Hungabee 2024

 Hungabee, August 18th/19th, 2024 - 3491 metres

Synopsis: Hungabee is a tough one to give a star rating. The rock isn't always as bad as the reputation, in fact the scrambling up the "indistinct rib" after the traverse was a lot of fun and the airy ridge up high was a highlight. Not sure I'm in a hurry to go back but happy to have climbed it. As often the case the bivy site was fantastic!

Paul organized the biv permits and bus pretty easily, $44 each and a seat on the 3:30 pm bus into Lake O'Hara on Sunday. There had been some snow up high on Friday night however everything up high looked dry driving in and the parks people backed that up so game on!

With overnight packs loaded, we made our way around Lake O'Hara and up East Opabin Trail which joined part of Yukness Mountain Route before breaking off towards Opabin Pass after passing the gorgeous Hungabee and Opabin Lakes.

We stopped to fill up with water at Opabin Lake and pulled out the filter just in case. On the way up to Opabin Pass there is a small glacier to cross and some soft snow beyond, crampons helped and it was easy to dodge and weave around the obvious crevasses higher up.

Not unexpectedly, the rock up to the col past the snow was rockies scree at it's finest. Although we found firmer bits once we passed the col (and the campground closed due to bear activity sign laying in the rocks) and turned up towards Little Opabin. 

It's another 200 metre elevation gain to Little Opabin and down 30 metres on the otherside to a great biv site at roughly 2750 metres with plenty of snow handy. In all it's a 760 metre elevation gain to the biv site and it took us 4 hours at a pretty leisurely pace. 

The biv site was a very cool place with a full view of the route, Wenkchemna pass to the south along with Neptuak and Deltaform poking out behind. We were treated to a spectacular full moon and clear skies overnight, the wind even died down.

We were up at 5 am with enough light to make our way just after 6. The forecast was for strong winds but it was calm and cool first thing. The photos in Jones's book and online gave a pretty clear indication where the rising traverse starts just near the top of the initial black band in a bit of a scoop in the ridge and we followed the ridge up slightly to the left. Easy scrambling on pretty good (for the rockies) rock lead to an obvious trail breaking off to the left after little more than 200 metres of elevation gain up.

We followed the raising traverse, with a number of well placed cairns and pretty loose rock up to what we thought was the "indistinct rib" and started up. The scrambling on the rib was good with somewhat solid rock and low 5th class moves for the first couple of hundred metres. There was a large black splotch on the step face to climbers left as we ascended a bit which looked to be where the large not so permanent snow patch used to be.

We carried on working our way just to the left side of the rib, do note that the lower part of the rib made up the largest chunk of the vertical elevation gain of the day. Obviously if and where you put on the rope varies wildly however when we got to where we roped up we could see down and to climbers right to the cairns and where the original West Ridge route goes. Looking down on it you could see why Larry's variation is the standard route now.

From that point we pitched out a short pitch, scrambled a bit and then pitched out 4 more to the top of the ridge. For gear we had a small rack with 5 cams and a handful of medium nuts along with 5 alpine draws and that was the right amount for Paul and I. We passed rappel anchors that appeared to be in good shape mostly usings pins and used some as anchors. Mid fifth class seemed about right with one stiffer section that we didn't see a way around.

I was lucky enough to lead the pitch up to the ridge, which was spectacular and just over 3300 metres. We were happy that the summit block didn't look nearly as intimidating as it did in some of the photos we had seen.

Before committing to the ridge we could see the trail traversing to the right into the lower parts of the summit block, however from our vantage point it looked pretty scrappy where the climbing would start further along so we stuck to the ridge. Paul and I left the rope on and slung a knob along the way. Paul then belayed me from the bulge ahead through the ridge further on finishing just past the alcove 3/4's of the way up the yellow band. Great fun, fairly solid rock and llloooottttt'''sss of exposure! 

Right about then we could see two climbers catching up, it ended up being Haldon and Darren who were doing an impressive job soloing what we just climbed. They caught us up at the summit.

Just past the alcove there was a slung rock set up for a rap anchor and I used that and Paul lead up the top of the yellow band and through the black band near the climbers left. The yellow ground went easily but there were a couple of moves mid fifth grade with good gear in the black band. That left us on the upper ridge just short of the step across. Having climbed Front of the Pinnacle at Bon Echo a long time ago and having the benefit of wingspan it's actually a bucket of fun, having said that I would have had a pants full without the benefit of a rope. Just past the step across was a solid rap anchor which I used to belay Paul across, we then left the rope and scrambled to the summit.

Big grins all around! It took us 6 hours from the biv site, obviously with a fair amount of roped climbing. In spite of it being windy and cool mid mountain, the summit was sunny and fairly calm. Spectacular views all around, especially towards Valley of the 10 peaks.

