Mount Prince Albert

Mount Prince Albert - July 22, 2005

Mountain height:       3,209 m (10,526 ft)
Elevation gain:           823 m from bivy at toe of glacier
Ascent time:              5:15
Descent time:            4:00

Mountaineering with Kevin Barton.

Day five of our mountaineering trip and Kevin woke me at the lovely alpine hour of 2 am . By 3:40 am , we were off on our way towards the King George/Prince Albert col for an attempt of the northeast ridge of Mount King George or Prince Albert , if the former didn’t look like a go. I led the first part of the ascent, across the very gentle angle of the glacier and then Kevin took over when we started the final, steep push to the col. By the time he had negotiated a safe path over the substantial bergschrund, the seriousness of the northeast ridge became frightfully apparent. The upper ridge appeared to be straightforward, however, getting there would require some fairly intense and exposed climbing. I didn’t argue in the least when Kevin suggested we go for Prince Albert instead.

We continued up steep snow slopes, with a running belay, until we finally came to the steep, rocky terrain of Albert’s summit block. From there, we scrambled up very loose rock to the ridge and cautiously traversed over to the true summit. A very large cornice, clinging to the east side of the ridge, kept us on our toes. Unfortunately, the weather had been quite unstable throughout the ascent and we had to hurry a little, to avoid being caught in an approaching downpour (this always detracts from any ascent).

We arrived at the summit at 9:05 am (definitely the earliest I had been on any summit), took a few photos, tried to enjoy the terrific summit view as best we could, and started down right away. The descent was relatively straightforward except for one section that we wanted to rappel down. Kevin spent forever trying the set up an anchor, but the incredibly loose rock gave him nothing to work with. Eventually, we opted to downclimb a steep snow slope to the right of our ascent route and go around the rock outcrop and back up to the crampons we had left at the bottom of the rock. The remainder of the descent was uneventful, but even at the early hour, we both noticed much the snow had softened since our ascent. We were glad to make it down to easier terrain. Overall, an enjoyable ascent that would have been fantastic, were it not for the iffy weather.

All that now remained was the long hike back to the car. We both felt confident we could retrace the correct (or shorter) ascent route and so, armed with only a grid reference from the ascent description, we started down the moraine, heading in the general direction of Fynn Creek. Right away, we went down the wrong drainage and ended up thrashing through endless, evil bush, getting absolutely nowhere. We arrived at the creek, then had to go back up, then came to the edge of a cliff band and had to traverse around, and then repeated this entire process several times. We erroneously thought that once at the creek, we could just follow it out to the Palliser River . Fortunately, but unfortunately for us, Fynn Creek is actually blessed with some fabulously beautiful and high waterfalls, rendering the terrain impassable at certain points.

We were unbelievably relieved to finally make to the grid reference that marked the start of the trail, and followed it out, both in a state of utter exhaustion. The descent was seven hours of sheer misery, but at least we not what way not to go for the next time.

A totally amazing five days of great mountaineering, backpacking, and scrambling, with visual wonders at every turn. Thanks Kevin!