ALPINE CLUB OF CANADA TRIPS
Every year the ACC offers several guided trips involving extensive mountaineering. Although expensive, they can be the only way to really experience the mountains. Accommodation is in ACC huts. The guides are superb as they take relative rookies safely into dangerous environments. There usually is glacier travel and rock climbing in the trips. Routine equipment includes a helmet, harness, crampons and ice axe. These are the trips that I did.
Rockies Panorama Traverse. 1996. This 7 day backpacking trip explores the best of 3 national parks and was led by one of the icons of Canadian mountaineering, Peter Fuhrman. The trailhead was at Marble Canyon in Kootenay NP. We walked up Tokumm Creek and climbed up to the Fay Hut (which has since burned down twice!). We then crossed the moraines and glacier to get to the Neil Cogan Hut on the spine of the Ten Peaks (on the old $10 bill) above Moraine Lake. We climbed Mt Bowlin, #3.
On day 3, we climbed Mt Allen, #6 and descended the Shiesser Ledges down to Moraine Lake. We were bussed back to the Lake Louise HI Hostel for a very civilized night and shower. Returning to Moraine Lake, we hiked up to the end of the valley, crossing Wenkchemna Pass to descend back into the headwaters of Tokkum Creek and Eagle Eyrie. The trip then crossed Opabin Pass into Lake O’Hara in Yoho NP to stay in the iconic Elizabeth Parker Hut. Lake O’Hara must be one of the most beautiful places in the country. We then climbed past Lake Oesa up to Abbot Pass. Sitting on the Continental Divide between Mounts Victoria and Lefroy, the classic stone Abbot Pass hut is one of the first ACC huts and the highest structure in Canada at 9,598’. One of the difficulties of descending to Lake Louise is the Death Trap where all the rock fall off Mt Victoria ends up. This is avoided by descending the glacier to access the Fuhrman Ledges which circle around Mt Lefroy and gain access to the Plain of the Six Glaciers and the trail around Lake Louise.
Wapta Traverse. 1997. This 7 day backpacking trip traverses the huge Wapta Icefield on the east side of the south end of the Icefields Parkway. It is more commonly done as a ski trip in the winter. Starting at Peyto Lake, we stayed at the Peyto Hut, Bow Hut, Balfour Hut, and the Scott Duncan Hut ending at the Trans Canada Highway just inside BC. Several Mountains were climbed.
Climbing in Lake O’Hare. This 5 day trip involved initially climbing Mt. Odaray (5.6), and Mt Yukness (an easy climb within the Lake O’Hara basin). We then did the day hike up to Abbott Pass to stay again in the Abbott Pass Hut, always a treat. Over the next 2 days, we climbed Mt Victoria, the big mountain behind Lake Louise and Mt Lefroy, the site of the first mountaineering fatality in Canada.
Climbing in the Bugaboos. Along with Squamish Chief this is the premier rock climbing area in Canada. In the east edge of the Purcell Mountains, this provincial park is a landscape of granite towers sitting in the middle of glaciers. The trail up to the ACC Conrad Kain hut is a classic with ladders and cement steps built into the cliffs. Over three days we climbed Pidgeon Spire, Brenta Spire and Crescent Spire.
Mount Assiniboine. August, 2008. At 11,870 feet, this is the highest mountain in the southern Canadian Rockies and is in Mt Assiniboine PP. Shaped like the Matterhorn, it is one of the most beautiful mountains in Canada. Our guides were Roger Laurilla and Jeff Relph. Our cook was Roger’s girlfriend, Loree Domimenko. After a helicopter ride from the Mt Shark Heliport, (the other 3 accesses to the park are all ~27 km backpacking trips), we had the long hike up the Gmoser Highway to the Hind Hut sitting above Lake Magog at the base of the mountain. The first day was spent climbing Mt Lunette, just south of Assiniboine. On the second day we made an attempt to climb Assiniboine up the South West face, grade 4, but were unsuccessful. The first ascent route on the mountain, it requires good route finding and is not popular because of all the scree. It would be difficult to get 8 rookies with 2 guides up in the best of circumstances. The usual route is on the North ridge, rated 5.3. Most successful parties consist of only two climbers. On day 3 we climbed Mts Sturdee and Strom behind the hut.