Mount Wilcox II

Mount Wilcox II – October 26, 2008

Mountain height:         2814 m
Elevation gain:            900 m
Ascent time:                4:45
Descent time:              2:25

Mountaineering with Mark.

This started off as an attempt of Cirrus Mountain. The plan was to hike to the bivy location, described by Chic Scott in Summit and Icefields, camp overnight, and then attempt Cirrus early Sunday morning. Unfortunately, we couldn’t leave Calgary until midday on Saturday and thus we were unable to make it to the suggested bivy site. Instead, we set up the tent by the smaller lake, west of Coleman Lake. With a strong west wind, the air temperature was bitterly cold and we were glad to find a relatively sheltered area to spend the night. Even so, the inside of the tent was covered in frost when we awoke at 4:30 Sunday morning to attempt Cirrus.

Our attempt of Cirrus was short lived, as it was too difficult to navigate the terrain by headlamp. The route along the north side of Coleman Lake suddenly ended in cliff-bands and trying to find a route around them was an exercise in futility. Options at this point were to wait until daylight and try again, explore the area, or return to the car to try to salvage the day with another trip. Time restrictions ruled out the first option. The predicted clear weather was definitely motivation for us to make it to a summit and so we chose the third option.

A couple of unnamed summits on the west side of Highway 93 caught our eyes on descent. However, by the time we reached the car, it was obvious that a short ascent would be best. The lateness of the day and our waning energy levels precluded something bigger.

Mount Wilcox was only a short drive away and seemed like a logical choice. I had ascended the peak in the summer of 2002, but Mark had not. My recollection of the trip was that it was relatively short and mostly a hike with some easy hands-on scrambling. Of course, the main draw of this ascent is the terrific view towards the peaks of the Columbia Icefield.

The “easy” part was certainly true for the lower section of the ascent, but once we moved onto the snow-covered ridge and slopes, it became a full-on mountaineering experience. Crampons were essential, the ice axe was useless in the powdery snow, but okay for hooking rocks above, and some rope work was needed for steeper sections. As such, the ascent was slow and required more energy than we both had. We arrived at the summit in a depleted state. As expected the views throughout were incredible, especially with the new snow all around.

After a very brief summit stay, we started down and quickly found an alternate descent route down a snow-filled gully. Mark led us down to the valley and then across the meadows of Wilcox Pass and back to the car in decent time.

Not the pushover we thought it would be, but a very scenic return to a wonderful mountain and even better area.

Cirrus attempt