The Story of Infinite Patience, a Climb Famously Soloed by Marc-André Leclerc
It took Barry Blanchard four attempts before completing what is now one of Canada's most famous alpine routes
John Scurlock
Marc-André Leclerc made the first solo ascent of Infinite Patience on Mount Robson in 2016, and then went on to write one of the best blog posts about alpinism ever, which you can read here. It was a monumental effort, and one that he repeated later for a film, which would eventually become The Alpinist.
Infinite Patience rises up the right side of the Emperor Face on Mount Robson in the Canadian Rockies. It was already a route steeped in history, as it had taken Barry Blanchard four attempts to make the first ascent. On the morning of Oct. 23, 2002, Blanchard, Eric Dumerac and Philippe Pellet stepped from a Jet Ranger helicopter onto the moraine near Berg Lake, below the Emperor Face. From there, they hiked and scrambled for approximately an hour to gain the Mist Glacier. The team then spent four hours climbing the initial steep band of the route, following a mixed system rated M5 and WI4+. Blanchard later noted that this section “was by far the hardest pitch of the route,” and that it could likely be avoided by a farther-right variation.
These opening pitches provided access to the large couloir that dominates the right side of the Emperor Face. Moderate snow climbing led to a ledge at approximately 8,500 feet, where the team excavated a bivouac platform. Conditions that night were stable, and Blanchard recorded that “the night was calm,” with visible aurora overhead.
The second day began with five rope lengths of fourth-class climbing up the main gully. A traverse followed by two rope lengths of mixed climbing around 5.7 led into the upper ice strip. After three additional rope lengths of fourth-class ice, the climbers ascended an M4 ice chimney. Above this, five rope lengths of fifth-class climbing followed, each containing short mixed cruxes in the M3 to M5 range. The final pitch of this sequence merged with the Emperor Ridge–North Face option and its more defined upper gully. That night, the team bivouacked on the ridge at approximately 10,800 feet, exposed to strong winds and low windchill temperatures.
On Oct. 25, the third day, the climbers ascended one rope length up the upper gully, followed by an ice-filled chimney. Blanchard described this pitch as “the finest pitch of the route.” A short section of dry rock climbing led onto the ridge proper. From there, extended fourth-class climbing and bypasses of several short cruxes, some reaching 5.9, brought the team to an ice ledge at approximately 12,000 feet.
At this point, the climbers chose to avoid the rime-covered formations on the upper Emperor Ridge. Instead, they traversed an ice ledge westward for roughly one kilometer. Blanchard described the traverse as “a true test of one’s frontpointing and calf-muscle endurance.” From the end of the traverse, they climbed the gully above the Wishbone Arête, reaching the summit area in three pitches at approximately midnight. The team bivouacked just east of the summit in a bridged crevasse that provided limited shelter from the wind. The day involved approximately 20 hours of climbing.
About the final climbing day, Dumerac wrote in Alpinist in 2003, “Giant rime formations perched precariously at all angles forced us to abandon the ridge in favour of a traverse along a steep ice ramp to the west. We then followed a long shallow gully of steep ice that led through the summit gargoyles. After 20 hours of climbing we bivouacked on the summit. The climbing on our route, Infinite Patience (VI 5.9 M5 WI5, 2,200 m), was exhilarating, with good protection and good rock. Philippe dropped both his tools early on, adding some piolet traction fun.”
On Oct. 26, the climbers descended via the Schwarz Ledges to the Forster Hut. That afternoon, a helicopter from Yellowhead Helicopters transported them to the trailhead. Reflecting on the ascent, Blanchard characterized Infinite Patience as “an absolute classic route on mostly ice and snow,” noting the scale of the line and the conditions encountered during the climb. The route gains approximately 7,500 feet from the base of the Emperor Face to the summit and marked the first continuous ascent of the face by a direct mixed line.
Before Leclerc’s first solo of Infinite Patience, there had been only a handful of ascents of the Emperor Face: Jamie Logan and Mugs Stump in 1978; Dave Cheesmond and Tony Dick in 1981; Blanchard, Dumerac, and Pellet in 2002; Steve House and Colin Haley in 2007; Jon Walsh and Jason Kruk in 2010; Walsh and Josh Wharton in 2012; and Jay Mills and Raphael Slawinski in 2012. It stands as a testament to vision, commitment, and drive. Will we ever see another solo? Time will tell.
