The North Face of Mount Temple first caught my attention
about 13 years ago while on my first alpine trip to Canada. It’s hard not to get captivated by this
monster. With a nearly 5,000ft North
face capped by seracs, it dominates the Lake Louise landscape and calls to all
alpinist.
Ben scouting the route from Lake Annette
Timing had finally worked out and I was on my way North with
Ben Brunsvold to attempt Temple. Mid
season conditions made it apparent that the best route choice would be the
Greenwood/Jones. It’s a rock rib left of
center on the face, protected from the obvious objective hazards above. I had some friends climb it a few years back
and they were forced to bivy on route, so we decided it would be best to camp
at the base the night before and bring the bivy gear on route.
Nightfall from our bivy at Lake Annette
Ben low on the route
We had a fairly sleepless night due to pikas trying to get
in our gear and worries from the recent bear activity in the area. 5 am came too quickly and I was rudely awakened
by the alarm blaring in my ear. While I
was discovering that our gear made it through the night, I was startled by
voices. I scanned the landscape and then
spotted them, two climbers hiking through the talus. “We are totally screwed”, I thought. There was only one route they would be going
for and sure enough it was the same we planned on climbing. With the objective hazard high and the loose
nature of the rock, I thought it would be a horrible idea to follow these other
climbers. After some serious thinking,
Ben and I decided to assume the responsibility and risk associated with climbing
behind another party. We quickly packed
up and headed for the base of the route.
Ben mid-route
Sunrise from our bivy
The other group had an hour start on us so we started
climbing as soon as we reached the base.
One short pitch got us to easy forth class climbing and we put the ropes
away. As we were scrambling up, we
noticed the other guys climbing a dihedral.
There was some easier looking terrain to the right so we headed that way
and continued soloing. After about 12
pitches, we worked our way back to the prominent rib and pulled the ropes back
out. We had passed the others and were
about a pitch and a half in front of them.
Ben and I started dispatching pitch after pitch of loose limestone
rock. Route finding proved to be
difficult from time to time, but we were always able to work our way through
it.
Finally cramponing up
Eventually after enough route finding issues, the other guys
caught up to us and we began working as one team. Despite have 3 different route descriptions;
it still wasn’t obvious where to go. The
others (Mikael and Rafal from Canada) were pushing for a day ascent, but
weren’t insisting on passing, so I continued to lead the group. We finally reached a feature on the wall that
lead us to believe we were close to the summit slopes. I traversed, rappelled, traversed, and climbed
a pitch just as the light was fading. I
belayed everyone up to this meager ledge I was on just as darkness overtook
us. It appeared we were one pitch from
the summit slopes, but we were now on a ledge that could support a four-person
bivy. The decision was made to call it
quit and settle in for the night.
Rafal on the summit ridge
Summit!
Mikael and Rafal were without bivy gear so we spread the 2
bags that we had between the four of us.
It was a cold uncomfortable night, but we all managed to get some
rest. When the sun began to rise at 5am,
we knew it was time to get going. We
were all eager to get to the summit slopes and off the wall. Rafal climbed through the final barrier and
brought us all up. We could finally see
the summit slopes and were just some scrambling from them. We quickly packed the ropes away and
scrambled to the snow.
View from the top of Moraine Lake
Ben enjoying success on his first Canadian giant
Once we had our crampons on, the going was easy. We roped up and trudged up the ridgeline to
the summit. It was 9:30 in the morning
and we were psyched to be heading down to food and water. After a 3-hour descent we were at Moraine
Lake and Rafal’s amazing wife showed up with food, water, and beer. We laughed as we walked past the tourists who
had no idea what we just experienced.
But unfortunately for us, it was time to return to that same comfy
reality. Until next time….
