. Our 50 meter rope was not long enough. Markus pulled out a 15
meter piece of rope from his pack and extended the rappel. We set off
down the final scree slopes and crossed boulder fields and snow to the upper
forested slopes of the mountain. Paradise Valley lay far below.
Scrambling down dry stream beds and bushwhacking along grizzly bear paths
brought us at long last to the valley floor just as night was closing
in. Darkness fell in noticeable increments as the sun slipped behind one
range, then another. The trail appeared suddenly in front of us and we
could not have been happier. Alas, our trip was far from finished. Following signs, we
proceeded towards Lake Louise via Saddleback Pass, only to become discouraged
as we headed higher and higher into the mountains. Finally the
consensus turned towards backtracking to Paradise Valley and hiking out
to the road. Not knowing that we were only a few kilometers from Lake
Louise at this point, we turned back and retraced our steps. The hike
out of Paradise Valley to the trailhead was even longer than our first
detour. Headlamps dimmed as we pounded the downhill track in our heavy
boots. At last the parking lot appeared and we walked four abreast down
the Moraine Lake road, each one suffering in dehydrated silence and hobbling
on legs that felt like bloody stumps. 19 hours and counting. A truck appeared; we were saved! Piled in the back of the
pickup, we coasted along and felt the darkness rushing past as an
exhilarating wind on our faces. The night no longer impeded
us, but enveloped us with a warm and comforting embrace. I closed my
eyes and listened to the drone of the tires. |
Alpine Club of Canada, Ottawa Section
Haddo Peak, Lake Louise, Banff National Park Party: Dwight Yachuk, Markus Sanchez, Andre Fink, Darren DeRidder Report by: Dwight YachukAugust 15, 2003 There was something different about today’s
trip. No, it wasn’t the unknown route
up Haddo that Darren, Marcus, Andre and I were going to climb. No, it wasn’t the late 6:30 AM start, a
careful read of the guidebook indicated that we could finish the route
between 8 and 12 hours. No, it was
the pack, specifically the extra weight in the pack that I had been avoiding
for the last two weeks. Fully loaded down with rope, crampons, helmet,
harness, slings, biners, ice axe and ice screws as well as clothes, food and
water, the pack was heavier than it had been before. Haddo Peak 3070 m From Lake
Louise parking lot, follow Saddleback trail to the Saddleback-Fairview col. And slower, not the pack, but myself. While we
started out together, at each rest stop or branch in the trail I found myself
lagging way behind. Perhaps it was the accumulated fatigue of being out there
the last ten days. Perhaps I was just getting old. Staying high, contour around the south slopes of Fairview Mountain before dropping down into Surprise valley. Quite the surprise all right. We stayed so far to the right and so high
that we climbed Fairview mountain instead of skirting it’s southern flank. Oh
well, an extra peak in the bag I thought as we scree skied back to the valley
floor. The rest of the approach to Haddo Peak was as if we
were hiking on Mars. Large red
boulders, ruddy red earth and crumbling peaks and walls surrounded us as we
hiked up to the mountain. Marcus made
good use of the acoustic qualities of the valley to give us ringing echoing
renditions of his various whistles and yodels. It was closing in on 9AM, the
sun was up and we were baking in this boulder-strewn oven. Finally we reached the toe of the glacier, doffed
our packs and put on our helmets, harnesses and crampons. We were back in the shade again and out
came the jackets and gloves. Climb up the toe of the Aberdeen glacier. Andre did a fine job of showing us French crampon
technique as we crabbed our way up the foot of the glacier. A sharp seraced
wall rose to the right. The left wall was smooth but ended in crevasses at
the top of the first section of the glacier. The only way up was up the left
shoulder taking care to traverse right before meeting the crevasses above,
but not traversing too soon as the seracs awaited us on the right. We stopped
a boulder to gear up. I reached down
to pick up a shiny object off the ice.
A good luck token for our climb? It was a broken ice pick from a
mountaineering axe. Someone had been
here before and they had run into trouble. Breach the steeper part of the glacier left to
right in order to avoid the biggest crevasses. The bergschrund below the
upper glacier is smallest on the left (east) side. There is nothing too technical making it a good introduction to
this type of climbing which explains its popularity.
And what type of climbing was that??? Perhaps this
glacier had been snow covered once but now it was definitely ice. I had only been up a glacier snow ramp
only once before, Pioneer Pass at Fairy Meadows. We had climbed three pitches
on 60 degree snow before running into ice for half a rope length. This climb would be harder. As fate would have it, I was wearing my foot fangs,
excellent for ice climbing, and I found myself on the pointy end of the
rope. We had four ice screws between
us and in addition to a 50 meter half rope, we had a 20 meter half rope,
something I had cut down for short roping.
