Mount Robson Climber's Log

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mountrobson

mountrobson - Sep 26, 2002 5:16 am

Route Climbed: SSW Ridge Date Climbed: August 28ish,1999  Sucess!

Mountain of my dreams for years. Went up to the RF hut with 3 friends lookin' to do the Wishbone -- didn't happen. Spent the next four days trying to get up the SSW Ridge, but kept being pushed back by absolutely rotten weather. Only got as high as Little Robson. On the day we were going to descend, the clouds pushed on off and revealed a beautiful day. Late tho' it was, I had to give her a try. My buddies descended to the trailhead and I left the hut alone at 9:15a.m.!! (Great "alpine start", eh?!?) The route went quickly; getting over the Schwartz Ledges was a bit tricky, but other than that, no problems. I wound through the seracs at the top of the ridge rather than traverse across the Roof -- we'd seen the entire S face swept by an avalanche just two days earlier. Made the summit about 3:30, took some pics, smoked a Drum, and descended. Got back around 7:30. What an epiphany -- Mount Robson....solo !!!!

alan - Jan 26, 2002 7:18 am

Route Climbed: Kain face Date Climbed: Aug 12/01  Sucess!

We lucked out with the weather which was excellent for the 6 days we were on the mountain. Day one we registered and backpacked to Berg lake. An excellent and scenic route. Day two was a short day to the bivvy site below the extinguisher. We wanted to avoid traversing the icefall in mid-day. Day three we ascended to a camp on the dome. The snow in the icefall was good and the hazard only bad for about 15 minutes, but definitely not a place to linger or to be in during the hot part of the day. Day four we left camp at 3:15 am and almost immediately were struggling with the bergschrund. Once we got across the schrund the Kain face was steep but not extreme and the ridge above was easier. We summited at 7:20 am in a cold wind. The descent was uneventful other than the jump across the schrund but the snow was already getting soft on the Kain face. We were prepared to wait until evening at the top of the face but our early start and early descent time got us down safely. We were back in camp by 11:00am and watched avalanches all day on the faces left and right of the Kain face. The route is not as difficult as the crux on the N. face of Athabasca, more like the Skyladder on Andromeda but it does require constant care and would be a nightmare in soft snow conditions. The trip down through the icefall was unpleasant(we left at 6:30am) as snow melt and a warm night left us sinking beyond our knees, many crevasses were now wider and we punched through some snowbridges.

We camped at the emperor campsite and backpacked out next day. A great peak and a great route.

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