Skyladder Mt. Andromeda, Columbia Icefields 1974 & Recently?

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 1 - 39 of total 39 in this topic

Fritz

Social climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 15, 2018 - 03:50pm PT

The 1974 edition of Climber’s Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada – North has a pleasant description of a route named Skyladder on the north side of 11,300’ Mt. Andromeda at the Columbia Icefields.

In August of 1974, it lured me & my pal Chris P. to the route.

Skyladder is at the extreme right of this photo, with Andromeda having the long skyline at center right & Mt. Athabaska at left.

From the guidebook:

This is the elegantly curving N snow/ice face that leads to the west shoulder of the peak. Recommended. July 1960 J. Fairly, B. Parks. From snowmobile parking lot work across moraine and cross N glacier of Andromeda to foot of face, 2 – 3 hr. The angle steepens, then eases in the upper part; difficulties depend on the amount of exposed ice.

Here's a closer photo from 1974, with Skyladder being the right-most snowfield.

Once Chris & I got on the route, we found it was entirely very firm snow, which our crampons, & Chouinard axes & ice hammers felt very solid on. I don’t think any part was steeper than 50 degrees, but we stayed roped & swapped leads every 150'. At belays, it was easy to dig down a little bit to water-ice & we only bothered with placing one ice screw at each belay.

About half-way up the route, some less bold climbers had hacked a sidewalk across Skyladder from one side to the other. Chris belayed me up to it, spit some chew down the slope below us, & with a tone of disgust said: “schist man, I’ve skied stuff steeper than this.”

Chris on Skyladder, digging down to ice, to set a belay screw.

We un-roped & made good time to the summit ridge, but did not continue on to the summit of Andromeda, since it was obvious a storm was coming in. We did have fresh tracks to follow the long way down the Athabasca Glacier to the parking lot.

We were a little disappointed with how easy the route was & our window to do harder routes at the Columbia Icefields was closed by stormy weather. I do appreciate Skyladder would be much more interesting if it was water ice, rather than firm snow.

Does anyone have photos & story of a recent trip up Skyladder to share? I suspect the approach & the route are now a little more challenging than they were in 1974? I don't remember the glacier approach or the bergschrund giving us any difficulty, but that may well have changed too?

Trad climber

Calgary

Jan 15, 2018 - 05:26pm PT

I climbed the NW Bowl in 1978 and got a helluva sunburn.
Warren was having trouble placing a screw at one point and "Al all I ever want in life is a good screw" I think he scored at the Athabasca bar in Jasper that night.
Skyladder is mostly rock even as early as late June now.
Climate change has had a profound effect on the Cdn Rockies
and shifted much of the alpine climbing to the October through late April window.

Ghost

climber

A long way from where I started

Jan 15, 2018 - 06:34pm PT

Climbed Andromeda's neighbor Athabaska about a hundred years ago. Eminently forgettable climb (we just plodded up some easy ridge), but on the way down we caught up to a party of three on the glacier. They were in the process of waiting for the guy in the middle to extricate himself from the crevasse he'd just dropped into.

Turned out to be some New Yorkers on their first real mountain. But they'd done their homework, and the crevasse incident was a perfect textbook example of how to do things right. Keep the rope almost tight, be alert, etc etc. So he didn't fall far, and was able to pull himself back out, and his partners had no trouble holding him.

They were all totally psyched about the whole thing. Most fun any of them had ever had.

Trad climber

Calgary

Jan 15, 2018 - 06:50pm PT

We were travelling near some guys from California on the glacier below the NW Bowl. Glacier was pretty bare but had lots of semi hairy terrain. Our neighbor was taking pictures saying "What awesome scenery" while his partner was standing on the edge of a 100 foot deep crevasse. They had 50 feet of slack in their rope. We suggested tightening it up a tad.
The bowl is at the back of the first picture
Ghost you should have climbed the Hourglass on Athabasca. Nice little Grade 3 ice pitch where it squeezes through the seracs

Ghost

climber

A long way from where I started

Jan 15, 2018 - 07:04pm PT

Ghost you should have climbed the Hourglass on Athabasca. Nice little Grade 3 ice pitch where it squeezes through the seracs

Maybe we did. I vaguely remember some moderate axe-and-crampon section. But like I said, it was a hundred years ago. All I remember with certainty is that it was pretty easy.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Jan 15, 2018 - 07:36pm PT

always wanted to tick that one...
here in August 1993

but the weather...

easier to wander up Mt. Athabasca in the fog... I think we summited

Fritz

Social climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 15, 2018 - 07:42pm PT

Chris P & I were back at the Columbia Icefields in August 1975 & got to meet some of the Lowe clan in the campground. We also shared our beers with some cute Canadian girls, who had summer jobs in Banff. We had decided on an alpine start on the North Face of Athabasca, & with great regrets, I left the party for bed around 9:00 PM by myself. Chris grumbled his way into our tent an hour later. After getting up at 2:00 AM. we were both a little sleepy the next day.

