The Onion
August 16, 2016
Mountain
height: 2680 m
Elevation gain: 700 m
Ascent time: 5:40
Descent time: ?
Solo
scramble.
I was expecting this trip to be a decent scramble, but it wasn’t
at all – astounding would be a far more appropriate adjective!
The Onion is not a particularly
striking mountain, appearing as a non-distinct large bump on the eastern edge of
the Wapta Icefield. The summit is generally considered to be a consolation
prize, when more ambitious objectives on the Wapta are out of shape or
conditions are bad during the winter season.
Nevertheless, it’s one of the few
mountains on the Wapta whose summit is accessible without glacier travel and
that alone made the objective seem like a good idea. After all, as stated, it
does sit right on the edge of a massive glacier and we all love glaciers!!!
I may actually blindfold myself
the next time I follow the trail around Bow Lake. It is such a stunningly
beautiful start to any trip on the Wapta and I often stop every thirty seconds
to admire and photograph the amazing views, especially when the lake is still, reflecting the mountains around it.
Things don’t improve once around
the lake (i.e. the scenery just gets better and better!). This was the first
time I had hiked to the Bow Hut as opposed to snowshoeing or skiing the trip.
The experience was very different and equally scenic.
I
opted to skip a visit to the Bow
Hut in favour of following the edge of the Bow Glacier – man-made
rarely holds
a candle to nature-made (although I may think differently next time I’m
enjoying the warmth of the hut on a cold winter night!) The scenery
around the
toe of the glacier was fantastic – surprisingly colourful and glacially
scoured
rock, small meltwater tarns and of course the Bow Glacier itself.
Instead of
going directly to the summit of The Onion, I was happy to stay near the
glacier, bascially circling the objective. This route yielded more
amazing views of the
Wapta Icefield, including a stunning view of light turquoise Iceberg
Lake (formed
directly from the meltwaters of the Bow Glacier), with the deeper
turquoise Bow
Lake in front, and framed by Portal Peak and Mount Thompson on the left
side. Eventually
I did head up to the summit, for a long and gratifying summit stay.
For descent, I had already made
up my mind to try an alternate descent route that goes more directly down the
mountain. From the approach trail, the route looked simple enough, but as is
often the case, it turned into quite the route-finding challenge, with some tricky
and exposed downclimbing. Once down the tricky stuff, I went towards Iceberg
Lake. Earlier in the summer I had found an extremely cool route down the steep
headwall just southeast of Bow Falls and wanted to check it out again. The remainder of the
descent went without a hitch.
A totally awesome scramble – definitely one
of my favourite trips of the summer of 2016!
A view near the beginning of the trip that no person will ever tire of
Mount St. Nicholas looking great, but showing signs of glacial recession
Same for Mount Olive
Portal Peak (left) and Mount Thompson always stand out
TThe familiar "eye" below Mount Olive
A closer look at the ice above the eye
This valley looks so different in winter
Colouful rock, as you approach Bow Hut
Colourful and folded rock near the toe of the glacier
All the reasons The Onion (just left of centre) is a great scramble: glaciers, tarns and sweet rock!
The main bulk of The Onion. I chose a route to the left, by the glacier.
Same as above
Same as above
If nothing else, the recession of a glacier reveals interesting rock
A very equally-spaced party descends the Bow Glacier
Views of the Wapta Icefield from the northwest side of The Onion
Mount Collie
Here come the lakes
The Bow Glacier spilling into Iceberg Lake
Some decent sized crevasses on that glacier
Iceberg Lake and Bow Lake
Sun cups and the Sun