Eon Mountain

Eon Mountain – July 30-31, 2005

Mountain height: 3,310 m (10,857 ft)

Elevation gain: 820 m to bivy site;
1,085 m from bivy to summit

Ascent time: 2:50 from car to bivy site
4:50 from bivy to summit

Descent time: 3:55 from summit to bivy
1:50 from bivy to car

Scrambling/mountaineering with Mark.

I feel sorta’ bad for Eon Mountain. Not only does it fall a mere 43 vertical metres short of the unfortunate and arbitrary (and imperial!) measurement of 11,000 feet, but is sits, constantly in the shadow of its northerly big brother, Mount Assiniboine (3,618 m or 11,871 ft) – forgotten and neglected. Too bad, because not only is Eon an enjoyable ascent in stunning surroundings, but it also has something Mount Assiniboine will never have – an absolutely mind-boggling view of Mount Assinibone!

Making use of Rick Collier’s excellent route description, we decided that a leisurely two-day ascent, with a high bivy would be more enjoyable than the rapid and rushed one-day push. As promised, the bivy site (easily reached in under 3 hours by following Eon Creek) was spectacular – a high alpine meadow with multiple streams and almost completely surrounded by the striking and impressive vertical walls of Aye Mountain and Eon Mountain; Mount Alcantara and Brussilof to the south were also quite stunning.

We started the ascent at 6:45 the following morning under beautifully clear skies. The majority of our ascent route consisted of moderate to difficult scrambling up step-like terrain of good rock. Though there may have been slightly easier routes, we tried to stay near the middle of the major coulior, ascending a few sections that I thought might be difficult to downclimb. Mark led the ascent guiding us up numerous short and enjoyable rockbands. The ascent slope turned out to be very foreshortened and took at least 1.5 longer than I was expecting.

Throughout, the views of Aye Mountain and scenery of Eon Mountain itself had been terrific, however, neither of us were prepared for visual assault perpetrated on us by the mighty Mount Assiniboine, as we finally gained the west ridge. Arriving first, I said to Mark “Oh my God, you’ve got to see this”. His reaction was far more dramatic and in his excitement, I thought he might either accidentally trip and plummet down the airy north side of the mountain or have a schizoid embolism (is there any such thing)! Very simply, the southwest view of the great peak was the most beautiful mountain scene we had ever seen. The usual adjectives – “outstanding”, “fantastic”, “breath-taking”, and “astounding” – really couldn’t do it justice.

After somewhat recovering from the more than pleasant shock of seeing Assiniboine so close–up, we continued up towards the summit ridge. Again, Mark skillfully led, ascending a very steep rockband (one I knew I couldn’t downclimb), that took us to the final ridge. The ridge was short, but quite exposed in places and although I would consider the scrambling to be in the realm of most competent scramblers, I was certainly glad we brought along a rope (and used it!). As expected the summit view was phenomenal, including other arbitrary(?) 11,000ers Harrison, King George, Joffre, Sir Douglas, Temple, and The Goodsirs (at least, I think they were The Goodsirs). Turquoise Gloria Lake and darker Marvel Lake added to the splendor. Or course, numerous Kane scrambles were also visible. We were only the 7^th party to sign the summit register, put there in 1994; the previous party to us making the trip in July of 2002 – as I said, unjustly neglected. We spent a good hour at the windy summit, marveling in the magnificent panorama.

The descent was quite tedious and slow. Thinking there was an easier line closer to the southeast side of the mountain, we headed in that direction, only to end up wandering back and forth across the slope, coming to one dead-end drop-off after another. In the end, we had to traverse all the way back to our original ascent line, downclimbing some of the very terrain we were trying to avoid (actually the downclimbing was quite manageable). We were both exhausted by the time we reached our bivy site and had a last meal, once again enjoying the incredible surrounding scenery, before embarking on a mercifully easy descent to the car. This trip definitely breaks the top 5 of our best trips so far – with Mount Edith Cavell, Mount Lorette, Mount Smuts, and Narao Peak, Eon Mountain is certainly in good company.