After half an hour of snacking and enjoying the view, we headed down. My plan was to use the rap anchor just before the step across which I though would take us close to the block 3/4's of the way up the yellow band that I had used as a belay station and then rap down to the beaten in trail that bypassed the sharp ridge back to where we attained the ridge itself. It largely worked although with a 60 metre rope we can some down climbing that I would describe as loose and unpleasant on the yellow band.

In the photo above you can see Paul partway along this pathway, along with Haldan and Darren on the summit ridge. Having descended that way I was glad we didn't choose to go up it. Pretty scrappy.

We intended to rappel down our climbing route but I got sucked into a line just climbers right. It went although primarily on slung blocks, no pins until the end (the piton hammer remained pretty much unused). The series of rappels involved rapping, then scrambling skiiers left to find the next station. It worked although we were working our way further skiers left than we had realized.

After 5 raps down the ridge we ended up on some chossy ground with two single piece, older rap anchors. We backed one up and rappeled over a short grey band which I realized later was part of the old west ridge route. We were still above 3200 metres so too high for the traverse back to the original ridge on the black band but we traversed to the south first, realized what was going on and traversed to the north (climbers left) across a couple of gullys to terrain we recognized and started to down climb. Once we were on the "indistinct rib" and recognized the terrain it was a matter of down climbing on somewhat solid rock to the traverse. It was further down than expected, but we kept an eye on the altimeter and finally found that cairns and packed trail that lead back at close to 3000 metres elevation.

After that it was pretty straightforward descending. Once at the lower ridge we tended to stay slightly climbers left of our route up on looser but more moderate ground. We did run into a number of dodgy rap stations but ignored them and carried on. There's a large rock blob on the ridge itself that is a great landmark.

Given the number of raps higher up and the hunting back and forth for the correct descent line, we were a full 6 hours coming down as well. Which obviously left no chance for catching the last bus down from Lake O'Hara at 6:30 pm! Even with quick packing and the Opabin scree being much easier on the way down, we didn't make it back to Lake O'Hara until dark and a hell of electrical storm caught up to us. A bit of a memorable, wet evening ensued.

A grand adventure, glad to have done it.

South Gully, Narao Peak 2024

South Gully, Narao Peak, 2974 metres - June 6th, 2024

Synopsis: 4 stars, South Gully is a 50 degree couloir on the NE side of Narao Peak and proved to be a great day out. The approach was straightforward but interesting, the area below the gully was one I hadn't been into and offered a great view of Popes Peak and surrounding mountains. Fun, straightforward climbing up the gully as we had supportive snow the whole way. I now realize that you can see much of the lower part of the route and bowl itself from highway 1 east of Lake O'Hara

Paul and I parked by the western end of the old closed highway 1A from Lake O'Hara to Lake Louise and were heading east at 4:40 am. A quick trip on blacktop to the Ross Lake turn off and headed towards Ross Lake. It was nice and cool as we actually had an overnight freeze.

At Ross Lake we mistakenly took the trail heading to the ridge route on Narao and back tracked to the Lake itself. The correct trail is a bit faint and follows the edge of Ross Lake around to the far side. We then gained elevation through snow wherever possible followed by fairyly easy ground. Below treeline we did get sucked into being too far climbers left and bushwacked a bit to gain the trail, Gaia has a correct trail through this area.

We then pulled out mountaineering axe and crampons for the long snowy traverse to the left to gain the bowl. We were lucky enough to have a decent overnight freeze so it was straightforward which was a good thing as there are consequences to a slide through here.

Once the bowl is gained it's pretty straightforward to the base of the route. It was great to be in an area that I hadn't visited before. Pope's peak and the north couloir was straight ahead and an interesting view of Mount Whyte to the left. Well into the bowl we veered off the Divide Mountain Trail and headed towards the NE slopes of Narao.

Both the South and North Gully's come into full view and we discussed which to pursue. The South looked the most interesting and given it's a Chouinard route the decision was made. The sun had started to make an impact although we were afforded some shade from passing clouds. We stopped to gear up near the bottom of the fans below the gully at roughly 8:30 making it a 4 hour approach (albiet with a couple of navigational errors).

The photo above shows both options well, the South Gully being on the left. Climbing the fan proved to be a sun baked hot affair although we took solace in the fact that most of the gully itself was still in the shade and nothing was moving. Once in the gully itself (and yes, why it's not called a couloir is beyond me) the snow continued to be supportive and the rope stayed in the pack.

There is a bit of a rock pinch point 2/3 of the way up however it passed easily on the right and the pitch eased off a bit until the very top. We both used two axes of various types and there was a short bit of front pointing however the bulk of it was good buckets. From time to time we had a bit of spindrifting down the middle however it was easily avoided.

