Mount Erickson attempt – December 3, 2006       

Roundtrip time: 8 hours

Wading through majorly deep snow with Mark.

In an effort to avoid a potentially nasty-looking weather system coming in from the northwest, we changed our plans in the morning and zipped down to Crowsnest Pass to attempt Mount Erickson (an idea we got from Bob Spirko’s website). Things were looking pretty good for a while. The weather was clear down south and the mountains were beautiful under a fresh layer of snow. Further west the sky was cloudier, but we figured it was typical early morning cloud and would quickly dissipate.

Right from the start of the ascent we found our progress to be very slow due to the surprisingly deep snow. We rationalized that once above tree line the wind would probably have blown the upper slopes clear of snow and so we kept going….and going….and going….and going. The travel was some of the most grueling we’ve ever encountered. And painfully slow too. Our horizontal progress towards the summit was estimated at a pathetically dismal 1 km per 2 hours – now that’s slow!

Unfortunately, we had neglected to bring our snowshoes and the snow only got deeper as we got higher: from knee, to mid-thigh, to waist deep at times. The weather also completely broke down and soon we were in a whiteout. We slogged on, taking in some pretty startling winter scenery in the forms of the tall trees around us completely weighted down with a huge amount of snow.

6 hours into the trip, GPS revealed we had made about 3 km of horizontal progress towards the summit, with 2 more to go. At that rate, our ascent time would have been approximately 10 hours – not what we were predicting for a relatively short day on a small mountain. We continued on for another 30 minutes, reaching a highpoint that seemed to mark the treeline. Visibility was still low and we were both absolutely exhausted. After a 5 minute rest, we started down, hoping the descent would be considerably easier and faster. It was both, but travel, even going down, was strenuous.

The one highlight of the descent, and perhaps the whole trip for that matter, was arriving at a small clearing to see a most prominent and unusual ray of sunlight streaming down from a break in the clouds. A physically brutal and somewhat bizarre day.             

An early morning look at Turtle Mountain

Not the kind of weather we were expecting, but it did create some interesting scenery

In the trees and looking for a way out

Mark slogs up one of a few open areas on the ridge

Same as above

The snow-covered trees were one of the few highlights of the day 

Wading through the deep snow was not!

More trees

More deep snow

Another tree

Almost at the end of the line

A break in the clouds allows a narrow beam of light to break through. 

Same as above

Same as above

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