New Routes on Monkhead and Llysfran, Maligne Lake. The Iowa Mountaineers’ 1957 summer climbing Base Camp was held at Maligne Lake August 13 to 28, 76 persons participating in the outing. A new route on Monkhead (10,535 feet) was led by Toni Messner, with Hans Gmoser and Allen Auten. The ascent was made by the prominent couloir in the north face, which is visible from Mount Paul. Delicate climbing over a shaly band above the couloir (mud and scree) was required to reach the shelf above the imposing cliffs which surround the peak. They climbed the north glacier and traversed on the east side of the peak to the snow slopes of the southeast side, which led to the summit plateau. Auten suffered a minor knee sprain at this point and waited while Messner and Gmoser completed the ascent. On the return the party skirted the shelf above the lower cliffs in order more completely to scout the peak and to avoid the descent over the shaly band. In this way they reached the gradual slopes near the moraines of Brazeau Glacier. The final return was through woods at the base of the cliffs. The descent was probably the same as that used by the Gibson party in 1950. The round trip time was 14 hours, by a very fast party.

The new route on Llysfran Peak was made by Toni Messner and Warren Pagel, the former leading. They climbed past the lake, called Ultramaligne Lake in the 1939 AAC account, between Mount Julien and the unnamed outlier of Mount Mary Vaux. They then ascended the steep wall between Julien and Llysfran, northeast of the peak. The climbing was difficult, but the rock was sound. A piton was used at one point for security. The ridge was then traversed south over the summit of the peak as a storm was approaching. The descent was made by the headwall southeast of the peak over sections of rotten rock. The round trip time, including the boat trip to the approach point, was 161/2 hours, by a very fast party.

John Ebert