Roche Miette

Roche Miette Stats
28 August 2005
Climb for the Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition (mountain #78) with Erin, Trevor, Marc, Hank. I am just going to poach the text that I sent the ACME for this trip. See their website for more pictures (very big and long to load).


Roche Miette, Climbed 28 August 2005 on Behalf of the Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition.
When I first discovered the Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition I was quite excited to volunteer for the project. Soon though, I received an email from Angus and Melany that dashed my aspirations. They had already assigned all of the mountains to other climbers. I had been placed on the backup list and resigned myself to the fact that I had missed the boat.
On the 8th of August 2005 I received a phone call from Angus. The original group assigned to Roche Miette was unable to get to the summit, so now I had my opportunity to participate. I put together a group of five that included my younger sister and some good friends. All of which had some scrambling and backcountry experience.
We planned to make our climb on the 28th of August. During the preceding week we carefully watched the weather, willing it to hold long enough so we could climb without worrying about storms.
At 3:30 AM on the 28th we left St. Albert and drove out to Jasper, meeting two of our group members in Edson. We reached the trailhead under clear skies at 7:30 AM and had geared up and started walking at 8:00 AM. As we began I would estimate the temperature was about 10°C. While walking up the cut line we proceeded in and out of some curious pockets of air that were another 10°C warmer, quite an interesting sensation to say the least.
Soon our group was hiking up the ridge and gaining elevation on our way to the saddle. Once at the upper half of the ridge, we were treated to views across the Athabasca Valley. The upper half of the ridge itself sports some very intriguing vertical flakes and striking layers of purple shale. By 10:10 AM we were enjoying the sunny skies and a bite to eat at the saddle.
Departing the saddle, the scramble begins in earnest with movement to the climbers left as elevation is gained. Most of the scrambling is over loose rock and scree, interspersed with the odd down sloping ledge. None of it proved to be particularly challenging, but it is sustained moderate (fun) scrambling.
At 11:45 AM we topped out on the plateau and were greeted with 10 minutes of sleet generously provided by the weather we had watched build over the previous hour. Wasting little time, we walked easily over to the true summit of Roche Miette approximately 600m to the South. We were standing beside the summit cairn by 12:00 PM.
We were treated to views of the Jacques Range, Mts Hawk, Colin, Perdrix, Fryatt, Pyramid, De Smet and numerous others. Photo taking and lunch commenced while we discussed how to remove the existing summit canister secured with a cable by Alan Kane. Replacement proved easy as the cable was frayed and easily released the PVC canister. As we took the requisite 360° photos we knew that we’d need to leave the summit soon. Somewhat ominous looking weather had been closing in on us since we arrived.
At 1:00 PM our group left the summit, scrambled down the mountain, and arrived at the saddle at 2:45 PM where the weather was much nicer. We descended the ridge under partly sunny skies, spotted a whitetail deer watching us from the cut line, and reached our cars at 4:30PM.
After a number of parting glances towards the striking mountain we had just spent the day with, we began our drive home with feelings of accomplishment. Of course making the necessary stop for food at Vic’s Steak, Pizza, and Curry in Hinton.
I would like to thank Angus and the Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition on behalf of our group for affording us the opportunity to be a part of this project.
Troy Rossmann.

Climbers: Erin Rossmann, Trevor Graham, Hank Kirouac, Marc Boudreau, Troy Rossmann.Trip Stats: 1323m elevation gain, 11.1 km, 8.5 hours round trip.




View of the mountain from the adjacent ridge.


Our group takes a break at the saddle.



Marc negotiating typical terrain on Roche Miette.


Trevor getting within striking distance of the summit plateau. This is such a hero shot.


At the cairn. The true summit of this mountain is a leisurely 600m walk to the south from the point where you get onto the plateau, it is not at the top of the cliffs guarding the north face. The reason why is apparent when the mountain is viewed from the west, it's the highest spot from that vantage.

Ha Ling Peak

Ha Ling Peak Stats
21 August 2005
I convinced Hank and Marc to climb this little one the day after doing Mt Temple, and I had to be back in St. Albert for a family dinner at 5:00. Neither of them were too impressed, but I think they agreed only because I was driving.
We set a quick pace and did this one in 3 hours car to car including 30 minutes on the summit. I was home in St. Albert at 4:30, then showered and at the in-law's house at 4:52.


Hank looking around for the summit register. Mt Rundle (EEoR) behind him.
I think in the distance you can see Mt Temple also.




Troy, Marc, Hank.


