Greetings,
On
August 27th two guests and I approached Mt. Assiniboine via the BC
Settlers Rd. "shortcut" approach - further notes on the merit of this
approach are further down.
After a later start than anticipated we
approached the North Ridge of Mt. Assiniboine. Overall we made fairly
good time to the summit considering that current conditions are more
challenging than usual, in fact we noticed more than one party opting to retreat from the route despite early starts. We had a bluebird day with hardly a
breath of wind to the top, no freeze at the hut and only a marginal one
at higher altitude. The round trip to summit and back took us 15 hours.
The
current condition of the route is actually quite fun and reasonable,
just more time consuming. Crampons were needed from the end of the
scramble portion to the summit. Greater
care and protection was required moving through the mixed ground which
did protect very well. The technical rock climbing is mostly ice and snow
free while the upper easy and moderate bits are covered with snow and hard surfaced ice. The greater challenge and time consuming task is on the descent.
Many route portions that would normally be down-climbed are now preferably rappelled. Besides several rappels I also
lowered my guests in 50 meter chunks, thence carefully down-climbed
myself. All the rappels from the summit ridge, gray band, upper ridge
big step, red band and more are free of ice and snow and easy to find. Medium and
stubby screws are quite useful currently. The summit crest is corniced with perhaps a greater overhang than usual, overhanging as much as
10 - 15 meters out.
The North face route looked to be in very good condition.
The Hind hut recently refurbished is in excellent condition. Running water found just above the outhouse.
BC Settlers rd approach:
Any
two wheel drive vehicle can easily handle the gravel road to the bridge
parking. An even closer parking 200 meters further up can be reached
with higher clearance vehicles which puts you right at the trail head.
Anti porcupine chicken wire is scarce, enough for one vehicle only.
Apart from a few downed trees, the trail is in
excellent condition and very well defined. The torrent crossing ( a single log bridge with
safety wire tram) is good. There is a glacier on the approach which appears to
be quite benign with no visible crevasses in the compression zones and is overlain with up to 1.5 meters of neve. Though somewhat tedious, we
were able to find good footing and swift passage through all the
scree/talus slopes.
It was the first time that I did this
approach and though it is significantly shorter, I would recommend it
only to stronger more experienced parties. There are steep scree slopes
and trail sections, a glacier and some easy navigation required. A more technical but beautiful approach. A black bear was seen on the return. We took about 7
hours on the way in and I made it back to the truck in 3 1/2 as scree/snow boot skiing, and the downhill all the way back make for a fast return.
Assiniboine N. Ridge is a classic Rockies ridge in fun spicy conditions.
Eric Dumerac - Professional Mountain Guide - IFMGA/ACMG, CAA II ,CSIA II
Mountain Skills Academy
✆Canada: Canmore 011- 403-609-1564