It’s been a finicky year in the Canadian Rockies alpine, with poor stability and short weather windows. While many peaks under 3,500 metres saw a number of ascents, the biggest of them all, Mount Robson (3,954m) had little action.
Rumours of a solo climber having reached the summit was the only climbing news circulating about the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies this summer. That was until this week, when four climbers reached the summit. That’s not to say there weren’t other ascents, but a number of reliable sources in the Jasper area hadn’t heard of other summits this year.
Simon Parsons, Tim Banfield, Grant Stewart and Dane Steadman nailed the timing and topped Robson after climbing the Kain Face, which was first climbed in 1913 by Conrad Kain, William W. Foster and Albert H. McCarthy.
Kain guided MacCarthy and Foster up the northeast face by chopping hundreds of steps and famously said to his clients at the top: “Gentlemen, that’s so far as I can take you.”
During the climb, Kain was under the assumption that Robson had been climbed in 1909 by George Kinney and Curly Phillips. However, on their return to the campsite at Robson Pass, Phillips, who was outfitter of the expedition, said that he and Kinney had fallen short of reaching the summit in their heroic effort over the west face four years before.
During some summers, Robson is climbed many times via the Kain Face and South Face. Other routes to the summit include those up the Emperor Face, North Face and the many ridges. While the peak hasn’t had many summits this year, maybe this will inspire others to take advantage of the good September conditions.
Alpine routes such as The Greenwood/Jones on Mount Temple saw quite a bit of traffic this year. There were also new routes climbed on the Columbia Icefield. A complete summary of the new climbs will be in the Oct./Nov. issue of Gripped magazine.