We enjoyed solid hard snow & I got to enjoy being a little scared leading the unprotected & un-protectable crux pitch, which I see on Google, is now rated 5.7 & has lots of fixed pro. We felt a little better about ourselves, than after climbing Skyladder the previous year. However, we knew that figuratively speaking, we were daubing in colors, while the Lowes were painting alpine-masterpieces.

Midway up the hard snow, with ice just below the surface, looking up at the steep part of the North Face of Athabasca, trying to figure out where the exit couiloir was.

Looking down.

Fritz, not enjoying the crux pitch to the summit ridge. I found no spots to place decent protection. Note my Jensen pack, Chouinard Supergators & wool pants, that my sweetie had sewed a leather butt-patch onto.

Looking over to the North Face, from our descent down the Silverhorn route.

Fritz

Social climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 15, 2018 - 09:12pm PT

New world order! Re your question?

I assume you faced in on the down climb?! Stupid question, I hope. ;)

Sorry, but all I have for a memory of the descent, is that photo taken of the North Face of Athabasca, which I think had to be from Silverhorn.

One clue to our descent style is, my climbing buddy Chris P. had grown up in Sun Valley Idaho as a ski racer. He nearly made it on to the U.S. Ski Team A squad as a downhill racer, but destroyed a knee in a crash. He was absolutely fearless on snow, and of course I had to keep up, or be disgraced.

I was much younger then.

Tony

Trad climber

Pt. Richmond, CA

Jan 15, 2018 - 09:28pm PT

We climbed Skyladder in the early mid-80s in a whiteout, so didn't go to the summit, and downclimbed the route. The route looked about the same as the above photos. Here's a photo my friend who was there sent me from his trip last fall. The route looks almost gone and the glaciers quite receded.

kunlun_shan

Mountain climber

SF, CA

Jan 15, 2018 - 11:19pm PT

I soloed it in the '80s, can't recall exactly which year, but was alarmed to see the photo below taken by Mark Klassen in mid-August, 2016. He described the Skyladder as "now mostly dirt":

https://www.mountainconditions.com/reports/mt-athabasca-0

norm larson

climber

wilson, wyoming

Jan 16, 2018 - 04:34am PT

Thanks Fritz for the walk down memory lane. I remember driving to the Icefileds and climbing on seracs close to the road. I too climbed the Skyladder and Athabasca Nord wand in the 70's. Found them both entertaining and good training for bigger routes. We also did the "Practice Gully" on Andromeda. That was definatley a step up in difficulty for the day.
Then to Moraine Lake and up the tumbling turds couloir (the little huts outhouse sat at the top of it !). to climb Mt Fay and the classic ice route there. All those routes seemed to be required climbing in the 70's. Sad to see they are in such poor shape today.

What are the classic standard ice routes today?

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Jan 16, 2018 - 04:57am PT

Fritz....a training program is in order. The Canadian Rockies wait for your return. You can repeat some of your exploits from the 70’s and regale us with your prespective of how they now feel with an older body aided by modern tools and enhanced experience. Your witty repartee nestles nicely with my morning coffee.
Mike Munger on a failed attempt to do the then unfclimbed Emperor Face on Robson in the winter...late 70’s.

Bad Climber

Trad climber

The Lawless Border Regions

Jan 16, 2018 - 07:05am PT

Great stuff, Fritz et al. These routes were some of my favorite alpine exploits. On Skyladder, my wife and I had pretty damn good conditions. It was clear and cold, and, amazingly, on the summit we could walk around like it was a concrete sidewalk. We just strolled over the summit and down to the descent, which scared the crap out of us--super loose slag and snow with not a single place to anchor. I understand that now someone (guides?) have buried some long-ass anchors in the junk to provide belays/rappel anchors. Would have appreciated that BITD. Once at the notch, it was pretty straight forward down climbing on snow to a very memorable jump over the bergschrund!

