Mount Black Prince

Mount Black Prince – August 13, 2005

Mountain height:       2,932 m (9,617 ft)
Elevation gain:          1,190 m
Ascent time:              6:45
Descent time:            4:30

Scrambling/climbing with Mark.

Like Eon Mountain of July 31, of this year, Mount Black Prince is an excellent trip that undeservedly receives very little attention – 9 recorded ascents (including ours) in the past 19 years attests to the peak’s lack of popularity.

This trip actually started of as a planned attempt of Mount Warspite. Having eyed a possible ascent route up the east face (north of the summit) of Mount Black Prince, last year, however, we decided to bring along some climbing gear, in case the spirit moved us – apparently it did, as we arrived at the Black Prince Tarns, and we started up scree slopes towards the least steep section of the face, with the intention of turning around at the first sign of difficulty and heading up Warspite.

The scrambling was initially quite straightforward, but started to get steeper as we slowly progressed up the face. Eventually, we did arrive at a short rockband that was more technical climbing than scrambling (maybe 5.2 or 5.3). Though I had armed my harness with about 10 kilos of cams (well it felt like 10 kilos!), the rock was loose and downsloping and there was absolutely nowhere to place protection. Luckily, the step was only about 5 m high and I was able to climb it and find safe spot to belay Mark up. This short step turned out to be the crux of the trip and easier terrain led to the stunning ridge.

Looking at the profile of Black Prince from the below, one would think the ridge to be a highway wide. We were both stunned to find it was anything but! To the south, huge vertical gendarmes of rock lined the undulating ridge and to the north, the long route to the summit appeared to be severely narrow and exposed. I guess we were lucky the summit was to the north, because the gendarmes were definitely beyond our level. We were also very unpleasantly stunned to see the sky turn from a beautiful shade of blue to the nocuous and hazy shade of B.C. forest fire smoke!

The ridge was probably the highlight of the trip and if long exposed ridgewalks are your thing, then this is the route for you. Fortunately, the terrain never narrowed to the point where protection was needed and we traversed the ridge standing up with the occasional belay. Having done the ascent without any route information, we thought that at any time we might arrive at an impassable section, but that never came. The final 50 m or so of ridge was particularly exhilarating, as the drop-offs on both sides increased to precipitous heights – one of those, “one guy falls, the other guy jumps down the other side and both pray the rope doesn’t snap!” The summit followed shortly after, sporting an absolutely magnificent view. Most prominent was the Haig Glacier to the north, surrounded by Mounts LeRoy, Munro, Maude, Jellicoe, French, Robertson and, of course, Sir Douglas. Most eye-catching was the long and spiky ridge of Black Prince to the south, with Warspite at the end.

The sparsely filled register was placed at the summit in 1986 by Alan Kane and Kris Thorsteinsson and included the other notable names of John Martin (co-author of “Sport Climbs in the Canadian Rockies”) and Don Forest (the first person to summit all 52 (or 54 now!) of the Canadian Rockies 11,000ers (I assume it was that Don Forest - I guess there could be another one).

For the descent, we short-roped the ridge traverse and then started down the east face, hoping we could find an easier route around the crux step. We were able to downclimb everything except for a small section that required a short rappel. I think with a little more searching a scramble route might have became evident.

A more than satisfying day on a terrific mountain – there are few things more rewarding than finding your way up unknown mountain, with no route information.