Wendell Mountain II

Wendell Mountain attempt, East Peak of Wendell II – April 19, 2006

Mountain height:       2,394 m (7,852 feet)
Elevation gain:           1,200 m
Ascent time:              4:45
Descent time:            2:00

Solo scramble.

I had two objectives for this trip; 1. attempt the true summit of Wendell Mountain; 2. see if the East Peak of Wendell Mountain was accessible from its col with the true summit, via the west ridge. I had tried to downclimb the west ridge three days earlier, but snow cover had rendered it too dangerous. Upclimbing it might be easier and I hoped two warm days had melted the remaining snow. And so for the third time in four days, I slogged up the hiker’s routes to the east ridge of Mount Yamnuska and descended the other side, into the CMC valley.

A good trail led easily to the start of the scrambling below the Wendell/East Peak col. Here the scrambling on good rock was fun and involved a little route-finding, but was quite short. The remainder of the ascent to the col was a scree slog, though the surrounding rock scenery was splendid.

At the col, a look over to the east ridge leading to the summit of Wendell Mountain did not give me much hope in making the summit. The ridge appeared to be narrow, steep in places, loose, and very exposed and it only took me about two minutes to find out that it was all of the above. I made about 15 metres progress up the ridge before it narrowed and steepened significantly. Upclimbing it here would have scared me – downclimbing it would have terrified me. The rock was quite loose, I was alone, and this was clearly beyond my capabilities. I turned around with the faint hope of fulfilling objective number 2 - the East Peak via its west ridge. This didn’t look easy either, as the summit block was guarded with more “scary-looking” terrain.

The ridgewalk in the opposite direction (east) was very enjoyable and straightforward until I came to a pinnacle that blocked the ridge. Here, I had to lose some elevation and I then spent a good half hour looking for a weakness that would take me back to the ridge. Eventually I found one, climbed it, and stood at the bottom of the crux – a steep rockface with significant exposure on both sides. Snow still remained on the left side of the ridge and I found this quite unnerving. I started up and once started there was no turning back. I only had to cover about 10-12 metres of terrain, but it was 10-12 metres of some of the most unnerving scrambling I had ever done. Again the rock was loose and I had to ascend the step with one foot on the ridge and the other in the snow on the left side of the ridge. The snow provided no stability whatsoever. Thank God it only a small step. I was quite relieved to get up it and cross to the summit only a few metres away.

Obviously, I had no intention of returning the same way I came up and so I used the ascent/descent route of our previous trip – a pleasantly fast route that I was able to complete in 2 hours. A very interesting and “exhilarating” day out.