On the north face of Athabasca, we found a single fixed ring piton on the crux headwall, which helped, at least psychologically, but I was VERY happy to land some solid ice over the lip. A few years later, my wife and I did the Hourglass, and I actually took a fall off the crux pitch when crumby ice left me pumped and scratching for purchase. Turns out that ice screws work. Had some old school fat Lowe jobs. The ice around the screw didn't even crack. I ended up aiding a few moves, leap frogging screws, because I was so pumped and freaked. I owe my wife a lot for enduring that epic belay and sh*t show. We did have a glorious summit in the very late afternoon sun. The regular descent is super easy, but we touched off a shallow, broad avalanche and rode it several hundred feet down the face into the bowl--super fun! It was very shallow, so there was never any risk of getting flipped or buried. We just rode it like a soft, undulating magic carpet.

Great memories of those and other ascents in the Rockies, a place deep in my heart, even if the rock is usually absolute crap.

BAd

Trad climber

Calgary

Jan 16, 2018 - 10:55am PT

The climbers campground was an unusual place.
All you could hear at 3:30 or 4:00 AM was the sound of 30 MSR stoves running at the same time

Bad Climber

Trad climber

The Lawless Border Regions

Jan 16, 2018 - 11:28am PT

Hah, good point, AP. Rockies fans will know the feeling of swilling coffee/beer for long hours in the cooking shelters as it pisses rain/snow, another day on the hills lost to the notoriously bad Rockies weather. Oh, but when it clears....

BAd

Fritz

Social climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 16, 2018 - 12:09pm PT

Thanks all for comments & photos. I'm still hoping for closeup photos & stories of recent Skyladder adventure, but indeed, it does look somewhat "out of condition."

Donini! Thanks for your encouragement, but I've developed severe allergies to that slippery white stuff. I fear I may never climb in the Canadian Rubblies again.

Norm Larson! Per your mention:

Then to Moraine Lake and up the tumbling turds couloir (the little huts outhouse sat at the top of it !). to climb Mt Fay and the classic ice route there. All those routes seemed to be required climbing in the 70's. Sad to see they are in such poor shape today.

The Chouinard Route on Fay waited until 1978 for me to climb it. Indeed the crux was the approach gullies. We chose the less steep 3-4 Couloir, which I first went up & down with my wife in bad weather, with the descent being in a rainstorm. Unfortunately, I did not learn enough from that ugly experience & did it with my friend Mark Mason again.

Mark took this photo of me running near the start of 3-4 Couloir. He then yelled up to me: "Hey! What's the hurry?"
When the first rock whized by him a short time later, he suddenly understood my desire to run.

We nearly died after Mark drove a piton into a car-sized rock that we both assumed was bedrock. I made the mistake of climbing onto that rock, when I followed him & it rolled out from under me like a log in water. Luckily, I had removed the piton & landed uphill of the rock in soft scree. The next day, the summit cornice fell off just after we finished the route. Here's the rest of the sordid story.
http://www.supertopo.com/tr/MARK-FRITZS-BIG-MT-FAY-1978-CANADIAN-ADVENTURE/t11242n.html

Here's a photo of Mark belaying under the cornice at the top of the Chouinard Route, that fell off later that day.

RjBlake

climber

Jan 16, 2018 - 01:13pm PT

Photos from an August 2013 camping trip out that way fwiw.

Gregory Crouch

Social climber

Walnut Creek, California

Jan 16, 2018 - 01:52pm PT

Does that route have a pretty substantial "notch" you have to climb down into and out of to get to the summit? If so, I think I did that one in the summer of '88... Big adventure for me at the time.

(My God, I'm turning into Donini, unable to remember climbs from the distant past...)

Fritz

Social climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 16, 2018 - 07:18pm PT

Greg! Good to hear from you, but my memory can't help you, since we finished Skyladder, then due to approaching bad weather, took off north down the Athabasca Glacier.

I did find an account of an ascent by a reasonably competent solo climber, who knocked off Skyladder in June 2014.

http://www.drdirtbag.com/2014/09/07/andromeda-skyladder-athabasca/

His photos don't lend themselves to being shared, but this one, taken near the start of Skyladder shows a more demanding route than the one I climbed in 1974.

He continued on to Andromeda's summit, then transversed to the Andromeda - Mt. Athabasca col. That descent route, as mentioned upthread here by others, appears to be a steep choss-lovers test-piece.

kunlun_shan

Mountain climber

SF, CA

Jan 16, 2018 - 08:02pm PT

an account of an ascent by a reasonably competent solo climber, who knocked off Skyladder in June 2014.

Fritz, I have to laugh when I see the words "reasonably competent" :-)

"Dr Dirtbag" is seano, here on ST. He's extremely modest. Reading Sean's blog, his climbs sound very ordinary, but they are exactly the opposite.

