After a long
plod through much rubble, I followed some footprints up a steep snow
slope and eventually reached the base of the crux. Although
numerous possibilities (unfortunately all difficult) exist for
surmounting the crux, I chose to ascend a crack that was flagged at the
bottom. Thankfully, both the crack and the subsequent south ridge were dry on this day, and I had no
further problems in reaching the summit at 7:43 PM. Returning to
the crux from the summit, I descended
the same crack I had come up. At one point, I felt one of my
handholds move slightly, but I quickly grabbed a more reliable piece of
rock and was soon safely off the crux. The rest of my descent was
highlighted by a great glissade down the aforementioned snow slope and by
a horrible bushwhack down the avalanche slope just south of the correct
"obvious watercourse" (just plain bad route selection on my part).
I felt a measure of relief when I stumbled back onto Wapta Highline
Trail. Another long walk had me back at my car by 10:49 PM.
![These are the "trailside cliffs" described by Alan Kane.](wapta01.jpg) |
Sonny hikes along Wapta Highline
Trail. Mount Burgess is barely visible in the distance. |
![A beautiful mountain and a great scramble to boot!](wapta02.jpg) |
This is Mount Carnarvon as seen from
Wapta Highline Trail. |
![As evidenced by some beaten paths, I'm not the first one to have gone wrong here.](wapta03.jpg) |
This is what Sonny thought was the
"obvious watercourse". It is not necessarily a bad place to
ascend, but the correct route is further to the right. |
![Ideally, you don't want to end up at this viewpoint!](wapta04.jpg) |
This is the view of the "first rock
band" from where Sonny 'cliffed out'. The correct route through
the rock band is indicated by the letter B. Sonny would
eventually traverse the ledge below the yellow cliffs. |
![Great glissading conditions here! The footprints I followed belonged to a party that ascended earlier in the day.](wapta05.jpg) |
The summit block is in sight as Sonny
approaches a steep snow slope. |
![It's steeper than it looks, and some of the rocks are disturbingly loose.](wapta06.jpg) |
Sonny scrambles up the crux.
Note the flagging. |
![This part is much easier than the crux.](wapta07.jpg) |
The south ridge is airy and exciting. |
![Lots of interesting names in this register!](wapta08.jpg) |
Sonny holds up the register at the
2778-metre summit of Wapta Mountain. |
![Okay, enough pics. Time to start worrying about descending the crux!](wapta09.jpg) |
Mount Stephen dominates the view to
the south. Also visible are Mount Field (lower left) and
Goodsir Towers (far right on horizon). |
![Pick your crack and go for it!](wapta10.jpg) |
Here is another look at the crux from
below. Letter C marks the crack that Sonny climbed. |
![It's hard to see, but there is actually a herd of goats at bottom right of centre.](wapta11.jpg) |
This is another look at the ledge that Sonny had to traverse
during his ascent to get back
on route. |
![It's 9:05 PM, and I still have a long ways to go!](wapta12.jpg) |
Mount Burgess looks dramatic in the
late day sun. |