The South Gully ends very close to the summit and we were on top right around 1:00 pm, into a howling wind that reminded us to watch for cornices along the ridgetop. We huddled in a wind scoop under the summit to add layers and grab a quick snack but it was no place to linger.

The descent wasn't that straight forward however we started off following the Narao Peak Route on Gaia which was helpful and after toughly 200 meters dropped down from the ridge following snow slopes below. The travel was good although we stayed above a cliff band before dropping down to the obvious bench.

At this stage the decision was whether to follow the bench feature to the north and rejoin the old 1A or take a trail straight down to the Lake O'Hara road. We chose the latter and my sense is that it wasn't the best option. I wouldn't recommend it as the trail get's very faint and was slow going. Having said that eventually we broke out on the Lake O'Hara road and followed it back to the car. 

All told it was a 13 1/2 hour day with 1320 metres of climbing, a great outing in a great setting. In the right conditions I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

 

Deltaform 2023

Deltaform, July 31st-August 2nd, 2023 - 3424 metres

Synopsis: Deltaform is a tough one to give a star rating. The rock isn't as bad as something like Recondite and some of the bands are actually not bad. Having said that route finding is a big part of it as is lots of scrambling on questionable rock with significant exposure. Having said that it's definitely a feather in the cap and the biv site is one of the best.

Paul and I had a week of climbing planned and given the low snow year and warm spring, it looked to be the season for high rock routes. Deltaform is one we'd both been looking at for awhile and the plan was hatched.

With a great looking weather window we booked the 6:30 am parks shuttle for Monday July 31st from the ski hill and Paul organized the bivy permits and we were set. We got an interesting call from parks indicating that they were issueing a second permit for Monday, I'm not sure if they were asking or telling however it's a big mountain and on the bus met the other party John and Ian and it turns out John was a climbing partner of Paul's and it was good to share the mountain.

All 4 of us started the hike into Wenkchemna Pass at 7 am, however the young bucks soon outpaced us. Frankly it was a but unnverbing looking up at Deltaform from the Wenkchemna Pass trail. We were 3 1/2 hours to the pass, pacing ourselves to make sure we didn't burn up too much energy and happy that we were doing it in the cool morning air as you gain roughly 700 metres of elevation. Another 1/2 an hour put us in a good spot to gear up for the first pitch and stash unneeded gear. 

After a quick somewhat exposed traverse in to the bottom of the first 5.6 pitch we caught a view of John and Ian and ducked out of the way for a few minutes until they cleared out. I scored the lead (not sure how) and it was blocky, felt true to the grade and the overnight pack did make it a bit awkward (or that might just be my climbing style). We took a small rack of nuts and cams to #2 and that seemed about right for us. I placed 7 pieces on the way up to the upper rap station on the wall itself so there was enough pro available, I had brought rock shoes but saved them for the final pitch of Deltaform itself.

I had set up a redirect using a nut at the top however was out of long slings and when I tensioned the rope on the draw the piece popped. Unfortunately, it slid down to the next piece and jammed the rope solid. First time for that and it meant that Paul had to prussik up the rope to that point, a bit of a cluster to start the day.

Above the rap station some would scramble but we left the rope on and Paul lead up to rap anchor up on the ridge. Pretty sraight forward going up from there so we stashed the rope, broke out a ski pole and enjoyed some fun scrambling along ridge, then out in the open making our way up to the upper bands through scree and loose rock. Not bad footing although the pole was helpful.

The two of us dodged back and forth through the bands above, the lighter coloured bands were often pretty good, some quartzite, the black bands were pretty horrible most of the time. Once we made our way up to the upper headwall, we saw the other party on the ridgeline above but thought we'd check out the easier terrain to the right. It didn't take long to realize that was a mistake and we scrambled back to very close to the ridgeline and broke out the rope.

I lead up the first pitch to rap anchor, Paul then fired up the blocky bit and carried on pitching out for one more up to near the top of the black band, 3 roped pitches in all. 

We then scrambled along the ridges followed by an easy but airy traverse along the ridge crest of Neptuak which carried on in similar fashion to the first large plateau. I actually thought it was all one plateau until we traversed far enough in to realize that it was a two tiered affair and needed to descend to the biv carral.

When on the edge we could see John and Ian (and thankfully a snow patch) on the far side and John shouted there was an easy way behind and to the right. We took a short stroll and elected to go back to the rap station close to the ridgeline and with a single rap were on the lower plateau and the biv corral. 

