Nigel Peak

Nigel Peak

June 19, 2004

Mountain height: 3,211 m
Elevation gain:     1,175 m
Ascent time:          5:25
Descent time:        3:20

Scrambling and mountaineering with Mark.

We seem to be making a habit out of turning simple scrambles into more technical mountaineering trips. Lucky that we did bring along crampons, ice axes and a rope for this ascent, as without them the heavily snow covered slopes would have been very difficult and dangerous to negotiate.

A perfect weather forecast should take you to the most scenic parts of the Rockies and The Columbia Icefield area has few superiors in that regard….and Nigel Peak seems to have few superiors in regards to its views of the Icefield and surrounding mountains, without actually going onto the ice.

Basically, we can divide our ascent of Nigel into two parts – the one with no snow, and the one with way too much snow! A short hike took us to the pleasant meadows above the Wilcox Pass trail. Here, the first ascent slope, completely snow-free, came into view. It looked long and it was - tedious scree with far too few slabs to provide some relief. It took us almost an hour and a half to reach the top and was quite an uncomfortable ascent in the considerable heat.

At the ridge, as well as some great scenery in all directions, there was a terrific (although somewhat intimidating) view of the remainder of the ascent. The west slope and north ridge of the mountain were plastered in snow and we became quite skeptical about making the summit. Nevertheless, it’s always worth a try – looks can certainly be deceiving in the mountains.

After a long break, trying to recover some energy expended on the scree slope, we put on our mini-crampons, roped up, and started along the snow-covered and corniced ridge. As opposed to Kane’s route, which ascends the ridge then traverses to the north ridge just below the rockbands, we chose to try descending and traversing to the north ridge much lower down, where there was less of a chance slipping and glissading all the way to the bottom, and/or getting caught in an avalanche. Fortunately, the snow was quite firm and instead of going all the way over to the north ridge, we opted to take a more direct route up a slope of avalanche debris (great logic, hey.....we’ll traverse the slope to avoid getting caught in an avalanche and then go right up the slope where it is the most avalanche prone!).

Like its predecessor, this slope was also dreadfully long and the sun reflecting off the snow made for miserably hot conditions. The scenery, however, became more and more breath-taking with each step and we weren’t about to stop because we were in danger of “sweating to death” (?). When we finally reached the north ridge, we had to take an extended break to rehydrate, rest, and enjoy the amazing panorama unfolding to the west – the Columbia Icefield and its numerous peaks over 11,000 feet: Athabasca, Andromeda, Snowdome, Kitchener, North Twin, South Twin, Stutfield, Alberta, Woolley, Diadem, and Edith Cavell in the distance.

The route up the north ridge looked dicey at best. We ditched our backpacks and started up the steep slopes. Some sections were easy and straightforward, but a couple involved some very steep, snow-covered terrain that required great care and caution and extensive use of ice axes and crampons. A slip here would have carried serious consequences. Fortunately, the ridge was not very long and fairly soon we saw the sizable summit cairn ahead. A short traverse across a somewhat exposed and corniced ridge took us to one of the best panoramas we’ve seen to date – easily rivaling that of Narao Peak of May 1st this year.

The descent of the north ridge was relatively easy except for three sections where we belayed each other down. Two were quite short, but the middle one took about 40 m of rope to get down. With the exception of some knee-deep post-holing in the sun-softened snow, the remainder of the descent was easy. The long scree slope at the beginning, had some extended sections of very surfable scree, greatly reduced the time and effort required to descend it. I certainly felt that we deserved this after a fairly long and grueling ascent.

Overall, a fantastic trip with unbelievable scenery and views of some of the jewels of the Canadian Rockies. This mountain should be on everyone’s “to –do” list.