Canadian Rockies - Lyell Traverse

Kyle and I headed to the Canadian Rockies for our annual climbing trip. As always, the Rockies delivered the goods!

Views in the Rockies

This year, we did not really have a solid plan, but instead decided to sort of wing it. Kyle picked me up in the airport in Calgary and we made our way to Canmore. We spent a night in the luxurious Alpine Club of Canada hostel. Great climber accommodations at a reasonable price!

Alpine club luxury!

 

Views of the Three Sisters from the hostel

We met up with Bryce and Sunny, both former Thunder Bayians who now live a nomadic life style based out of Canmore. They are both MDs and accomplished alpinists who have climbed all over the world. Bryce was psyched to get out with us, and with a little gleam in his proposed a three day adventure onto the remote Lyell glacier. Seemed like a cool adventure, so we piled into Bryce and Sunny's Nissan Xterra and drove a couple of hours from Canmore to Golden, BC. Then onto some logging roads for another 80 Km or so before turning off to the "approach road"

The first crux of the day was getting past the large washout on the approach road. We all got out of the car, and Byrce sized up the difficulties with an expert eye. "It will go" he boldly proclaimed. 

Sizing up the washout

The truck was almost flipped but we made it across! Kudos to Bryce's 4WD skills! After a couple of more truck river crossings we made it to the parking area. We stashed some beer in the creek for after and wrapped the truck in chicken wire to protect it from the critters.

Apparently the XTerra can drive across things like this. Who knew?

Well protected vehicle

 Then started bush-whacking up, eventually picking up the trail leading us onto a bench then towards the glacier. The hike in was about 12 KM, and gained about 6000 feet, I think it took us a total of 8 hours to actually reach the hut on the glacier. 

The approach itself was beautiful and fairly exhausting.

Starting the hike in. Fresh and psyched

 

Which way do we go?

While we hiked in Sunny reflected that we were having a true Rockies experience so far. We were in a remote area, 4WD roads, route finding on the approach all we now needed was a river crossing and a thunder storm.

Next up - river crossing. One of the log bridges was out so we had to ford the river. No problem. While Kyle and I looked around futilely for a way across, the veteran Rockies climbers just strode straight into the river and walked across. Well, good thing I packed extra socks!

Bryce crosses the river

Just below the moraine to the Lyell glacier, we arrived at a stunning bench with a beautiful alpine meadow and waterfalls cascading down a 2000+ foot cliff. Spectacular, words and pictures really don't do the place justice.

Waterfalls galore!

Taking a break in an alpine meadow

Once we reached the moirane the thunder storms arrived. We huddles for shelter under Bryce's tarp while the rains passed and eventually reached the Lyell glacier. 

Traveling across the moirane

Glacier travel

The glacier was pretty mellow, and we arrived at hut just before sunset.

Arriving at the hut

The hut on the Lyell glacier

I was feeling pretty crumby by the time we arrived at the hut. Maybe a combination of exhaustion and mild AMS. I hit the hey pretty early, lucily I felt fine and good to-go by the morning.

The red door

 We had a fairly leisurely start and headed out to climb the Lyells. We dropped back down to the glacier and then made out way through some crevassed terrain towards the peaks. It ended up being MUCH farther than any of us thought, and took a good 4 hours of glacier travel to reach the base of the first peak!!

Kyle and Sunny - on our morning travel on the glacier

Bryce examines the Lyells off in the distance. We had to traverse all the way around to reach them

Avoiding a large crevasse

We arrived at the start of Lyell I, a straight forward snow and ice climb to a 3rd class rock ridge. The crux was pulling over the bergschrund. Sunny took the lead on this one. It was not long before we were on the summit.

Sunny and Bryce on the summit ridge of Lyell I

Kyle is happy to be on the summit

View from the summit of Lyell I

 We retraced our steps down the rocky ridge and then headed over to Lyell II. It was a short easy walk up snow slopes and glacier to the next summit.

Looking towards Lyell II.

We looked over to Lyell III, which was supposed to be easy. It certainly did not look that way from the top of Lyell II! The route looked like steep seracs might block access to the summit ridge.

Lyell III- Sercs guarding the summit

Summit of Lyell II

We headed down Lyell II, towards the third peak. We tromped up the snow slope to the base of the serac. After an aborted attempt to climb a ice step directly, Bryce found a nebulus way up following a snow ramp through the ice.

ramp to the summit

 After a short snow ridge we reached the top of Lyell III.

Kyle on the summit

Summit view from Lyell III.

We enjoyed the sun for a little bit, then headed back down the summit ridge.

Heading down

Bryce is apparently a master at spotting tat, and sure enough he quickly identified a slung rock that we could use to rappel back over the ice cliffs. We backed it up with some new cord, and then rapped back down to the snow slope below the serac.

Rap station

Clean rappel over the serac

The day was getting on, and Lyell IV looked out of shape, so we decided to pack it in and begin the long trudge across the glacier back to the hut.

Heading down

After a long slog back across the glacier, including some tricky navigation though a maze of crevasses we made it back to the hut just before sunset. We enjoyed the luxurious comfort of the hut, cooking a nice meal before hitting the hay.

Hut luxuries

A well earned rest in the hut

The next day we packed it up and began the long hike back to the car. The weather was fantastic so we took a bit of time to enjoy the views of the spectacular alpine meadows and waterfalls below the glacier.

Icefall glacier

Meadows

Sunny enjoys the views of the waterfall

We reached the truck, and enjoyed those stashed beers. We drove out, and reached the final crux of the trip. The washout we had driven through earlier was much much worse, in fact the road had disappeared under the river!

Where did the road go?

Is there a road under there?

Undeterred, Bryce had his biggest 4WD test and managed to get his vehicle through that mess, getting us safely through to the other side. The Xterra almost flipped over and it stalled in the middle of the water, but he made it!

Emerging from the river

We headed back to town and enjoyed another night of Bryce and Sunny's great hospitality. We had an awesome trip into the mountains with them, and I will certainly look them up next time I pass through Canmore.

For the last few days of the trip, Kyle and I explored Canmore (i.e check out various pubs and climbing gear stores). We also made one last quick climb, heading up a super easy bolted route on the appropriately named Mt. Cory. 

Grey limestone on Mt. Cory

Kyle - looking grizzled

It was a short trip, only 6 days, but we certainly packed in the adventure in a short time. As always, my annual climbing trip with my brother was memorable. 

Goodbye Canadian Rockies, until next time...