Mts. Mistaya and Wilcox

In late August, Chris and I led an ACC trip to Mt. Mistaya.  It's not in any guidebooks but boy it should be!  The area around Cauldron Lake is pretty sick, and Peyto Peak's prominent couloir is now on my to-do list next season.

Descending down to Peyto Lake in the morning

Cauldron Lake is hidden away from the Peyto Glacier/Lake area by a large headwall (with a sweet waterfall coming down off of it).  Because the bridge across the creek draining the glacier is now out, our approach was lengthened by a search for a feasible crossing of the creek.  I eventually got impatient and just ran through a relatively shallow bit, about knee deep.  We then hiked up the moraine on the righthand side of the creek and followed a rough and slightly ass-clenching trail over to the lake.  This trail traverses over some big exposure and so I wouldn't want to be there in slippery or snowy conditions.  The lake itself is more of a big tarn, and there isn't any vegetation around except for some grassy moss.  Eric Coulthard (and according to the summit register Alan Kane) suggest ascending a boney moraine to gain a small patch of glacier-recessed ridge which is followed over an intermediate summit to reach Mistaya.  In all ways I would recommend against this route, it looks longer, perhaps more exposed to rockfall and just plain painful (why so much scree?).  We instead chose to ascend a prominent couloir slightly hidden from view.  Going around the right hand edge of the lake to its far end, we bashed through a smattering of residual moraines up and to the right.  Contouring around brought us to the base of the couloir, which is visible on the topos as a depression facing East.

At the top of the moraine, Peyto Lake and Observation Peak behind

We threw on the crampons and quickly covered the lower-angle portion.  The only real "couloir"ish part of this big wide gully was at the very end where it reared up.  The top of this step is on the remnants of a glacier (no crevasses though) so you should be prepared for some frenching in dry conditions.  We managed to go up a thin tongue of snow on the climber's left.  Overall it's a pretty tame way to get up to the summit ridge, and it's on snow which is always nicer than scree.  It could be bumslid or skied in early season before it becomes dotted with rockfall.  One should, however, be aware of a looming slope which hangs over the lower, flat portion or the gully.  The top of this hanging slope was corniced and in early season this could threaten the route with avalanche hazard due to it's southeastern aspect.  It is possible to mostly avoid the exposure to this slope by staying well to the left on the lower portions of the gully.

Topping out of the snow-gully

Once we hit the ridge we headed on toward the top.  The ridge seemed badly foreshortened, but luckily there is a beauty of a view to enjoy while you trudge to the top.  To your left is the BC Rockies and the Mistaya Lodge (ski terrain looks awesome) while behind you the north edge of the Wapta Icefield comes into view.  In front of you Mt. Chephren, Howse Peak and many other main-range giants can be seen.  The view from the top was stupendous.

Chris and Lee walking near the top of Mistaya.  Mt. Baker is the glaciated peak on the Right, Rhondda at center

After heading back down we trudged back to the cars.  By far the sting in the tail for this trip is the fact that your car ends up being ~300m above you when you reach Peyto Lake.  That final climb up to the parking lot is a killer and it sure made for a tough end to the day.  We ended up BBQing steaks over the fire in David Thompson Country around midnight...

Sunday we headed up to the Icefields Center to give Mt. Wilcox a go.  Wilvox was one I had been itching to do for ages, but never got around to.  We headed up the slopes directly behind the center, and hit the pass within 45 minutes.  Following the beaten path up Wilcox's south ridge, the views kept getting better and better.  Being able to see over the Athabasca Glacier's Icefall all the way to Mt. Bryce was pretty legendary.

Heading for Wilcox

Double summit all the way!

Gaining the ridge, Nigel Peak behind

Somehow, we got dragged off the ridge and out onto the face.  It seemed like a tamer way up at first but then we started to feel a bit out of place.  Pitons started showing up, and I started to wonder if this was some sort of training route used by some guides?  I seemed to be relatively well traveled, so I would think that whoever put in those pins used the route more than once.  We found a solid gully to climb up and practically popped out on the false summit.  A quick walk over to the main summit had us on top.

There isn't a better view in the world

Back to the car we went, and then to Nordegg for some burgers at the only best restaurant in town!  This turned out to be an awesome club trip on a great weekend weather-wise.  I'll be headed back to the Wapta area sooner or later, it's too beautiful to pass up.

Welcome to Nordegg!