Mount Drysdale

Mount Drysdale

July 23, 2010

Mountain height:     2932 m
Elevation gain:        1500 m
Ascent time:            6:40
Descent time:          5:10

Scrambling with Greg.

What a great sport! I dragged Greg along on this obnoxiously long, obscure, and relatively unknown scramble and didn’t hear a word of complaint or dissatisfaction for the duration of the 12 hour, 32 km trip. I think many would have been screaming bloody murder long before either of those statistics were realized!

This trip would also mark the first time that my scrambling partner for the day was a former student. I taught Greg music (band) from 1997-1999. In recent years Greg, now 24, had become a scrambling addict and soon discovered that his former Junior High School music teacher was likewise afflicted. Thus, we arranged a trip together and the lucky “Mountain du jour” was Drysdale in Kootenay National Park. Although the roundtrip horizontal distance (32 km) was significant, almost all of it is on a good trail, so I thought the trip would be relatively easy.

We left the Paint Pots parking lot at 8:30 am, arriving at the Paint Pots shortly after. They were the first pleasant surprise of the day, as neither of us had seen such unusual and vibrant shades of yellow, orange, and red in the soil. Then came 3 straight hours of fairly dull hiking to Wolverine Pass. Thankfully, Greg set a blistering hiking pace and we arrived in good time. The overcast weather had me in full sulking mode, by that time, but a high pressure system was on its way and forecast to arrive around noon.

After a scree slog up the lower slopes of Drysdale’s east face, the scrambling started. I was impressed to see Greg immediately take a difficult line up the rock – comforting, given what was to come. I took a slightly easier route, but we both agreed we wouldn’t be descending our respective ascent routes.

Progress continued up the interesting face. There were sections of decent hands-on scrambling, however, thoroughly checking all holds was paramount. Every five minutes I would look up to the bleak, gray sky above and give my usual “crummy-weather” scowl – so much for the noon arrival of that high pressure system.

Route-finding throughout was challenging, as we tried to dodge huge snow patches. One was unavoidable and required solid kick-stepping. Again, we both commented that going down that way would be “interesting”. The upper section of the face was quite a bit steeper than what had preceded it. Greg and I took separate paths up this section to avoid knocking rocks down on each other. Once again, there was some fun scrambling and some terrain that I knew would be intense to descend. Greg had no problem at all with the moderate to “hair-raising” scrambling.

2.5 hours up from Wolverine Pass, we finally reached the ridge – almost; our route was blocked by a small, vertical wall of snow. I hacked away enough of it to allow us to squirm our way up to the ridge, where the summit was only a few metres away. We were both quite happy to have reached apex of this infrequently ascended peak.

The summit view was excellent, even with cloudy skies. There were a few clear breaks; evidence that the high pressure was on it’s way – just 6 hours too late! Mountains of the Valley of the Ten Peaks looked so different from this vantage point, when compared to the much closer view experienced two days earlier from Wastach Mountain. The very appropriately named Rockwall was very impressive, as was Mount Gray, with the Tumbling Glacier literally tumbling down Gray’s face. Best of all, I think I got Greg hooked on the “summer, summit soda pop” concept and fully expect him to be dragging his sin of choice up every mountain from now on.

The first section of the descent was slow, but easier than expected, as we managed to find slightly better routes down. Still, there were several “don’t slip here” zones. We also found easier ways down the lower half of mountain by veering off to the right. Improving weather yielded improving views of Wolverine Pass – the high, expansive, larch-infested meadows would be spectacular in the Fall.

Back at the base of the mountain, a 14 km hike awaited us. For that long trek I was again happy to let Greg lead at a pace that made me want to trade my 42 year old set of lungs for his 24 year old pair. Upon reaching the vehicle I was ready for a medic, while I think Greg could have easily repeated the entire trip.

Throughout the day, Greg remained positive and appreciative of the favourable aspects of the trip (there were a couple of moments where I just wanted to cry!) He’s a terrific scrambling partner. Next time, nothing over 31 km and 11.5 hours, I promise Greg!

The first of many bridges along the trail (photo by Greg)