Susan likes this one because it "makes you look 12".

Mt Temple Extras

Summit shot.


66km in the distance is Mt Assiniboine. In the foreground is the Consolation Lakes surrounded by Panorama Ridge, Mt Bell, Mt Quadra, Mt Bident, Mt Babel, and the Tower of Babel.

Mount Temple

Mt Temple Stats
20 August 2005, scramble with Hank and Marc.
Even with the hordes of people, I really enjoyed this one. Maybe it's because it's an 11,000'er, the weather was also fantastic, allowing endless views. We could even see Mt Assiniboine, 66km away.
The approach to this mountain takes you through Larch Valley which is subject to bear restrictions for most of the summer. We had no problems teaming up with others at the parking lot to make the minimum group size of six. In fact I think we had a group of nine including one person from Calgary, two from Toronto, and three Dr's from Lacombe.


Hiking towards Sentinel pass, Mt Temple above.


Above Sentinel Pass enroute to the grey band.
Behind Hank and Marc is Paradise Valley. Just out of view on the left is Mt Hungabee, to it's right is Ringrose Peak, Glacier Peak, and Mt Lefroy. A glimpse of Mt Victoria is on the right.


My ass.
This is the grey band, here is am checking out a chimney that we would use to descend. For the ascent we used an easy (well, not easy, but not hard either) upclimb to the right of this feature. This is all to the right of the gully recommended by some.


The Yellow Band. There are plenty of options for getting through here.


Hank eyes up the final slog to the 11,625' summit.

Tower of Babel Follow-up

The Bear of Moraine Lake.


The Old Bear of Moraine Lake.

Tower of Babel

Towel of Babel Stats
24 June 2005, scramble with Jim, Erin, and Linda B (from the RMB group).
Went with my Dad and Sister. We met up with Linda at the moraine lake parking lot and hit the Consolation Lakes trail. We got some concerned looks from the bus loads of gawkers when we breezed right on by the bear restriction sign. However, the Consolation Lakes trail marks the boundary of the restricted area, and the Tower of Babel lies outside of it.
After a few minutes, we headed up the scree gully. I found the right hand wall of the gully offered small pockets of scrambling that avoided some of the scree. Near the top, the amount of scree decreases and the rock turns orange.
After you top out, it's an easy walk to the summit plateau to enjoy the view on some ancient furniture.
At the top of the gully, we met Bill, another scrambler from the RMB group. Who, on his way down rescued my sunglasses that I had watched skid down the gully and decided to look for on descent.


Grovelling up the scree.


Heading to the summit plateau. Mt Temple dominates the background.


This is the only picture I took with the furniture in it.
There's a sofa, chair, coffee table, and a TV.
Above my Dad's head is Eiffel Peak, on the leftern (I reserve the right to invent words) edge of the photo is Deltaform and Neptuak Mtns.


Linda, Erin, Jim, Troy and the Valley of the Ten Peaks.


Beginning the descent, this shows the orange rock at the top of the gully.

Indian Ridge Traverse

Indian Ridge Stats
31 July 2005, scrambling with Hank.
After catching the bus out of Lake O'Hara Hank and I said goodbye to the others as we all went our separate ways. Hank and my separate way took us up the icefields parkway to Jasper for a night in one of the the huge car-camping grounds.
The next morning we took the 2nd flight of the day up the Whistlers cableway. From the top station we hiked the easy, maintained trail up to the Whistlers Summit. Then we ditched the sidewalk and headed SE through the alpine meadow towards the eastern tip of Indian Ridge.


Indian Ridge, summit at left. The notch is just visible near the high-point on the right of the ridge (click on picture to open).


Sometime before the summit. The top of Marmot Mtn right by the tip of my ice ax, Mt Edith Cavell at centre in the distance.


At the summit register. One of the booklets was full so I grabbed it and sent it to the Whyte Museum.
I believe that the orange mountain in the background is unnamed. Regardless, it has spectacular coloration was not uncommon in the valley south of Indian Ridge.


Ok, this is the tricky part of the traverse.
This is the buttress that makes up the left hand side of the notch when looking at the ridge from the Whistlers. The notch itself is at the right of this picture and is insurmountable to a scrambler. The left hand side of this buttress is readily accessible from the summit.
The route description indicated that we should drop down onto the other side (west) of the mountain to get around the notch, then regain the ridge and complete the traverse.
What happened was: We first crossed a wiggly chockstone to examine the drop off at the notch, we realized there indeed was no way we'd get down that in once piece so we turned around and explored the W side of the mountain for half an hour or more looking for the route mentioned in our guidebook. We did not find one. Reluctant to turn around we explored the east side of the buttress and found that it could be bypassed on this side on wide, considerably sloped, loose scree ledges.
So that's the way we went. After you get back onto the ridge, just follow it down, cross the meadow, hike up to the Whistlers, and jam your sweaty-been-living-in-the-mountains-for-five-days self into one of the cable cars with 30 other people and go home. Easy.


