Noseeum Mountain attempt III

Noseeum Mountain attempt III

May 30, 2009

Roundtrip time: 12 hours

Scrambling, snowshoeing, and a little mountaineering with Mark.

I’m still a little baffled that we failed to make the summit of Noseeum Mountain for the third time in a year, less a day. To avoid our mistake of May 31, 2008, we brought snowshoes with us; to avoid our mistake of August 17, 2008, we didn’t spend 24.5 hours on another mountain, 5 hours previous to the attempt. All the ingredients for a successful ascent were there, but apparently even that was not enough.

Upon completing the more than pleasant hike alongside Noseeum Creek, we chose to loosely follow our ascent route of August 17, on the left side of the first waterfall. Again, the scrambling (on excellent rock) was fun and the waterfall scenery spectacular. This part of the trip alone is worth the effort.

Above the headwall, the snow appeared in force. Mark stepped out onto it and immediately sunk almost to his waist. On with the snowshoes and problem solved. Travel was easy, even though the deep snow was isothermal throughout. Only the hugely disappointing weather decreased our motivation. We were expecting completely clear skies and instead got a “Whole Lotta Cloud”.

We soon reached the ridge and thought success was guaranteed. Attaining the first summit was somewhat of a slog, but rewarded us with fine views, even with the overcast skies. The true summit was about 60 vertical metres higher and just over 1 km further along the ridge. The route description promised no difficulties, but of course that is with snow-free conditions. The snow and cornice scenery did provide some outstanding scenery, looking back at the first highpoint and the first part of the traverse to the true summit was very enjoyable. The upper section of the ascent looked quite daunting, several vertical rock-bands rearing up to impede progress. However, we assumed there would be easy routes through these. We were wrong.

The heavy snow cover required crampons, axes, and we even belayed a few sections. Unfortunately, about 50 vertical metres from the summit, we hit an impasse. The terrain here was very steep and covered in an almost vertical layer of deep snow. I tried to kick steps into the snow but it just caved in. Ascertaining if there was solid rock beneath was impossible. The consequence of slipping here was very bad and the rock was horribly loose. Having marginal confidence in the stability of the boulder I had put a protective sling around, I chose to back down. We then tried several others routes, but all led to dead-ends or drop-offs.

Somewhat disillusioned we turned around, although the dismal weather cushioned that blow a little. The weather did improve, as we took an alternate descent route, highlighting the outstanding snow and mountain scenery around us. Like the aforementioned waterfalls, this made the summit-less trip more than worthwhile.

Given that the first summit was almost as high as the true summit and probably had much the same views, Noseeum IV will probably be a long time coming.

The southwest walls of Noseeum Mountain