North America, Canada, British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies, An Attempt on Mt. Robson

Publication Year: 1952.

An Attempt on Mt. Robson. In July 1951 John Oberlin, A. E. Creswell and Fred Ayres attempted the Schauffelberger arête on Mt. Robson, but turned back at about 11,200 ft. because of dangerous snow conditions. Our high point was 1300 ft. below that reached in 1913 by the Schauffelberger party, the first to try Robson by this route. The latter party was forced to retreat by a snowstorm after attaining an elevation only 400 ft. below the top.

On July 22nd, starting from Berg Lake, we established a high camp at 8200 ft. on the yellow talus bench about half a mile W. of Fan Glacier. On the 23rd, with sleeping bags and a light tarp added to our climbing packs, we crossed Fan Glacier, climbed several hundred feet up talus and snow, and traversed right on scree ledges to the Schauffelberger arête (the S. branch of the “Wishbone”). We then continued up the ridge, at first passing several vertical steps by use of ledges on their right or left sides, but later following the crest rather closely. At about 9000 ft., near the base of a rock tower, we built an oval enclosure of rock slabs and spent the night.

The following day, after caching the sleeping bags, we climbed the ridge, usually on its crest, to the base of a prominent black- streaked yellow wall, where we traversed 400 ft. to the right on a broad talus ledge. Thence we followed ledges and couloirs along the S. side of the ridge and finally regained the crest a few hundred feet below the junction of the two branches of the Wishbone.

After a forced bivouac on a small ledge at about 10,800 ft., we continued upward on the morning of the 25th, but finally halted at 11,200 ft., barely above the Wishbone juncture. We were making slow but steady progress on the snow ridge, which continued upward with no obvious difficulties for another thousand feet of elevation to the beginning of the ice towers. Our only security, however, was provided by a two-inch frozen crust on the snow surface. Beneath was a layer, one to two feet thick, of granular, unconsolidated snow overlying ice or ice-glazed rock. It was only 9.30 A.M., and the weather was perfect; but we decided to retreat before the crust softened in the sunlight which was now falling directly on it. There had been many snow slides from the upper slopes during the two days previous to this.

The descent over the rotten and frequently wet rock of the upper arete was slow. Three or four rappels were made. At six o’clock we were no farther down than the black and yellow wall. Faced with the certain prospect of another night out, we decided to cross over to the snow tongue in the great S.W. couloir, where we had some chance of continuing the descent in semi-darkness. The snow was steep but in reasonably good condition. Numerous snow slides from the upper slopes had gone down the couloir. We were quite impressed by the groove they had cut in the snow tongue. It was fully twelve feet wide and about as deep. Fortunately, we were able to pass through a bottleneck in the couloir before the light failed. Here a judicious selection of route was necessary, to keep us out of the glazed avalanche chute.

By 2.00 A.M. we were willing once more to sit on a rock ledge. Eventually, we found one which would accommodate us on the E. side of the couloir. We dozed there until five o’clock. With return of daylight, we discovered that we were only a short distance above a series of scree terraces. We quickly descended over these to the yellow band, which we then followed back to our camp near Fan Glacier (9.30 A.M., July 26th). The sleeping bags were recovered from the 9000-ft. bivouac later in the day.

Fred D. Ayres