Climbs & exploration in the Canadian Rockies

Prefatory Note

The authors' thanks are due to the Council of the Royal Geographical Society for permission to reproduce Professor Collie's map of the Canadian Rockies from the Geogi^aphical Journal ; to Messrs. William Blackwood and Sons for leave to make excerpts from an article by Mr. Stutfield that appeared in Blackwood s Magazine ; and to Mr. Hermann Woolley and Mr. Sydney Spencer for the use of their admirable photographs.

Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I. Historical ....... 1

II. Ascent of Lefroy and Victoria ; and the

Chapter II Ascent Of Lefroy And Victoria ; And The Waputehk Ice-field

Towards the end of July, 1897, a strong mountaineering party was assembled at Glacier House, in the Selkirk range, west of the Rocky Mountains. The party consisted of Messrs. C. E. Fay, A. Michael, Rev. C. L. Noyes, H. B. Dixon, H. C. Parker, J. R. Vanderlip, J. N. Collie, and Peter Sarbach (a Swiss guide). Several peaks in the Selkirk range had been ascended, but a wish to conquer the higher summits of the main chain drew them eastwards to Laggan, where they were joined by C. S. Thompson, one of the most enthusiastic of the pioneers of mountaineering amongst the ranges of both the Selkirks and the Rockies. Most of the party belonged to the Appalachian Club of Boston ; and it is due to members of this club and to other Americans from the States that mountaineering as a recreation was first undertaken amongst the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

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THE ASCENT OF LEFROY

It was on August 3rd, the anniversary of Abbot's death, that we started from the chalet at Lake Louise, to cHmb Mount Lefroy. This chalet has been built by the Canadian Pacific Railway for the convenience of those who wish to see Lake Louise, one of the most beautiful mountain tarns in the world.

As we step out of the chalet into the brilliant starlight, at that early hour which is necessary when a long day's climb is before one, it would be impossible to find in the Alps, or elsewhere, a more peaceful scene. The stars above shine with a clear steady light, and the entire absence of twinkling foreshadows fine weather. A few yards away lies the lake, reflecting perfectly the luminous snows of Mounts Lefroy and Victoria amongst the black shadows of the pine-trees and the mirrored stars. Across its placid waters we are carried by a rowing-boat through the dark chasm in the hills : the silence is unbroken ; one seems to be travelling through some forgotten land, a land of old romance, where high above, perched on the almost inaccessible crags, is the castle of the lord of the valley, a land where knights in armour rescue fair ladies from imprisonment, and roam abroad in search of perilous adventures.

But after disembarking in the darkness that heralds the dawn, one is soon disillusioned, and swamps, tangled thickets of alder, fallen trees, and huge stones dispel any poetic fancies. Just as the dawn was breaking the end of the glacier was reached. The route lay straight up the ice towards a great gateway of the hills that lies between Mounts Victoria and Lefroy. This narrow passage has been called "The Death - Trap," for during the early summer, and in years when much snow lies on the mountains, it is a dangerous place to venture into, on account of the avalanches that fall from Lefroy on one side and Victoria on the other. The description of the remainder of the expedition is given in Professor H. B. Dixon's words : ^ —

"Passing the two snow couloirs which descend from chimneys in the north-west cliff, we entered the so-called * Death-Trap ' — a mde slope of snow leading up at an easy angle to Abbot Pass. As we breasted the slope we were met by several small erratic pieces from the upper rocks of Lefroy, which came skipping down the snow with unpleasant velocity, giving us an early warning of the unstable state of the

1 ^''Alpine Journal" (Harold B. Dixon), vol. xix. p. 103.

i8

THE ASCENT OF LEFROY

limestone ledges above. After five hours' steady going we stepped on to the narrow ridge which joins Lefroy with Victoria, and caught our first view of the precipices of Hungabee and Goodsie to the south. The aneroid gave our height as 4200 feet above Lake Louise, 9800 feet above sea-level.

