Lyell 3 (Ernest Peak), Lyell 2 (Edward Peak) and Lyell 1 (Rudolph Peak), Alpine II.

The storm let up mid day Thursday, but the summits of the Lyells were wrapped in clouds. We made a plan to get up early and move before first light and head up the glacier and hopefully get all five summits. Early Friday morning, July 26, Lyells were still wrapped in clouds and raked by high winds, we did the long march up the Lyell Icefield to the base of the 5 Lyells.  

We arrived about 8am, waited in the blasting cold wind until about 9:30, decided to bail and return to camp. I was so disappointed, but the Lyells were so socked in. We kept looking back as we walked down the glacier. About 1 km down the glacier, Lyell 5 (Christian Peak) cleared, we turned and decided to attempt an ascent.  On the slog up, we saw two roped groups of 4 climbers descending the south ridge of Christian Peak, assuming heading back to the hut.

Scott chilling on the glacier,

Our view for 1.5 hours. Is it going to clear?

I think it is clearing... lets go!

As the wind slowly pushed the clouds out, we decided to start with a climb of Lyell 3 (Ernest Peak) and see how the weather worked out. Eventually we gained the 2/3 col and summitted 3 (Ernest) with clouds and limited views.

We dropped back to the col, up to the summit of 2 (Edward Peak) and then onto 1 (Rudolph Peak).  All easy glacier climbing on snow. After descending back to the main glacier, we decided it was too late in the day to continue onto 4 or 5 and returned back to our camp near Arctomys Peak.  Saturday July 27 we hiked out via Glacier River and Lake to the highway, long haul with mostly rain.  Great adventure for my Cali pal.

Summit view from Lyell 3 to north ridge of Lyell 4.

Summit selfie on Lyell 3.

Scott on the summit of Lyell 2, Lyell 1 in near distance.

View to Lyell 3 (r) and Lyell 4 (l) from Lyell 2 summit.

View to Lyell 5 (l) and 4 (r).

From summit ridge of Lyell 1, view back to Lyell 2 and 3. 

Lyell Icefield approach, Arctomys Peak

Wow, what an epic trip, huge ups and downs in weather and expectations, a real adventure. My Californian buddy Scott, expert in Sierra Nevada alpine climbing, was keen for a Canadian Rockies adventure. I planned a 6 to 7 day trip to the Lyell Icefield, hoping to traverse the five Lyells and, if conditions/weather permitted, extend the trip northwestward to Farbus or Oppy (this extension of the trip was inspired by Vern Dewitt’s and Steven Song’s 2015 Farbus ascent). We approached via Glacier Lake/River to the eastern edge of the massive Lyell Icefield. The last, and only, time I was at Glacier Lake was when I climbed Mt. Forbes, in 1994, 25 years ago!! 

View to Mt. Forbes and Lyell meadows.

The trail to the east end of Glacier Lake is a highway, and easy travel, except when you are carrying food for 7 days and a pile of rock gear. Big packs were slowing us down, but spirits were high, high like the hot temperatures. Soon after leaving the western end of lake, hiking along the beautiful Glacier River, the trail disappears. We made the mistake of following some flagging into the thick trees along the edge of the flat river valley.  Wasted a pile of energy and time trying to stay on this overgrown trail. On the hike out we stayed closer to the river, on the flats, and the travel was much better. When we got near the lake at the toe of lhe lower South East Lyell Glacier we got off track. We misread the description in the Corbett guidebook, the moraine is the big huge, ancient moraine, not the minor little ridge of scree we took into the trees. We found the proper old trail on the way down, but it is very overgrown and parts of the moraine are collapsing making it interesting. This trail is well packed in, but little shrubs and trees have thick branches blocking the trail. The proper trail has many sections in the steeper trees where blow down has wiped out the trail.  On the way up, we just straight line bush bashed up, pure hell. 