It was 7 pm which made for a 12 hour day, obviously we were moving slowly as Mark and Ian had also pitched out a bit but made it in for 5 pm. In many ways it felt like Neptuak was the more difficult of the two ascents of the trip, probably made more difficult with the overnight pack. Needless to say, an absolutely spectacular bivy and pretty close to a full moon.

Tuesday we were up at 4:30 with plan of moving at 5:30 when had started to get light. We let John and Ian go first as they were faster and comfortable with more soloing. Up from the bivy site they soloed the first pitch on the weakness just to the right of the ridgeline. Paul and I chose to put the rope on and I lead to the rap station at the top, after which it became fairly straight forward. 

This was followed by fairly solid rock and lower angled terrain, definitely a fun section. I generally found the rock better and more enjoyable on Deltaform than Neptuak with the exception of a black band higher up. As we gained elevation it got a bit scrambly with plenty of exposure.

Higher up we were lucky to have team A ahead as they had taken the bowl to the right and reported very loose and somewhat sketchy. We opted to stay closer to the ridge and decided to break out the rope. I lead a fairly straightforward pitch topping out at rap anchors. Paul then lead up onto the black band. There appeared to be a bit of a choice of going on a rib slighty to climbers right or staying as close to the ridge proper. Paul chose the latter and rapping later we found the right easier going and not as loose. One of those pitches you start out kicking the footholds to check them out and by the end you are kicking them to nudge them in further.

Once up we stashed the rope again and scrambled up to the base of the headwall that formed the false summit. The other team was just rapping down and suggested climbing the closest weakness to the ridge itself at about 5.4 with rap anchors on top for a short pitch. I lead, we then scrambled around the false summit to the rap anchors into the notch. The beta from John and Ian was to rug up as it was cooler in the notch and best to leave backs at the top of the rap anchors. We were lucky in the weather was holding steady with sun and very little wind.

We then rapped the 15 metres to the notch and left a light 30 metre rope to belay back. We then pulled the 60 metre climbing rope and I lead the top pitch. The bolt is perfectly placed and truth is it's a fun pitch that gets easier as you go and has decent protection, having placed 3 pieces on the way up. Having said that I was happy to have the rock shoes for the first few moves of the pitch.

It was a great to hit the summit, we arrived at 11:30 and didn't spend long. The summit register was soaking wet and not terribly useful. 

We rapped down and then climbed back up to the false summit. Funky chimney like move to go climbers left to right on the lower block then up and step over to the false summit itself. A couple of somewhat real moves and we're back at the rap anchors and packs, we choose to stop for a snack and to enjoy the place.

We then retraced our steps around to the front of the false summit and rapped down. After rapping off the false summit scrambled and rapped down 6 more following ridge and taking every station available. On the entire way down we felt 4 stations required fresh tat, the rest were good to go. 

Paul and I then scrambled down to the final rap down the initial headwall. The day proved to be 10 1/2 hours and we made it back to the biv site at 4 pm. We had brought an extra supper just in case and given the hour, the last bus back to the ski hill being at 7:30 pm, the great weather and fantastic biv site Paul and I spent the late afternoon chilling in the glow of getting to the top. 

Wednesday we set the alarm for 5:30 and got up to a slow breakfast in the biv sacks enjoying watching the sun come up, then and started moving at 6:30. We traversed left of the first band quite aways to gain an obvious scree slope up to the upper plateau. The inital traverse gets better as you go and the way is obvious, along with the ever present exposure. Above is the scramble around the summit of Neptuak which was fairly straight forward. 

Once on top we traversed out on a ridge looking for the upper rap station at the top of the black band. There are several choices of ridge along the way but where the traffic goes is pretty obvious, just keep heading towards Wenchemna pass. Then 4 raps followed by a fair amount of down scrambling on questionable holds and significant exposure. Then on to the tedious scree/boulder descent to the top of the lower black band. Odd that this sectiton seemed easier going on the way up, fatigue may be part of the reason. 

Once on the lower ridge followed it along quite aways passing a questionable rap station to the very end. A bit of down climbing and cairn lead us to the upper rap station from the initial 5.6 pitch. Two raps down and we chose to use the lower of the two rap stations in the wall itself. The first rap down ends up being free hanging and I would have looked considerably more granceful had I clipped the pack to the rap line to stay upright. Once at the bottom and thankfully the ropes pulled, we traversed out to the ridgeline climbers left to where we stashed some gear on the way in. We arrived back at Wenchemna pass at 11:30 at the pass and changed to hiking mode, had some lunch and took it easy back to Moraine Lake arriving just before 3 and bus back to the car at the ski hill. The bus actually works out pretty well, departing both directions every 20 minutes.

Great, great trip. I used all the skill sets I have and a few that are work in progress. Slow and steady, it was great to do it with a strong partner on the same page. Thanks for a great trip Paul, the highligh of the summer!