" From the col our route upwards was in plain view. The steep slope was snow-covered, except where the limestone ledges cropped out, roughly marking off the ascent into three sections. The slope is best seen from opposite on Mount Victoria. Having breakfasted, we roped up in three parties and struck straight up the snow to the first patch of rocks. The slope gradually steepened as we rose, but the snow was good, and we could kick firm steps in it. After a steady grind we reached the rocks, which proved to be both steep and rotten. For a few minutes we enjoyed the variation of wriggling our bodies over the ledges, though it would have been quicker to go round. The buttress of rock held up the snow above it at a more favourable angle for a little distance, but the slope soon became severer than before. As we approached the second patch of rocks great care became necessary. A bad slip would have been difficult to check, and our path now lay above the south-western precipices. On reaching the second rocks we passed up a snow couloir near their right extremity, and found ourselves on the steepest part of the face, lying at an angle of 60°. Above us to the right frowned the cliff which Abbot had tried to scale. Between us and that cliff the snow no longer gave a foothold. It loosely plastered the steep ice-slope, and the rocks showed in patches through the surface. But against the outcrop of rock, which formed an overhanging cliff on our left, the snow still clung firmly, filling the angle between rock and ice. We crept round a ledge of snow beneath the overhanging rock, and then kicked a ladder up the snow till the top of the cliff was gained. The steps held, but we had a distinctly uneasy feeling that we might not find them so firm on our return, after the sun had been on them for a few hours. From the top of the cliff a little arete of snow led upwards at a gentler slope to the corniced ridge of the mountain, and at 11 a.m. we clambered on to one of the two rocky prominences (some fifty yards apart) which form the highest points of Mount Lefroy. The aneroid gave the height as 11,600 feet above the sea, but the mercury barometer brought it down to 11,420 feet.

THE ASCENT OF LEFROY

" The air was beautifully clear — for the forests to the west had been singularly free from fires during the summer. Two mushroom-like patches were visible on the northern horizon ; the stem produced by the heated column of smoke which flattens out as it cools. Of the mountains near at hand the most striking is Hungabee, which offers a first-rate problem to climbers. Looking at it from the commanding height of Lefroy, none of us could suggest an even probable line of attack. Away to the south-east the black precipices of Mount Assiniboine were distinctly visible. To the north Mount Balfour, rising from the great W aputekh snow-field attracted greater interest, for we hoped to conquer it in the next few days. The thought of our snowladder gradually melting in the sun cut short our enjoyment of the summit.

" We descended easily to the end of the arete, where, planting an axe firmly in the snow, we paid out an extra rope (with a turn round the axe) attached to each man as he stepped cautiously down the ladder.

" Sitting on the arete, I had leisure to study the broken cliff opposite, where Abbot fell, and to fit together the accounts of the accident with the configuration of the rock. The chimney which he climbed up is near the profile of the cliff. At the top of the first part of the chimney a snow-covered ledge bears to the left ; on this Professor Little stood. Abbot continued the climb up the chimney, now seen slightly to the left of the line of the lower portion. The chimney ends at a ledge cut off by a few feet of steep rock from the snow-slope above. Abbot must either have attempted to climb this rock or to work round on the ledge. Neither course would appear to present any difficulty to a man who could climb the long chimney below, had the rock been firm. But the limestone rock which crops out on this face is extremely rotten. I can feel no doubt that a rock gave way suddenly with his weight, just as he was pulling himself to the top of the cliff. He had taken to the rocks to avoid slip-cutting in the ice.

" From the top rocks downwards we were mighty polite to the snow on Mount Lefroy. I cannot speak for all the party, but I know that three men, including Sarbach, came down 1500 feet with their faces to the mountain. A final glissade down the lower slope landed us on the col at 3 p.m. Thence a rapid descent of two and a half hours brought us to Lake Louise."