I took all four planning to set two screws on the way up and using the
two others as anchors when I ran out of rope. I would climb all the way to
the end of the 50 meter rope and then belay the others as they simul-climbed,
tied together on the 20 meter rope. The first pitch The ice was good, taking the mountaineering axe and
crampons quite well. The angle wasn’t
severe, approximately 70 degrees, but that meant calf searing foot placements
and rest stops once in a while. Dwight leads pitch 2 or 3 We climbed two pitches, each time luckily enough to
find a small ledge, just big enough so you could get a foot down sideways. At
the end of the first pitch I had to surrender one of the ice screws for the
hanging belay and another for an anchor. The boys were well protected, tied
into three ice axes and two screws.
However that left me with one screw for protection and a screw/ice axe
combination for belaying. Boys on belay The third pitch brought us up near the top of the
first section of the glacier. The
angle eased off here but I found myself threading my way through
crevasses. A fourth pitch found us on
snow. Andre took over the lead here as we short roped up
to what looked like a huge bergschrund, crossing several crevasses on the
way. A steep climb up the right and Andre was on the bergschrund lip,
crossing from right to left. A quick belay up the center of the bergschrund
and all four of us were on its lip. There was a snow bridge to the far right and Andre
led up and away. I handed him a snow
picket, which he got in before the snow thinned and turned to ice. We were on the extreme left of the glacier
now as Andre jammed his ice axe between the glacier edge and the rock. We were all feeling a little frazzled by
now and we discussed exiting onto familiar rock but it was very crumbly and
we didn’t have any rock gear. Wisely
we stayed on the ice and again I found myself in the lead, To our left was crumbling rock. Overhead was a rock band. To the right of the rock band, the seracs
started again. I climbed up and right, aiming for a narrow ice channel
between the rock and the seracs.
Andre called out that the ice was overhanging. I took a deep breath
and looked up. No, it wasn’t
overhanging but it sure looked vertical. With two ice climbing axes this would
have been fun. With a single
mountaineering axe it was…hum… challenging.
My hope as to get to the rock band and belay from above. “Ten meters”
Andre called, “five meters, two meters”.
I was about five meters below the rock band. Springlets of water were gushing down on either side of me. The
ice was near vertical. I screwed in
my only ice screw and hammered in my axe making a belay station off these
two. “On belay” I called kneeling
below my hanging belay. Thank god for
these schoeler pants I thought or I’d be sopping wet and cold. Thank god to for Gabriel, Lynn’s guardian
angel, whom Lynn sent out on every trip to watch over us. The rest of the gang came up below me. I had them set up a station about 2 meters
below. I joked with Marcus that he
could fill up his empty water bottle at the rushing spring but the jovial
camaraderie was gone replaced by a sense of nervousness as all three slammed
their ice axes and ice screws into the wall.
It was a place that none of us wanted to be. I didn’t mention the two small rocks that had bounced off my
helmet from the rotten cliff above. When you start climbing there are lots of people
around to take the lead, show you the ropes, and provide that pillar of
strength when the going got tough. Over time you find that those people have
disappeared and others look to you. I
looked around for someone else to hand the lead over to. There was no one. All eyes were on me. The worst thing is not knowing and I couldn’t see
what was above the rock band as I climbed up. At one point I was directly below an easy chimney flowing with
water. The illusion of solid ground
tempted me. Should I go for it? No, I
was more comfortable on the ice even though I was rapidly running out of
maneuvering room. I had a narrow ribbon of about 1 meter between the
overhanging seracs and the rock band.
Another 2 meters would tell the tale of whether there was a way out or
if I had hit a dead end. The ice held and I continued past the rock band
until I could see a ledge on the left.
A few for steps and I gingerly put my left foot on the rock. It held
and I stepped onto the ledge, safe for now but ten meters above my last
pro. A couple of switchbacks between
ledges, another 20 feet up and I was at the bottom of the third section of
the glacier. It was ice-covered snow and the going seemed easier. The ice was thin and it took three tries
to find sufficient ice to hold a screw.
I noticed an ablokov in the ice.
Someone had rapped down here recently. I slung the screw, ice axe and
ablokov and belayed the rest of the party up. The edge of the glacier was running with water and I
had gotten pretty wet putting in the ice screw. My gloves were shredded and we were in the shade. I was shivering with all my clothes on and
my hands were alternating freezing cold and numb. Thankfully the final three pitches were snow-covered
ice which Andre led. To the right was Mount Amberdeen, the left, the col and
then Mount Haddo. Andre seemed to
want to keep right on the ice but our cries of beseachment made him turn left
and soon we were all basking in the sun on the rocky col. It was 6:30 PM. The 5-8 hour climb to the summit had taken us 12 hours. All we had to do know was hike over to
Mount Haddo (Mt. Aberdeen could wait for a return trip) and then find our way
down. But that’s another adventure! Stay tuned for “Lynn calls in the Rangers” as she
beseeches them, “It’s after 11 PM and I’m sure Andre is hungry!!!” Note: The boys made it safely back by 2 PM, 19 hours
after departing, but too late for last call! Andre, Lynn, Dwight, Tony (our host), Darren and
Markus |