South East Lyell Glacier. Nearing the lake at the toe of the lower glacier.
The trail is on the top of the huge moraine, Above the hoodoos, just right of the centre
of the photo. Is overgrown and sections collapsing, several upper steep tree sections are gone. 

Scott trying to cool over in the heat of the day.

Was very happy when we finally arrived at Lyell Meadows. We camped high in the upper meadows, just below Arctomys Peak. Morning of July 23 we broke camp, hauled our heavy packs most of the way to the summit of Arctomys Peak.  Incredible view from the summit of Acrtomys, and a huge summit cairn. We hiked over to the edge of the Icefield, great views to Mt. Forbes. With the heat we decided to wait until early Wednesday morning to get on the Lyell Icefield, but Tuesday night the weather crapped out. During the heat of the afternoon on Tuesday we tried to stay cool, but the lack of shade made this tough. We found an old wind wall made of rock along the ridge above the glacier. We fortified and added more height to the wall.  Since we had the time, I made a deluxe mini wind wall for the stove. The extra wind protection came in helpful since all day Wednesday we were absolutely hammered by wind, I could say gusts over 100km and constants winds around 60 to 80km, all with pouring, pouring rain, for over 24 hours. 

View to the shapely summit of Arctomys Peak.

OSWB on the summit of Arctomys Peak.

Scott by summit cairn. 

Summit view down Arctomys Creek and the
Valley of Lakes. 

Lyell summits and glacier.

Huge waterfall off glacier.

Lyell Icefield and the five summits of the Lyell group.
Most left Christian Peak (5), Walter Peak (4), Ernest Peak (3), Edward Peak (2) and most right, Rudolph Peak (1).

Mt. Glasgow, Mt. Cornwall to Outlaw Peak Traverse - Scramble

Saturday June 1. Great day out on the Mt. Glasgow/Mt. Cornwall/Outlaw Peak/Banded Peak traverse with John. I did this traverse in June of 1993. Way back then the only published route description was the newly released Alan Kane guidebook, “Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies”. The standard Kane approach to the traverse is to ascend the west ridge of Glasgow with approach from the Little Elbow Trail and a drainage north and west of Glasgow. The standard exit from the traverse was from the Outlaw/Banded Peak col, south to into the Outlaw Creek, then back to the Big Elbow Trail.  Over the intervening decades, several variations have been completed by a variety of hikers and scramblers.

John had completed the traverse more recently (2015) and we were both looking for a longish day for some spring training.  John’s last trip took an approach and return trail that shortens the overall distance from the original Kane traverse route, and allowed mountain bikes to be used for both of some of the approach and the return to the car. This route uses the Big Elbow Trail for about 3 km to the intersection with South Glasgow Creek, then up South Glasgow Creek, up towards the Glasgow side of the Glasgow/Cornwall col. The intended return was down the north aspect of Banded Peak to the drainage, one south of South Glasgow Creek, then back to the Big Elbow Trail.

Beautiful spring day with clear skies when we left the parking area on our bikes about 6:30 in the morning. Quick time on the wet trail to the stash for our bikes at South Glasgow Creek. No real trail up the creek, but travel was mostly easy. Eventually a trail takes one up slope to bypass a canyon with waterfalls.  Since it was warm, and we recently had snow and rain, the creek was raging, upstream of the canyon we had to jump the creek several times, but overall very easy approach. At the base of the scree slog from the creek to the col, we had a nice break, admiring the steep and impressive cliffs below the east ridge of Mt. Cornwall.  Mt. Cornwall looked very inviting for some spring turns.

Heading up South Glasgow Creek, view to creek canyon and on the horizon,
Mt. Glasgow (right).

Further upstream, Mt. Cornwall on left, Mt. Glasgow on right.
The long (1000m+) scree slope is visible on Glasgow.
We head to a low point, right of centre.

John jumping the creek.

Views to Cornwall and its outlier east ridge, impressive cliffs.

Enjoying the view.

