Watch Spring 2017 Athabasca North Face Climb
Calixte Leblanc is part of Front Range Films and he recently made a short video about an ascent he was part of up the North Face of Mount Athabasca.
This route is an old classic in the Canadian Rockies. Back around the time of the first ascent in 1970, there was a big central ice bulge that climbers had to go around to access the upper mixed climbing.
That bulge fell off a few decades ago and left a large ice face that you can climb in 550 metres up to AI3 with some fun rock moves before the summit.
The first ascent was in August 1970 by Yvon Chouinard, P. Carman and F. Pelenier. Chouinard had been climbing new routes in Canada for nearly a decade by then.
While it might seem tempting to solo the face, beware of large crevasses on much of the approach and descent. It’s best to be roped up for this one.