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 Mount Ogden , 24 hours earlier. The sky was a little cloudy for that ascent, but stunningly clear for our Wapta ascent.

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

 

Sonny's yellow band

 

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

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