Blasted up about 1100 metres of fairly manageable scree to reach a point above the low col between Glasgow and Cornwall. Part way up John had noticed a group of three hikers/scramblers moving up the ridge line that separates Glasgow and South Glasgow Creeks. Once we reached the point above the col, John was hurting, he was experiencing some rather unpleasant digestive system issues. We rested a bit at the col, but eventually John stayed and I “ran” up to the summit of Glasgow. Nearing the summit, I meet a group of three trail runners descending from the summit. They we all travelling very light, and making great time, we had a quick chat, then we went our separate ways.  The group of three intended to do the full 4 summit traverse, but were concerned about the amount of snow, eventually they cruised the traverse at high speed. 

West side of the small steep bump on the south ridge of Glasgow.
Meet the 3 runners just above this section.

Final easy walk up south summit ridge of Mt. Glasgow.

Summit selfie on Mt. Glasgow.
26 years later, I am back baby!

On my way down south ridge of Glasgow.
View to Cornwall and Outlaw.

View back to Glasgow from col towards Cornwall

I tagged the summit right at noon, looked quickly for a register, didn’t find one, and descended.  When I reached John he was napping. Poor guy was not doing well. He wanted to bail and return immediately to the car.  I being selfish, suggested we have lunch, rest a bit, then take a casual stroll to the summit of Mt. Cornwall.  John, being a nice guy, agreed. Soon we were following a great trail set by the trail runners to the summit of Cornwall.  John wasn’t his usually fast self, and we took our time to the summit of Cornwall.  Poor John didn’t feel great, but agreed to continue towards Outlaw. 

John with Glasgow behind.

View up to snowy Cornwall.

Snow trail up Cornwall.

View back to Glasgow.

Final summit ridge on Cornwall.

View to the Opals. Left, long summit ridge of Mt. Tombstone (proper north summit).
Middle, two "Cats Ears", right Mt. Jerram and Mt. Burney.

John slogging up to summit of Cornwall.

Elpoca Mountain.
I did a new route on the north side (this aspect) with Scott Berry back in 2017.

Summit of Cornwall.

View to Outlaw Peak descending Cornwall.

John on Cornwall.

Nearing Outlaw Peak.

Banded Peak now visible, far left summit.

View back to Cornwall as we near Outlaw.

John nearing summit of Outlaw, Cornwall and Glasgow behind.

Snowy summit of Outlaw Peak.

OSWB and John on summit of Outlaw.

Great views back to Cornwall and Glasgow.

Mt. Rae looks so bad ass from here.

View to Banded Peak from Outlaw.

Banded Peak from col.

Descend trail on Outlaw Peak.
Daytime heating causing some major snow sluffs on this slope.

We enjoyed the fine views as we reached the flats below Outlaw. John was still hurting but we plodded on. Over Outlaw and down towards Banded Peak. Near the low point John rested, he was not doing well, I agreed with John that we should just take the easiest way out, down the standard Kane described exit, and head immediately into Outlaw Creek. I took a pass on Banded Peak (been there, done that ;-).

As we descend, all the snow melt meant that the alpine creeks were raging, cool to see. John felt better was we headed down.  Soon past the mini headwall with raging alpine creeks, we found an excellent monster trail down Outlaw Creek (I suspect leftover from the now defunct “Banded Peak Challenge” event).  Soon we reached the Big Elbow Trail and began the plod out.

Extra special fun on the hike out of Big Elbow; we found a nice new bridge over the Elbow River, but about 3 km later, no bridge over the now raging river. Since between the two crossings, both sides of the river have a trail, some warning should be provided at the upstream bridge.  THANKS ALBERTA GOVERNMENT. 

Lots of water in the alpine. This was a small waterfall.

Small mini headwall in upper Outlaw Creek.
Outlaw Peak behind.



Bridge out !

We walked about 600 metres downstream where the river spread out a bit and found a safe section to cross; only knee deep. A few more km’s, got the bikes and headed back to John’s SUV.  All in, about 14 hours of fun; thank you to John for letting me bag some summits when you were feeling rough.  Fun day out.