Wapta Mountain II – August 1, 2007
Mountain height:
2778 m
Elevation gain:
1330 m
Ascent time: 4:30
Descent time:
3:15
Scrambling with Raff.
With a start time of 3:20 pm, this was going to have to be an expeditious effort. Fortunately, a good pace, no route-finding issues, and perfect weather made that possible. This was my second time of the mountain, having backed down at the crux 4 year earlier. The scenery was much better than I remembered and the terrain quite varied.
We took different routes up the
crux rock step. Mine started off easy, but eventually came to an impasse and I
had to traverse over to Raff’s ascent route – a much better line.
Admittedly, I found the crux to be very difficult. Getting up it was
straightforward, but as Kane mentions downclimbing this step was going to be far
more challenging. Once up the rock step, an exposed ridgewalk led to us the
summit at 7:15 pm. The summit view was excellent, although I did prefer the view
from my trip up
After a 45 minutes summit stay, we started down at 8 pm. Raff negotiated the downclimb with ease. I didn’t and took an enormous amount of time to get down. Thankfully, Raff was able to assist me by suggesting some moves and foot placements. The rest of the descent was easy and very colourful in the evening light. We arrived back at the car at 11:20 pm. An exhilarating day (evening) out.
Raff ascends the gully; Carnarvon to the left, The Presidents on the right
The summit block
Mount Vaux of Raff and Kevin fame
Raff ascends the crux
Mount Stephen, with The Goodsirs at the distant right
Mount Vaux
Mounts Niles and Daly, with Mount Hector at the distant right
Mount Balfour
Raff at the summit
On descent
The evening sun lights up the rock
Same as above
A partial summit panorama