THE BOW VALLEY

Two days later a small party, consisting of Fay, Michael, Collie, and Sarbach, again under the brilliant stars, rowed across the lake, this time to attack Mount Victoria. Much better progress was made than before, for the best route to take was known. Following the glacier up through the huge gateway between Lefroy and Victoria, Abbot's Pass was soon reached. Here, turning to the right instead of to the left, as had been done on the ascent of Lefroy, height was rapidly gained by climbing a series of small terraces of excessively rotten rocks. During occasional halts, the snow-slope of Lefroy, up which the larger party had so laboriously toiled forty-eight hours previously, could be seen, now converted by the two days' fine weather into an ice - slope, which, further off to the right, fell away with great steepness to the head of the O'Hara Valley. The long arete of Mount Victoria, that can be seen against the sky from the chalet at Lake Louise, was soon reached. The climbing along the arete was not difficult but required care, and it was only the last five hundred feet that were at all narrow. About midday, after breaking many steps in soft snow, the summit was finally reached — a small pinnacle of snow, 11,500 feet above sea-level.

From there all sorts of signals were made to inform the visitors at the chalet that Mount Victoria had been conquered. However, it turned out that not only had they missed all the signals, but had failed even with a good telescope to see any one on the summit of the mountain. This failure on their part naturally suggests the extremely uncertain nature of danger-signals on mountains ; for, supposing that an accident had overtaken the party, and reliance been placed on the signals produced by the sun and an empty sardine-box as a mirror for conveying the message to the bottom of the mountain, succour would doubtless have been a long time in arriving. The view to the south and west is across a sea of jagged rockpeaks, the most prominent being Hungabee, Goodsir, and Ball, whilst further away to the south-east rises the black rock -pyramid of Assiniboine.

On August 7th G. P. Baker joined the party,

and with men, horses, and an outfit we made a

start up the Bow Valley with the intention of

climbing Mount Balfour. From the Bow Valley,

however, Balfour is invisible ; therefore it was

impossible to know how far up the valley it was

necessary to go before striking into the moun-

THE BOW VALLEY

tains. But, before telling how we entirely missed Mount Balfour and climbed Mount Gordon instead, the experiences of our first afternoon in a Canadian forest with horses are worth narrating. As one looks back one blushes for the utter incompetence shown. But in those days we were unacquainted with many mysterious things that afterwards became obvious ; in those days we were " raw hands."

Peyto (our head-man), with the rest of the men and most of the ponies, had started early in the morning, and had gone ahead up what was, for convenience of speech, called " the trail." Later in the day we came down to Laggan from the chalet with the remainder of the baggage, finding three ponies that Peyto had left. If it had not been for the help of a man at Laggan railway station we could never have satisfactorily tied on all the impedimenta that we wished to take with us. To pack an Indian pony and finish off all neatly with a good tight diamond hitch is an accomplishment possessed by few ; it is only after long experience that the art is acquired. Although one thinks that the rope has been thrown, twisted, and looped properly, the moment the tightening-up process begins the knots carefully undo themselves, and another trial is necessary.

The ponies having been packed a start was made, and soon we were in the midst of miles of fallen timber that lay heaped in every direction. In one place we could count more than a dozen trees piled like spillikins one above the other. Peyto had carefully " blazed " the trail, and, as the party was large, comparatively rapid progress was made, for, should one of us miss the way, another at once found it. But it necessitated an enormous amount of jumping for both the over-laden ponies and ourselves. Gradually we worked ourselves free from this belt of fallen timber, getting into more open ground ; but it was only a change of troubles, for now endless swamps or " muskegs " filled the flat open spaces of the valley. Here the " blazes " stopped, and, following some upright sticks of wood (that we afterwards found had to do with the railway survey up the valley), the tracks of the other animals were soon missed, and we got lost, floundering about helplessly trying to find a way through. Several times the luckless ponies, dead tired and over-laden, had sunk up to their bellies in the soft

marshy ground, but with much kicking and

THE BOW VALLEY plunging had just managed to get out again. At last the sun went down, then the daylight disappeared, and finally the moon came out, and the whole party and the horses were still in that muskeg.

