Outdoor Video Magazine

Length: ~18-20km
Height gain: ~1800m
Effort: Very high
Hazards: Rock fall on loose scree, glacier travel, some steep snow, rock/ice fall from above.

I think I mentioned that I took the Summer in the Mountains course with the Edmonton section of the ACC (Alpine Club of Canada) recently. Well, I immediately signed up for my first mountaineering trip with the ACC, an intermediate excursion up Mt. President (3123m) in Yoho National Park via the not so often travelled Emerald Basin approach. The peak is more often summit-ed from the Stanley Mitchel ACC Hut, which is much shorter and offers much less elevation gain. However, the leader of our party had an attempt from that side foiled by a cornice earlier in the year, and felt our route had a better chance of success.

Leaving from Edmonton after work on Friday night, we arrived at a full Kicking Horse campground just outside Field, at around 9pm. We found space on the overflow campsite however. We pitched tents and had a last bit of sustenance as the last golden rays of sun caught the mountains across the (loud) highway from us before crashing at around 11pm, ready for our alpine start the next morning.

Up bright and early at 3.30am we were all raring to go. OK, so we were actually all dead tired and not in the mood after a night of traffic and trains thundering down the valley. We made the short drive to Emerald Lake,, and hit the trail at 4.40am as the sun was starting to light the sky. An easy stroll along the trail to the end of the lake, we then took a path at the second junction you encounter, putting us on the Emerald Basin trail. This quickly started to rise steeply through trees until it flattened out and gave us the first views of our approach. Dropping down through thick brush into the head of the valley, we forded the many small (-ish) that flow down into Emerald Lake. Some rough boulder-hopping later we ready to embark on the more technical part of our climb. Deciding to fore-go the narrow snow gully on the left due to potential rock-fall hazard we ambled up steep, hard scree and took a loose rock gully on the right. After a few slips and some nasty rock-dodging we roped up for a short, steep section where fall consequences could have been dire. This slowed things up considerably as we were belayed up one at a time.

Through more rock and scree on steep slopes, we slogged on towards the glacier where we roped up into two teams and put our crampons on. It was then a long, slow trudge through some BEAUTIFUL scenery of blue ice-walls, airy waterfalls and huge rock-walls with the backdrop of Emerald Lake glowing green behind us. The going was on not-so steep snow slopes, with no exposure or real danger other than crevasses.

We reached the saddle between the President and the Vice-President to find a couple of guys descending to Stanley Mitchel and another team just arriving from that direction, proving the route had been in OK condition. They had set off some FOUR hours later than us…proving the added length of the Emerald Basin approach!

And this post is way too long already, so go to Part 2 of Mt. President to read more!