Here is another picture I took of Hawk Mtn on the drive back to Edmonton.

Yukness Ledge Alpine Route

30 July 2005
Hank, Trevor, Roland, and I detoured along the Yukness Ledges on our way back to Lake O'Hara from Abbot pass.
It's an easy hike skirting Mt Yukness that could seem airy to the casual tourist.


Lake O'Hara and Mt Odaray.


Paul and Heather far below on the trail back to Lake O'Hara.

Abbot Pass

Abbot Pass Story
29, 30 July 2005. Hut trip with Paul, Hank, Heather and Trevor.
This is a hike/scree party up a gully for 600m of elevation gain.
Listen to the warnings. Wear a helmet, stick to the trail/middle. We had a close call with a dinner plate (more like a serving tray) rock spinning on edge at about mach 3.
In 2004 there was fatality due to rockfall near the top of this gully.
We had spent the previous night at the Elizabeth Parker Huts. We hit the trail in the morning and hiked to Lake Oesa, from there you turn up the gully and proceed to pull the mountain of loose scree around you. There is nothing really challenging about it, but the treadmill scree does get old.
Once at the top you find Abbot Pass hut where we spent the night. It is as cool as it looks in the pictures. Since the objectives from here, Mt Victoria and Mt Lefroy, are both technical objectives it was the end of the line for us.


One of the trail-building marvels left behind by Lawrence Grassi.


Paul approaches Lake Oesa.


The typical view, and the typical slogging.


The hut at the pass, Mt Victoria behind.

Hawk Mountain

Hawk Mountain Stats.
3 July 2005
Scrambling with Hank, another daytrip from Edmonton. This one wasn't so easy. It's long - about 16km round trip, and a total ascent of over 1600m.
To budget for time, think 10 hours return, the guidebook is a bit misguided in this respect.


At the chimney. We chose to ascend the slabs to the right on 5' or 6' ledges.
When you go to inspect the chimney, wear your helmet. When I went to look at the possibility of using the chimney I got a shower of rocks from above (wind moves tree, tree sways, rocks at base of tree start to roll - that's my theory anyway), luckily I had donned the helmet right before.


Climbing the slabs that bypass the chimney.


Typical scrambling on sloping slabs covered in small debris above the chimney and below the ridge. Watch your footing in this entire section. I can't imagine having to run from a bear here, see Sonny Bou's website.
On descent Hank lost his helmet in at the top of this section. It rolled and rolled, then silence as it leapt out over the cliff. That was a bit of a reality check, some ass-scooting and slow, deliberate moves followed. I think he's still offering beer for the return of the helmet. It was last seen falling through space at 11 U 429275 5875711 from 1622m.


Surveying the slabs that lead to the summit. Nothing very challenging ahead but it is a scramble.

Adding my autograph to the register. Mt. Colin in the background.

Fairview Mountain

Fairview Mtn. Stats.
21 June 2005
Scramble with Hank. This is an easy one from Lake Louise, I don't recall any actual scrambling, only hiking.


Yep, this view sure is fair. They got that right.
From left to right is Mt Aberdeen, Mt Lefroy, and Mt Victoria.


Me with Mt Temple as a backdrop.


The scene on Aberdeen. These two skiers almost bought it after triggering an avalanche.


Same as above with digital zoom. Looks like hazards were high, but they both made it out.
It took them awhile but they set up a belay, got themselves out of trouble and then skied like hell to get out of there.

The Onion

After getting to Bow Hut, Erin, Trevor, Hank, and I headed up to the top of the Onion.
It's a short, easy scramble from Bow Hut. Basically it's the only thing to climb from the hut which does not require technical mountaineering or glacier travel.


On the slopes of the Onion, The Wapta Icefield and Mount St. Nicholas in the background.


And there we are.


Oops, wrong picture. Since it's here though, Bow Hut is visible up on the cliff from the moraines.


The Onion is front and centre as viewed from Bow Lake. To the left of it is Mount St. Nick, and Mt. Olive. To the right is the Bow Glacier with Bow Falls below it.