So an attempt was made to get to the forest at the side of the valley, but one of the ponies at last got so deep into a hole that only with difficulty was he prevented from vanishing altogether. The situation was apparently quite hopeless. The pack with difficulty was rescued from his back by cutting the ropes ; then, by the help of an Alpine rope and much pulling, finally he also was rescued. Professor Fay in the meantime had pushed on up the valley, and reached the camp at about eleven o'clock. Just when we thought we should have to sit in the water all night we were found by Peyto and his dog. The ponies had to be left where they were for the night with the dog to take care of them ; and we, under Peyto's guidance, wading through everjrthing, got safely into camp a little after midnight.

On the morrow the ponies and baggage were fetched. We also had a long discussion whether we should try and find Mount Balfour at the

head of the Upper, or the Lower, Bow Lake.

We decided in the end for the Upper Bow Lake, and, as so often is the case when it is merely a toss-up, the decision was WTong. Next evening found us camped by the Upper Bow Lake in a beautiful open country, and surrounded by fine hills and glaciers. Our attempt to ascend Mount Balfour from this camp, although a failure, furnished a most delightful day — at least up to the time when Thompson sought to investigate the lower layers of the ice-sheet that covers Mount Gordon, by falHng head-first down a deep crevasse. Early in the expedition great battle was done with the ice-fall that descends from the higher snow-fields towards the Upper Bow Lake. One party with fine, if unnecessary, courage, cut its way through the centre of the ice-fall, whilst the other, under the guidance of Sarbach, basely refused the encounter and fled along sideways to where they could ignominiously skirt round the end and, with the minimum expenditure of energy, flank the foe. Coming out on to this upper snow-field, a charming snow- clad peak was seen to the south, apparently not diflicult of ascent ; obviously Mount Balfour ! Accordingly ofl" the whole party started across the nearly level

snows for the lower slopes of the mountain.

THE WAPUTEHK SNOW-FIELD

The summit was reached by climbing up the eastern arete ; but alas ! four miles away to the south was the real Mount Balfour, and between lay a deep gulf. Still it had been a most delightful climb over a hitherto untrodden piece of ice-field ; and certainly no one had been to the summit of Mount Gordon before. The height was 10,600 feet. As usual, in every direction lay a perfect sea of snow-clad peaks, with hardly a name to any of them. Professor Fay, however, suggested that there was a mountain, supposed to be very high and named Murchison, somewhere towards the north. It had been seen by Dr. Hector forty years before. So a splendid pyramid-shaped peak, obviously higher than the rest, was picked out, and it was concluded that this was Mount Murchison. More to the west a flatter-topped mountain, somewhat nearer, was given the name Mount Mummery.

Some time was spent on the top, but, as

there was another summit about a third of a

mile to the westward, several of the party

started off for it. It was dome-shaped and

covered with snow, the first peak consisting of

an out-crop of limestone rocks. It was near

the top of the second peak that Thompson very nearly ended his mountaineering experiences. Not far from this second summit a huge crevasse partially covered with snow had to be crossed. All the party had passed over but Thompson, who unfortunately broke through and at once disappeared headlong into the great crack that ran perpendicularly down into the depths of the glacier. Those of the party who were stiU on the first peak saw their friends gesticulating in the far distance, but did not take much notice until Sarbach drew their attention to the fact that there were only four people instead of five to be seen : some one therefore, must have fallen down a crevasse. A race across the almost level snow then took place, Sarbach being easily first. Although Thompson was too far down to be seen, yet he could be heard calling for help and saying that, although he was not hurt, he would be extremely grateful to us if we would make haste and extricate him from the awkward position he was in, for he could not move and was almost upside down, jammed between the two opposing sides of the crevasse.