Among a long list of solos, he has "dayhiked" Robson a couple times - 7 hours from the base to the summit up the SW ridge, not sure the time on the descent. Robson ascent number 2 took a bit under 15 hours return; up the Kain Face, over the summit and a SW ridge descent.

He also holds the record for climbing ALL of California's 14'ers in 62h3m! No typo there - 10 hours less than 3 days of continuous movement, including a few naps.

Fritz

Social climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 16, 2018 - 08:20pm PT

kunlan_shan! Re your comment:

Fritz, I have to laugh when I see the words "reasonably competent" :-)

Please understand, in my world of dry humor & understatement: "reasonably competent" is a tremendous complement. The next stage up of climbing ability, in my parlance, is: "Godlike."

kunlun_shan

Mountain climber

SF, CA

Jan 16, 2018 - 08:26pm PT

We're on the same page, Fritz!

Love the dry humour :-)

Just wanted to throw a few props in for seano.

seano

Mountain climber

none

Feb 28, 2018 - 08:59pm PT

Fritz -- Just found this thread. TFPU, but it's sad to compare your photos from 1974 to what I climbed 40 years later. It's hard for me to imagine the glacier at the bottom connecting to the Athabasca, much less what it might have looked like back when the Athabasca extended across the valley.

Comparisons from the Bugaboos, Rogers Pass, and Robson are similarly shocking. If you want to get on any classic snow/ice route in the Canadian Interior Ranges, you should probably do it soon...

Steven Amter

climber

Washington, DC

Mar 7, 2018 - 02:10pm PT

Me and my buddy, Ron Sacks, had a great two weeks at the Columbia Ice Fields in the mid-70s when we were young Gunkies. We spent a lot of time on the Ice Fields, and climbed Snowdome, Skyladder (while our friends climbed Photofinish to our left), Silverhorn, and the North Face of Athabasca, which we descended via Silverhorn, and some other stuff I can't remember.

I recall the scene at the campground very fondly - climbers from around the world hanging out and swapping stories into the night, the best Northern Lights I have ever experienced (we could hear them!), great rainbows, and hanging out at the Columbia Icefields Chalet. We didn't have a lot of money, but Chalet folks gave us free dinner after a climb in exchange for folding napkins and sitting in the picture window in full gear. The snowcat buses on the glacier even let us hitchhike rides back down the glacier if we would answer questions from the tourists.

Fun times.

domngo

climber

Canada

Mar 7, 2018 - 02:27pm PT

Trad climber

Calgary

Mar 7, 2018 - 02:57pm PT

The alpine season has changed.
Many routes are best done in the October to May period
Most of my alpine was in the 70's and 80's before the big melt.
I can't understand why you climbed gullys above Moraine Lake in daylight hours Fritz. They are usually death on a stick. We climbed the 3/3 1/2 starting at midnight under a full moon, bivied in the hut for a few hours then climbed the N Face of Fay and went back to the hut. We descended the 3/4 in the early hours before daybreak.

We also climbed the majority of the snow/ice faces unroped because that way if something went wrong only 1 person dies.

Fritz

Social climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Mar 7, 2018 - 06:59pm PT

Nice photos & stories folks! Thanks for posting up!

AP! Re your kindly mention:

I can't understand why you climbed gullys above Moraine Lake in daylight hours Fritz. They are usually death on a stick. We climbed the 3/3 1/2 starting at midnight under a full moon, bivied in the hut for a few hours then climbed the N Face of Fay and went back to the hut. We descended the 3/4 in the early hours before daybreak.

AP: No arguement. Even though I knew climbing while alpine temps were below freezing at night was safer, I suspect my daytime ascents of 3/4 Couloir, above Moraine Lake, to the Cooper hut, may well have happened due to these reasons & thoughts:

1. 3/4 is an approach couloir, first climbed in the 1890's.
2. My wife is not going to be happy hiking to the start of the couloir in the evening & then bivying until it gets cold, to start climbing in the dark to an uncertain destination.
3. Our time was limited & we needed to climb the couloir in daylight to be in position the following night to start the Chouinard Route on Fay, when it was cold & dark.
4. It was warm mid-August conditions, & I didn't think the warm night conditions would freeze.
5. We were stupid Americans.

Our daytime descent of 3/4 Couloir the next afternoon, was due to the rapid buildup of snowfall at Cooper Hut & my "trapped-rat" feelings that we needed to get the hell down, while the getting was merely dangerous, rather than disasterous.

