Mount James Walker Recon. – March 26, 2005

Mountain height:  2,241 m (7,350 ft)
Elevation gain:     728 m 
Ascent time:         3:35
Descent time:      2:05         

Alpine touring with Mark.

The primary purpose of this trip was to get some much needed practice at alpine touring and ski mountaineering. Our secondary goal was a possible attempt at the summit of Mount James Walker, if by some small miracle, the weather took a turn for the better. Although the forecast promised “Mainly sunny”, you didn’t need to be a meteorologist to figure out that the huge mass of gray, covering B.C. and Alberta, on the satellite picture, indicated anything but “Mainly sunny” – how about: completely overcast skies, with low-lying clouds, snowfall and blowing snow, caused by high winds, reduced visibility, and unseasonably low temperatures at higher elevations??

Basically, we skied to the base of the mountain (about 10 km), before turning around, due to deteriorating weather conditions. Ski tracks from other parties made the interesting ascent relatively easy and the scenery would have been quite stunning on a clear day. 2 horizontal kilometres and 600 vertical metres from the summit, we chose to call it a day. From our previous experience on Mount Gordon, we knew the descent would present a greater challenge to us than the ascent. Although there were a couple of sections where we looked a little foolish, we did get in a few turns before descending the treed headwall, and overall, the return trip was not as difficult as we were expecting. A pretty decent day and one tiny step closer to a ski ascent of one of the major peaks of the magnificent Canadian Rockies. 

Skiing across the small lake before the headwall; the route ascends through the trees at the right; Mount James Walker just left of centre.

Mark, above the headwall, with Mounts Murray and Cegfns behind 

More slopes enroute to the base of James Walker; these slopes were a lot of fun to ski down.

Almost at the base of James Walker; the mountain can be ascended head-on or by continuing left up the valley before turning left towards the summit

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