It was obvious that every second was of importance ; a stirrup was made in a rope, and CoUie, being the lightest member of the party —

THE ASCENT OF GORDON

and, withal, unmarried — was told to put his foot into it, whilst he was also carefully roped round the waist as well. Then he was pushed over the edge of the abyss, and swung in mid-air. To quote his description : "I was then lowered into the gaping hole. On one side the ice fell sheer, on the other it was rather undercut, but again bulged outwards about eighteen feet below the surface, making the crevasse at that point not much more than two feet wide. Then it widened again, and went down into dim twihght. It was not till I had descended sixty feet, almost the whole available length of an eighty foot rope, that at last I became tightly wedged between the two walls of the crevasse, and was absolutely incapable of moving my body. My feet were close to Thompson's, but his head was further away, and about three feet lower than his heels. Face downwards, and covered with fallen snow, he could not see me. But, after he had explained that it was entirely his own fault that he was there, I told him we would have him out in no time. At the moment I must say I hardly expected to be able to accomplish anything. For, jammed between two slippery walls of ice, and only able to move my arms, cudgel my brains as I would, I could not think what was to be done. I shouted for another rope. When it came down I managed to throw one end to Thompson's left hand, which was waved about, till he caught it. But, when pulled, it merely dragged out of his hand. Then with some difficulty I managed to tie a noose on the rope by putting both my hands above my head. With this I lassoed that poor pathetic arm which was the only part of Thompson that could be seen. Then came the tug-of-war. If he refused to move, I could do nothing more to help him ; moreover I was afraid that at any moment he might faint. If that had occurred I do not believe he could have been got out at all, for the force of the fall had jammed him further down than it was possible to follow. Slowly the rope tightened, as it was cautiously pulled by those above. I could hear my heart thumping in the ghastly stillness of the place, but at last Thompson began to shift, and after some short time he was pulled into an upright position by my side. To get a rope round his body was of course hopeless. Partly by wriggling and pulling on my own rope I so shifted that by straining one arm over my head I could get my two hands together, and then tied the best

THE ASCENT OF GORDON

and tightest jamming knot I could think of round his arm, just above the elbow. A shout to the rest of the party, and Thompson went rapidly upwards till he disappeared round the bulge of ice forty feet or more above. I can well remember the feehng of dread that came over me lest the rope should slip or his arm give way under the strain, and he should come thundering down on the top of me ; but he got out all right, and a moment later I followed. Most marvellously no bones had been broken, but how any one could have fallen as he did without being instantaneously killed will always remain a mystery. He must have partially jammed some considerable distance higher up than the point where 1 found him, for he had a riick-sack on his back, and this perhaps acted as a brake, as the walls of the crevasse closed in lower down. We were both of us nearly frozen and wet to the skin, for ice-cold water was slowly dripping the whole time on to us ; and in my desire to be as Uttle encumbered as possible, I had gone down into the crevasse very scantily clad in a flannel shirt and knickerbockers."

A rapid descent to the head of the ice-fall quickly restored circulation, and that night over the camp fire the whole experience was gone

CLIMBS AND EXPLOKATION over again, Thompson emphatically giving it as his opinion that, whatever scientific exploration or observation in future might be necessary on the summits of the Rocky Mountains, investigations made alone, sixty feet below the surface of the ice, in an inverted position, were extremely dangerous and even unworthy of record.

Next day the party returned to the lower Bow Lake. Here Dixon left for Banff and the British Association meeting at Toronto, Sarbach remaining with Baker and Collie.

An unsuccessful attempt to climb Mount Balfour in unsatisfactory weather was made up the glacier that flows towards the lower Bow Lake, the party returning by a new route past two exquisitely beautiful mountain tarns, one, the highest, being the colour of turquoise, the lower being sapphire blue.

