The President and Vice President

I could not have asked for a better objective, better weather, or better company for my final trip in the Canadian Rockies. The climbing was easy and incredibly aesthetic, but required quite a bit of terrain management, the weather was bluebird with just a few clouds at night to make for a gorgeous sunset, and many laughs were shared with the whole group. Cameron, Thomas and Tiffany have been some of my most reliable and capable partners all season, so getting to introduce them all to each other and to have them all join me for this last climb was a real treat. The President Glacier is quite broken up with some enormous crevasses lurking around. After last week's snow, the cool overnight temperatures, and warm days, I figured the Presidents would be in fantastic shape. I had seen a report from a friend from a week prior when it was snowing and after talking to him, I settled on these two peaks as my final objective. Thomas, Cameron and Tiff were very easy to convince to join. We all knew the weather was supposed to be fantastic and we had plenty of time to slow down and enjoy this one. This was especially important to me on this trip because it feels like all my big objectives this summer have been somewhat rushed. The typical scenario is hiking hard and fast to a bivy site, getting there just before dark, sleeping for 3 hours, then climbing, packing, deproaching and driving home all on the second day. The Presidents on the other hand, have an easy approach and could be done in one day push but we were giving ourselves two.

The day started out a little rough. Thomas and I had stayed at the Wilderness Hostel the night before after climbing Takakaw Falls and rolled into the parking lot at our meetup time of 10 am. Cameron was there waiting and ready, but Tiff was nowhere to be seen. She is typically on time, so it struck me as odd that she still had not shown up by 10:40. We decided to drive out to Field so we could get reception to call her and see what was up. Sure enough, she had brought the wrong crampons and had to whip home and get the proper ones. She told us to go on without her, and she would hike in on her own and find us at the bivy site. Tiff is fast and capable in the mountains, so we felt comfortable doing so, especially because the trail to the toe of the glacier is official and maintained. 

Thomas, Cam and I made our way slowly but surely past the Stanley Mitchell Hut to the glacial morraines. Knowing that rockfall was a serious concern on the right side of the glacier, we took the lateral morraine on the left hand side of the glacial debris which conveniently had a nice little trail right on its crest. After topping out the morraine, we picked our way through a talus field until Thomas pointed out an awesome flat on a solid limestone base for us to build camp. There was even a little trickle of water beside us and the entrance onto the glacier was a literal stone's throw away - we even threw stones to test it. That would save us so much time in the morning as we could get our harnesses, rope and crampons on right away! No second stop at the toe of the glacier required.

We set up the tents with plenty of daylight left, and just lay on the rocks, enjoying the nice weather and views of the President Glacier. Around 4, I mentioned that I expected Tiff to arrive in the next 1.5 hours, but then she appeared on the talus three minutes after I said that. I guess I totally underestimated her speed. She joined us for a relaxing evening on the rocks and one of the most incredible sunsets I have ever seen. This was probably the best alpine bivy I have ever experienced. A combination of views, weather, location, and company like that will be very hard to beat. 

We did not expect it to take us long to get up the glacier. We essentially had zero approach this day and we did not want to top out the route before sunrise, so we let ourselves sleep in until 4, and were on the move shortly after 5am. Cam led us up the glacier at a slow and steady pace. We navigated around several big holes and crossed the bergschrund on a steep ledge where it was still bridged on its right side. This would not be a good place to fall! We were in no rush this day, so it felt really good to relax and take in the sights. The alpenglow on the surrounding peaks was incredible at sunrise and we reached the col right when it was happening, giving us an otherworldly view of all the peaks to both the North and South. It is important not to let your focus slide from the terrain management, however, as the beauty comes with a price. A lapse in focus could result in a crevasse swallowing you whole! Some of the biggest crevasses I have ever seen were on this glacier and the bergschrund was staggering in size!

From just above the col, we took in coils and shortroped easily to the snowy summit of the President where we were treated to the best panoramic view I have had all summer. We could see the high peaks of the Selkirks, the Wapta and Waputik Icefields, the Lake Louse and O'Hara 11,000ers, The Goodsirs, Bryce and and bunch of other prominent summits. After a lengthy break, we made our way back down to the col. It is important to leave the rope on on the col. Counter intuitively, there are some massive crevasses on the col. Tiff even stuck her leg in one up to her thigh! Good thing we had the rope on!

Once we were above the col on the west slopes of the Vice President, we took the rope off and made our way to its peak, which had equally respectable views and a really amazing view of the Emerald Glacier and Michael Peak. On our way up, I noticed the sun had starting hitting our little snow ledge across the bergschrund pretty directly. After a quick discussion, we all decided we would need to protect that portion of the downclimb. Leaving this peak was hard for me, not only due to the incredible view, but also because I knew it would be the last Rockies peak I would stand on for two years. Unfortunately, the alpine is unforgiving to those who linger so we started to make our way down. 

We plunge stepped back to the rope, put it back on and then got set up to do some rope work to protect ourselves on the schrund crossing. The group gave me the honour of my last lead in the Rockies, so I made my way out onto the glacier, being belayed from a t-slot anchor. We would have done a running belay, but unfortunately, we only had one picket, which would not be enough to protect all four of us. When I was above the schrund, I placed the picket in bomber snow and clipped to it, then continued beyond the schrund to the full 60m the rope would provide, built a t-slot and essentially set up a fixed line from the other t-slot, except we had a belay device attached on both ends to take in and give slack as the group made their way down slope and then across a flat section. Tiff and Thomas crossed the fixed line with either a munter hitch or by putting the rope through their belay device, with me and Cam at both ends ready to pull tight should anyone fall. When they were across, I had Cam on belay and he cleaned the route. We reroped for glacier travel and got back to our tents relatively quickly, following the ascent tracks.

We took our time packing up our tents and a couple hikers came over, congratulated us, and offered to email me some pictures they took of us on the glacier. I graciously agreed! Rarely do you get to see your climb from that perspective. After relaxing for almost two hours we finally got our stuff packed up and began our walk out. On the way out we talked about our schrund crossing and how, if at all, we could have made it better or faster. That is why I like these climbers - we reflect as a group on what we did well and not so well, and how we can make it better in the future.

The walk out was as easy as the walk in and we were soon in the parking lot saying our goodbyes. What a send off this trip was from the Rockies. This is one of the best trips I have ever done. It was incredibly aesthetic and we did not have to rush. It also provided the best weather I have encountered all year, one of the best bivouacs, and some of my most reliable partners. I could not have asked for a better final trip. Here's to hoping my introduction to the Southern Alps will be equally as sweet.