On the 2nd trip up 3/4 Couloir, with Mark, 4 of the original 5 reasons to hike it in above-freezing daylight conditions still applied, but I was now familiar with it & as we all know: "Familiarity breeds contempt."

3/4 Couloir from the top, August 1978.

Trad climber

Calgary

Mar 7, 2018 - 08:06pm PT

Brings back fond memories of my first few years.
Fritz what other routes did you do up here?

seano

Mountain climber

none

Mar 7, 2018 - 08:08pm PT

the big melt

This seems like a significant piece of history, which deserves to be preserved. Do you have Rockies or Selkirks pictures from 30+ years ago? If so, please publish them somewhere.

Bad Climber

Trad climber

The Lawless Border Regions

Mar 7, 2018 - 08:17pm PT

I also did the same north face of Fay route back in the 80's. That was probably my best all time alpine ice experience. Perfect, perfect conditions. I pulled over the 'schrund and THWACK! Each placement was a belay. I just ran out every pitch. We approached via the direct buttress below the face. There was some memorable mid fifth class work. I remember decent pro and some fixed stuff-anchors, et al. It was by far the safest way up and down. We bivi'd on the prow at the edge of the glacier. Oh, what a great ascent that was.

BAd

Trad climber

Calgary

Mar 7, 2018 - 08:36pm PT

I would have to scan pictures or slides.
How to post pictures these days?

My favorite alpine ice pitches were:
Hourglass on N Face Athabasca. A grade 3 waterfall pitch with exit stemming between ice and rock. My partner Sean Doughtery has just been named director of Alma (Atacama Large/Sub Millimeter Array) Best radio astronomy facility in the world.

First roped pitch on Greenwood Locke N Face Mt Temple. 1 foot wide thin ice strip in a corner for 70 feet then ice ran out, took the poons off and rock climbed the rest.

Being a local meant we could wait for good conditions.

seano

Mountain climber

none

Mar 7, 2018 - 08:48pm PT

I would have to scan pictures or slides.

A friend scanned some 70s Bugaboo slides at some point, and recently sent me JPEGs. This stuff takes work. If you can spare the time, please do it. I'm happy to help you.

Fritz

Social climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Mar 8, 2018 - 10:09am PT

AP & all: I didn't do much climbing in the Canadian Rockies. The only other big mountain I recall stumbling up, was the south ridge tourist route on 11,365' Mt. Victoria by Lake Louise in the mid-70's. We had given-up on climbing in the Bugs due to horrid weather & hooked up with two experienced American women climbers, who dumped the Brits they were with.

The Canadian Rockies were absolutely snowed under, so Victoria seemed like a possible option. A long slog ensued. Here's my photo of Abbot hut, where we overnighted & the snowy slopes above.

I did do some winter waterfall climbing around Baniff, starting in 1974, when we climbed Cascade Falls as our 2nd waterfall ever, after being bored on adjacent Rougan's gully. On later trips Cascade got climbed several more times & attempts were made on Louise Falls, but somehow, we didn't leave enough time to deal with the upper icicle. We climbed a couple other minor waterfalls in that area too. The one in the below photo was short, but great fun.

Most of my Canadian climbing was in the Bugaboos, where the only notable success was the East Ridge of the Bugaboo. We did several routes on Crescent Tower & made 3 attempts on the classic West Ridge of South Howser Tower, but were thwarted by the weather.

However, I do have some old glacier photos from the Bugs. Sept. 1972, Looking up at the Bugs from the lodge parking lot. Snowpatch Spire at top center-right.

Taken from near the hut, looking south at the Bugaboo Glacier & Marmolata.

August 1974, The Howser Towers from near the top of Bugaboo Spire.

seano

Mountain climber

none

Mar 9, 2018 - 11:07am PT

This is the Bugs in early August 2014:
And Victoria in 2017.
Things are changing fast.

domngo

climber

Canada

Mar 9, 2018 - 11:25am PT

Some more pixels to go along with the minor thread drift - flown over this are more than I care to count, yet to clamber around...

Trad climber

Calgary

Mar 9, 2018 - 04:12pm PT

Awesome b&w photo. Gives a whole different perspective of the Bugs.
By the way how is the Bugaboo Snowpatch col?
In the 80's we could descend it with running shoes straight down the middle the whole way on snow.

Off White

climber

Tenino, WA

Mar 11, 2018 - 07:28pm PT

Here's the right shoulder of the u shaped Andromeda N Face bowl, Skyladder tops out on the upper right, NW Shoulder in the center, and Photo Finish curves around the left end of the rock bands. August 1981.