After this the party went back to Banff, and it was not till the next year, 1898, that Messrs. Thompson, Noyes, and G. M. Weed succeeded in climbing Mount Balfour, the highest peak in the Waputehk district of the Rocky Mountains. The account of the ascent is delightfully written by the Rev. Charles L. Noyes in " Appalachia," vol. ix.. No. 1, p. 29 :—

" By rising at three we had time to prepare 34

THE ASCENT OF BALFOUR and eat a comfortable breakfast, and get off byfour. A diagonal course, stabbing up over the ridge intervening between the bottom of the Lower Bow Lake and the outlet of Margaret brought us to that lake by the easiest route.

" The sun had not yet touched its waters into beauty, and they lay a cold sombre blue. It may have been six o'clock when we were climbing the screes at the head of the lake, and after seven, when, by the one rock ladder we scaled the wall above, and came over the outer rim of Lake Turquoise — * a joy for ever.' It was not far from eight when we stopped for food at the foot of the glacier above. Mr. Nichols had left us at Turquoise. He was feeling the effects of a blow on the spine, got in a fall on a slippery rock whilst bathing in Lake Katherine. It did not seem to him wise to risk the strain of a longer climb ; and there was so much to charm and occupy in the beauties of Turquoise Lake and its setting that he proposed to spend the day about there, and bade us God-speed, with a solemn injunction that we should meet him at six o'clock above the verge of the lake to go down the ladder together. The passage of the glacier was this year a delicate operation, taking some ingenious warping among crevasses, and light stepping over bridges, which needed but to melt a little more to almost cut off access to the neve above. This gained, full in view beyond it, broadside to us, rose the magnificent mass of Balfour. The difficulties of approach, which we had foreseen looking down from Vulture Col, byno means vanished. The final ridge, however, looked hopeful, promising us, if once on it, a clear way to the summit ; but how to reach the ridge ? Well to the south was the most encouraging route in view. Rising almost to the crest was a tongue of snow, but it was suspiciously gashed, and once upon the ridge, there was no surety that the way would not be barred by cornices or precipitous breaks. The prospect was too doubtful to waste time in considering, and without slackening our steps we pressed on over the neve to the gateway at the south, which would let us through to the western side, where we had reason to hope we might find more level and stable snow, giving access to the final ridge. It was eleven o'clock when we broke over the divide, and the change of worlds of vision, always thrilling in such a crossing, was grandly so in this case. To the south rose, near and imposing, Niles and Daly, like mammoth walruses, lifting their black heads above the ice, and thrusting

THE ASCENT OF BALFOUR

their great snouts towards us ; between them the neve sloped down to some glaciers, and by them to the west rolled a vast snow-field toward the ravine of the Wapta, that enormous rent between the mountains, gathering into its bosom the immense volume of melted snow poured down from all the neves streaming off the western side of Balfour and Gordon, ColHe, and Habel, to the north ; and over beyond from the hither slopes of another system of mountains that filled the prospect to the horizon west and south. For all this we hardly had eyes at first ; they were turned instantly toward our goal; and then they ran over a clear reach of snow leading to a ridge curving off from the main arete to the left, above which, fore-shortened, could be seen the summit. As it seemed readily attainable, only the nonchalance of our tones betrayed our excitement as we remarked, * We're going to make it ! ' We did make it, but it took four hours. The offshoot ridge once gained, there was along its curve an even, almost level, way to the backbone of the mountain. On this main arete there was more difficulty ; a V-shaped cleft promised to block the passage altogether, but we circumvented it by stabbing down to the screes and snow below, and diagonally up again, over unstable and tricky footing, and with unreliable hand-holds on friable rock, all done without slip or danger, up to a depression in the ridge, where greeted us a reviving view Hector-ward, and a pool of water made by the snow-shelf on the eastern side, melting against the warm rocks. This invited to a final lunch, refreshed by which we rose for our last hour's climb to a height much greater than Balfour — the summit of our summer's adventure and success.