Outdoor Video Magazine

Part I of this trip report of my Mt President mountaineering trip can be found here.

So from the saddle between Mt President and the Vice-President, it is around another 40mins up steep snow slopes with some rock to get to the summit. The route is not particularly exposed, with the ridge being fairly wide, but the snow is steep and there is a large cornice on climber’s right that needs to be avoided. I was a little freaked out at this point, but I am bad with heights and it was my first mountaineering trip. From the summit, the views are fantastic. Great views of Yoho Valley and parts of the Iceline trail can be seen. Numerous peaks can be spotted and identified if you know your stuff, and you can still see the gorgeous Emerald Lake waaaaaay below. When I was there the true summit was considerably lower than a huge ridge of snow that provided the real highest (if not solid) point. You can see some braver souls than I venturing along this ridge, where a fall really would have been bad news.

Our descent was long and tedious, especially when we got back on the rock/scree. We belayed down the one really bad section, which greatly elongated our descent time, and dark was descending as we crossed the streams and got back into the forest. My feet were really feeling the pain of being soaking wet from sweat in plastic mountaineering boots for 17 hours at this point! We finally made it back to the cars in total darkness just after midnight, putting our total trip time at just under 20 hours. Wow.

The food and beer tasted AMAZING when we got back to camp! Needless to say we slept in late the next day, and all ideas of a short scramble were thrown out of the window, and we headed straight back to Edmonton. Luckily we got back just in time for me to go climbing at the wall at the University! woohoo! A good way to end a fantastic weekend.