Mount Evan Thomas IV

Mount Evan Thomas IV – October 14, 2007

Mountain height:           3090 m
Elevation gain:              1500 m
Ascent time:                  6:15
Descent time:                3:40

Scrambling and a little mountaineering with Mark.

Ever since Kevin Barton and I reached the summit of Mount Evan-Thomas on our first trip together back of the summer of 2004, I’ve wanted to repeat the ascent with Mark. It’s a wonderful mountain with terrific scenery throughout and a phenomenal summit view.

Initially, Mark and I wanted to use the same route Kevin and I had done via the west ridge. However, our recent trip up Mount Packenham revealed a potential alternate route via the southwest face. Hopefully this route would allow us to gain the ridge past the two difficulties Kevin and I had encountered, where we decided to rappel down two steep rockbands. We took some climbing gear just in case this wasn’t the case.

It took us two hours to reach the ascent gully and another two to reach the ridge. The southwest ascent slopes were relatively easy, but incredibly foreshortened. Fortunately, an amazing view of Mount Packenham and an ever improving view of lakes and mountains to the west gave us plenty to look at while we were gasping for breath.

We topped out on the ridge right at the bottom of the second rappel, effectively bypassing anything that could be considered mountaineering or climbing. From this point to the summit, Kevin and I had enjoyed a simple and rope-free scramble to the summit. I thought Mark and I would do the same. Even with a fair amount of snow on the ridge, I didn’t think we’d have any problems. I was very wrong.

We roped up just to play it safe and it’s a good thing we did. The snow rendered the ridge a veritable death trap. Any slip down the snow-covered north slopes would have resulted in a serious involuntary glissade and probable death. The fall factor down the south side of the ridge was not much better. We progressed up the ridge very slowly. I was stunned at how difficult it was compared to the snow-free ascent in 2004. The snow was not consolidated where we really needed it to provide a measure of stability. Several times we considered turning around. The crux was a steep, heavily snow-covered section just before the terrain seemed to get easier. Mark led the step and I have to admit I was nervous just watching him go up it. I did have him on a solid belay, but if the snow gave way he still would have went for a ride before the rope caught him. We were both very relieved when he topped out above the step to a good belay position.

The remainder of the ascent was considerably easier and much shorter than the view indicated. We arrived at the summit exhausted, but very happy to have made it. The sky was clear, there was very little wind, and all around were magnificent peaks – some plastered in snow, some clear of snow, and some in between. Mount Packenham to the south and Mount Potts to the north were particularly striking.

Our summit stay was pretty short due to the length of time the ascent had taken. We downclimbed the first section and then debated how to get down the crux. In the end we couldn’t justify taking the risk of downclimbing the unstable snow and decided to rappel. This took us past the most difficult section, but there were several more dicey ones to come. To avoid these, we took an alternate route to try to get around them. This route was okay, but still tricky in places. Eventually we were able to work our way back to the middle of the southwest slopes. At one point, the mountain released a frightening volley of huge rocks down the middle of the gully. The rocks came from the upper slopes and were bouncing down the slopes at incredible speeds by the time they went by us. We ran for cover to the sides of the gully and were quite lucky that one of them didn’t hit us. After that, Mark found a decent scree slope away from the centre gully and we made it down to the valley in good time.

Hiking out we saw another party ahead of us. We caught up to them just before Highway 40 and to our surprise the group turned out to be Raff, Renata, and three friends. They had just completed an ascent of Grizzly Peak .

Not the easy trip I was expecting, but an entertaining return to a magnificent mountain and in perfect weather conditions.