| Edith Cavel: east ridge solo Trip Report |
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| Edith Cavel: east ridge solo   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Canada, North America Date Climbed/Hiked: Aug 5, 2000 | Page By: tor Created/Edited: Apr 4, 2003 / Object ID: 168880 Hits: 907 Loading... Page Score: 85.98% - 1 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Edith Cavell (3363 m) East Ridge
Grade III 5.3 rock -- 5 to 7 hrs estimated plus 2 hr approach
the most recommended route on the mountain"
August 2000 Tor solo
The plan was to meet at the Tonquin Valley Backcountry Lodge which is 11 ~ 12 miles back along the Amethyst Lakes under the Ramparts. Susan, John, and Annie were going to hike in over the McCarib pass while I was going to get dropped off, climb Edith Cavell, and then meet them at the lodge. Unfortunately, Annie did not want to carry a pack (she was 6.5 months pregnant) so I was given my clothing plus my share of the food we were bringing for the next couple of days my sweet wife refused to listen to reason and take my portion of the load.
We left Jasper and Susan dropped me off at the Edith Cavell parking lot at about 5am. I headed off for the East Ridge hiking in my sneakers and underwear towards the col at the base of the ridge. I hit real snow at the base of the col and changed into boots, bibs etc. Wandering up to the col, I passed a couple of kids that were headed to same way (unfortunately these days, to me, kids are anybody under the age of twenty-five).
Once at the col, you could see the lower portion of the route stretching up. The bottom was just wandering up the ridge through talus. When this got steeper, I put on crampons and went left to get in a nice snow gulley that shot right up to the flat bench. With hard solid snow, the gulley went really quickly. I had pulled out both axes but frequently didnt use them and just front-pointed on up. There was a bit of ice, right at the top but pretty straightforward. The sun had come up and it was looking like a fantastic day.
Once on the bench, you could see the second half of the route going up in steps it looked great. The party behind me was getting onto the snow and seemed to be moving pretty quickly after the Alps and the Cascades, it was just great to be out there on an excellent route with only one other party around! I stowed the crampons and one of the axes and dropped the other axe down my back so I could get at it quickly. After walking across the bench, there was a short ridge of snow leading up to the rock on the ridge. The drop off the north face was impressive had to be 2000 feet straight down but, fortunately, the sun had warmed it enough that I could make good steps and didnt need crampons. The rock was great easy climbing in 50 foot steps followed by short stretches of snow. In many places you got great views down the north face which was really impressive.
I got to the summit at about 10am it was really warm. I hung out for 30 minutes, ate some lunch and then started looking for the West Ridge descent. After descending some easy snow to the southwest, I started back across the west face. The sun was not near the face yet and I ended up on some fairly steep scree with ice rivers running down it. This was pretty messy and took me a while.
After I got down to more reasonable ground, I traversed toward the north as suggested by the guidebooks and hoped on a snowfield shooting straight down. Great! I was going to be down to the meadow in 30 minutes. Wrong! The book warned against starting down too early oops. After getting back up, I descended a talused ridge heading north-west to a col where I dropped down a gulley heading down to the meadows on the west. I found some good snow in the gulley and was able to make decent time down.
Got down to the meadow at about 12:30. Took my boots off and changed into shorts and sneakers and started down to the Astoria river trail that heads into the Tonquin Valley. Met a couple of hikers headed up to the meadows but there were not many people around. I had spoken with a ranger that I met wandering in Jasper about the trip and his only warning was about a grizzly that was hanging out towards Amethyst Lakes. Naturally, I spent the rest of the trip panicked by every small sound in the woods at some point I even started singing which made me quite secure my singing will drive away, if not outright kill, any known life form.
Finally around 4:30, I dropped over the pass and could see the lakes and the valley below really pretty place. I saw a lodge right in front of me between the two lakes but had my hopes dashed when they pointed to a building at the far end of the other lake. Oh well. I got in just after 6pm as everybody was sitting down to dinner. Good trip great climb!
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