Selkirk Mountains, BC - Rogers Pass Region - Sir Donald Range
Mount Sir Donald - 3297 m - NW Ridge - III, 5.2, ****
Uto Peak - 2932 m - SW Ridge - II, 5.1, ***
Wheeler Hut (Trailhead) - 1250 m
Route Description
Related Historical Info
August 1995. I had been planning on a climbing trip to Canada for months,
ever since a friend in Salt Lake City had called and asked if I was
interested in climbing Mt Robson.
The trip had changed over the intervening time. The group from Salt
Lake was going too early for me to join them, and probably too early to
get good weather. Then I had planned to meet some climbers from New
Hampshire to do another climb in the Rockies, but when they changed their
objective I lost interest.
And so I set off for Canada with no particular plan, reading the guidebook
along the way. When I read the description of Mt Sir Donald it sounded pretty
appealing. Long. Alpine. Aesthetic. Technically straight-forward but with lots
of exposure. The perfect route to solo!
I arrived at the Wheeler Hut by Rogers Pass late in the day. Wanting
to warm up and stretch my legs, check out the approach, and get a feel for
the climbing, I got up early the following morning and climbed Uto Peak. I
was slow getting to the Uto-Sir Donald col, but felt good on the climb.
There had been snow up high recently and I did encounter a few patches of
the lichen this area is known for - when its wet it is like motor oil on
the rock.
The summit register on Mt Uto was filled with entries by people who had come
to climb Sir Donald but had been unable to due to weather.
The picture of Sir Donald on this page was taken from the summit of Mt Uto.
The grand North Face is visible (first ascent by Chouinard and Beckey in August,
1961). I climbed the NW Arete, which forms the right skyline.
The following day I took a rest at the Wheeler hut. It seems that everyone
who stays there brings/cooks too much, so I ate rather well. I enjoyed
speaking with a Canadian guide from Nelson BC, Dave Smith, and his friend
Ole from Denmark. Dave also has a technical interest in avalanches. He
was not certain the peak would be dried off enough yet from the last
storm. He also wisely suggested I start earlier than the 5am start I had
planned.
The next day came and I got started at about 5am. Got to the col in about
3 hrs - average time, and better than on the Uto climb. From the col the
arete looks very intimidating and appears to be overhanging in one
section. A phrase from the guidebook kept sticking in my mind - "It
should be noted that there have been fatalities from unroped falls ...".
So it was with a certain amount of intrepidation that I began the climb.
The climbing was extremely nice - 4th and easy 5th class. The exposure
was always there, and despite the ease of the climbing I continued to
feel apprehensive.
After about two hours I saw two climbers down in the col. I thought they must
be climbing Mt Uto since it was getting to be quite late for a start on Sir
Donald. But they were indeed climbing Sir Donald, and had even camped up high
at the Vaux bivy site.
About two-thirds of the way up I reached the crux of the climb. I
mistakenly determined that it was necessary to go out to the right over the
abyss of the west face. I traversed out and up into a small roof. The rock
was rotten and crumbly and I retreated back to a ledge. This effort had
involved considerable risk and had been quite nerve-wracking! Finally I
found the best way, close to the ridgeline, and got beyond this. The holds
were all there and were all good, but the exposure over the face was incredible.
After this the climb just continued on forever. One spot had a bit of
snow to cautiously bypass, watching carefully for any of the motor-oil
lichen. I was starting to feel that the downclimb was going to be long,
tedious, and psychologically draining.
Finally - the summit! I ate a bit of lunch and watched the swirling
clouds, hoping that there would not be any precip that day. Then I got
prepared to descend.
The descent down the arete can be done by either downclimbing or by many
rappels. I find, especially solo climbing, that downclimbing as much as
possible speeds things up. So I downclimbed about two-thirds of the
arete, rappelling only over the crux. About half way down I passed the
other two climbers, who were slowly working their way up.
By the time I got to the bottom third I was getting tired and sloppy.
Which worried me. So I began to rappel. There are webbing rappel anchors
all over the place, and I had to be careful not to keep getting out into
the North Face and away from the arete. The lower I got, and the later it
got, the more this all seemed to drag on. And all I had brought for a
rope was about 70-80' of 7mm rappel cord, so my rappels were short.
Finally, the col! I had done it!
I looked up and admired the route. It was almost dark and the only flashlight
I had was a little pocket plastic thing which lights when you squeeze it in
the middle (admittedly poor planning!), so I was going to have to rush and get
as low as possible before dark. The other two climbers were rappelling the crux.
They were facing either a descent in the dark or a bivy - neither of which I
envied. I was able to get most of the way back without a light by making use
of the limited ambient light. I returned at probably 10 or 11 pm.
In the morning while I was still in bed in my VW bus, outside the hut, I
heard Dave getting ready to set out. He and Ole were going to do Uto and
camp at the Vaux bivy site, then do Sir Donald. I told him about the
other two climbers, in case they were still up there. But it seems they
finished the descent in the dark and had left.
The weather went downhill that morning. By the afternoon I was driving
into a raging storm crossing the Canadian Cascades. Surely there would be
blizzard conditions up on Sir Donald. I thought about Dave and about Ole,
who had waited patiently to get a chance to do the climb. I realized how
lucky I had been to have the chance to get in these two climbs.
Jim Frankenfield
|
Climbing page
