- We started at 2am from the O’hara parking lot, we were hoping to summit around 11 am, giving us 5 hours to get down and have two opportunities to catch the O’hara bus out.
- Our route was to ascend Mount Victoria via Abbot Pass, since the SE ridge seemed like a fun route.
- The scrambling was great, good 3rd and 4th class terrain on reasonably solid rock.
- After the Sickle the terrain got a bit more narrow and challenging, although still manageable. We spent a good amount of time trying to pick our line after removing our crampons.
- We summited about 1pm, which was later than we had intended, but we still felt comfortable about catching the last bus at 6:30pm.
- We descended down to the Huber glacier. It was probably a faster descent than retracing the SE ridge, despite the additional glacier hazard.
- We rappelled into the bergshrund below Mt Victoria and climbed out. The upper glacier was reasonably well bridged and we crossed it without incident, probing as we went.
- We rappelled into the gulley to descend to the lower glacier, which led us to a sheet of ice covered in gravel. A mistake here would have sent us into the deep bergshrund below. This was a slow section, and this glacier had bigger crevasses that made travel more difficult.
- Knowing we were tight on time, we raced down the Huber ledges, which was a very fun descent. The final rappel was very efficient and we were probably faster than if we had attempted to down climb.
- Despite trail-running from Wiwaxy Gap to the lake, we had to hike the 11km out. We made it to the bus on time, but it had no free seats. The extra 11km meant we finished at 9pm.
- In my early-morning fog I forgot to swap my insoles into my mountaineering boots, the whole day was done without them which made the final 11km a complete slog.
The Glacier route up to Mount Victoria, North Peak.
Mount Lefroy, the snow route is completely out of shape.
Mount Victoria, North Peak route, the Death Trap, and Lake Louise.
Downclimbing the Sickle
Mount Cathedral, I always thought the glacier was bigger than that.
Rigging the descent rap. Only a couple were necessary, most of the descent to the glacier was hiking terrain.
Roped up on the upper glacier, which was easy travel. The lower glacier is much more broken. Nick is probing a bridge in this photo.
Descending the Huber ledges, it was easy to move quickly over this fun terrain.
O’Hara from Wiwaxy Gap, before we raced down to catch the bus.
