[MCR] East Ridge of Mt Temple and Kain Face of Mt Robson, Rockies, September 10-13, 2013

Due to the luxury of modern travel we were able to climb the East Ridge of Temple and the Kain Face on Mt Robson over the last four days.

The East Ridge of Temple is very dry and in good shape.  Some ice is showing on the upper glacier and the ridge walk to the summit is more convoluted with cracks and crevasses than I have ever seen before, but the crampon travel was good and with care to avoid stepping in the holes the travel was not difficult.

Despite the warm overnight temps we had enough of a radiant freeze to climb Mt Robson via the Kain Face on September 12^th under the glow of the Northern lights.  The bergschrund on the Kain face was easily crossed on climber’s right and ice anchors were used for all but the final 85m which was snow covered.  The recent snow on the ‘Roof’ had mostly melted or sluffed off and about half of the travel was on ice which made for slower travel but good ice anchors with only a couple of snow anchors necessary.

We summited at sunrise, and descended quickly to the top of the Kain face where we waited for 7.5 hours for things to begin freezing again.  We descended the Kain face via a couple of snow lowers/down climbs and 7 x 30m rappels off V-threads to our camp on the Dome Glacier.

Today we traversed to the Robson/Resplendent Col and then down to the Extinguisher Tower.  The rock ridge to the col is dry and we did two 20-30m rappels along the way.  The travel down from the col was excellent with firm snow and good crampon travel. The crevasse bridges through the bottom of the “Mouse Trap” are narrow but in good shape, however only one good travel option exists at this point so hopefully it stays put.

Enjoy the great fall climbing season!

Cheers, Conrad Janzen
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
www.banffmountainguides.com

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