Once again, our June monsoon seemed to come during a weekend. June 11 and 12, I had scheduled 2 separate Advanced Alpine Rock days for the Calgary ACC Section. The focus was on route finding, rope management, and transitions where participants led and could get direct feedback and coaching from myself and Kirsten Knechtel (full IFMGA mountain guide). The goal was the East Ridge of Lady Macdonald.
Saturday….rained. We still persevered because you just never know and the morning didn’t seem too bad. After numerous creek crossings and a couple hours approaching we began the ascent. The rain came in heavier as soon as we roped up it seemed, and sadly after a couple pitches we had to make the call to turn around. Things were getting a little too slick and the chance of rock fall increased. This group was amazing though and was still smiling as we bailed from the route and retraced our steps back to the car.
The next morning, the skies still looked a bit ominous, but the forecast seemed slightly improved. We headed in again with a new group of alpinists and this time despite getting a few good doses of heavy rain and hail, managed to complete the route! 14.5 hours car to car…definitely didn’t break any speed records, but everyone led the whole way up and hopefully learned a few new ways to deal with ridge climbing and safely managing hard to protect sections.
This is a great alpine rock objective right in Canmore…can’t beat the drive really! I did a write up for the route on INCANMORE.com. Many of the bolts have had their hangers removed which is a real shame in my opinion.
For more pictures check out:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103751118925619413446/ACCAdvancedAlpineDays
Thanks for the great day out everyone!