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Edmonton, AB
Canada
465 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2012 : 6:59 PM
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Supposed to be only a moderate to difficult scramble, but it ends up being one of my most serious ascents. It is my first scramble with Morgan Peacock. We skipped Friday because the weather forecast looks gorgeous on that day. Roche Miette is rated as a moderate to difficult scramble. However, due to ascending wrong gully, we miserably upgraded it to a higher level. Morgan rates it as an Alpine Climb Free Solo, while I haven't done any alpine climb so I can't tell, but what I can tell is our descent gully (proper scramble route) is really nothing compared with our ascent gully. Anyway, we made to the summit.
From the parking lot, walk down a cutline for 15min? or so. The trail is obvious because there are deadfalls blocking the cutline ahead. Based on other scramblers' reports, it seems like most people got on wrong trail. There are indeed several junctions on the trail but the wrong one usually has a deadfall on it. Anything like that indicates you shouldn't go that way.
Morgan attempt this mountain last year, so I assumed he knew exactly where to turn and which gully to ascend. However, we counted too much on each other, and we were both not quite sure which gully to ascend...... I seriously didn't even read thoroughly Kane's book about Roche Miette. At the saddle looking towards the summit, the proper gully is on the left side, left of the big snow gully. It looks to me the right-side-most gully is the driest. Ooops, the game began here. The goal is just to climb up. But what we couldn't see was some of the cliff bands' slabs are down-slopping. Combined with the snow and ice, this really makes the feeling of doing an alpine climb. There're several spots that require climber's move, but they're not super exposed. A fall will hurt you or might injure you, but won't kill you. With the successful and miserable ascent of Midnight Peak (a wrong ridge ascent), these moves and situations didn't impose too much problem to me, but for Morgan, it definitely exceeded his comfortable level. He was very nervous about if we could make out of the gully and if not, we had to down climb all the way. I was faster so I decided to go by myself to see if it works (based on my observation from the saddle it's quite doable, but you never know). If it works, he then continue. I didn't encounter any major rock band that's higher than 2m, nor any exposed section. It took him a while (I forget how long) to get through this gully and we were both topping out on the plateau...
Okay... We made two stupid mistakes. 1. You should always respect any mountain especially the ones rated moderate or difficult so bring a route photo, no matter if you've attempt it before or not. 2. If you find out you're on a wrong route, turn back unless all of your team members can downclimb those difficult sections. I'm okay to downclimb those. For several spots I climbed up then down then up again just to make sure I can retrace down if this gully doesn't work, BUT I'm not sure if Morgan can...
After this gully part, it was only a leisurely walk to the summit cairn. We checked out the register, the last ascent was in October, 2011, so we made the first ascent in 2012. The descending route (correct route) is quite loose and steep, and I would say it’s only a moderate scramble, not difficult. Compared with our ascent route, it's really nothing but tedious. We had to be careful not to kick down rocks to each other. The lower section is a fun glissade down the major snow gully.
After finishing all the scrambling parts, we had to watch sunset on the mountain... We speeded up and barely made back before headlamp time.
For more photos, see http://stevensong.fotki.com/canadian-rockies/jasper/2012217-roche-miette/
    
1. Alpenglow in the morning
2. Roche De Smet
5. Our objective, Roche Miette
    
1. Some scree and rocky sections
2. Panorama looking towards Athabasca River Valley
3. The sun finally shown on us. Roche Miette on right
4. Zoomed-in view to Athabasca River
5. Looking towards the prairie. Roche a Perdrix on right.
    
1. Roche a Perdrix
2. A slight exposed section just before the saddle
3. Looking towards the summit. Our ascending gully is the one align with the snow ridge. The proper one is to the left of the big snow gully
4. It's steep...
5. Morgan climbing on a typical section
    
1.2.3.5. more of the climbing on the wrong gully
4. Fiddle Range. Who is interested doing the Roche a Perdrix to Fiddle Peak to Folding Mountain loop ridge traverse? I'm very interested in doing that in summer though.
    
1. Jasper Lake and Talbot Lake
2. The summit cairn
3. summit register and our entry. The date is wrong, it's supposed to be Feb. 17th
4. Looking north to more of Miette Range
5. Looking down west from the summit
    
1. Me on the summit
2. The impressive west face of Roche Miette
3. Morgan and the summit cairn
4. Jasper and Talbot Lakes, under sunset mode
5. Athabasca River
    
1. Fiddle Range
2-5. The proper scramble route is steep too, not for beginners definitely.
     
1-2. Glissading down the major snow gully
3-6. Sunset scenery from shoulder of Roche Miette. |
Edited by - StevenSong on 04/01/2012 8:21 PM
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 Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13442 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2012 : 7:15 PM
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Wow what a tough challenge, good you both made it. That one shot of Morgan looks like you got some loose rocks on bedrock; although you call it typical.. it seems difficult nevertheless with I assume icy parts ?
K |
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972 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2012 : 7:31 PM
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looks like a nice day!! You have me interested in trying this peak,for a winter ascent anyways.
some nice photos too |
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Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
793 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2012 : 7:35 PM
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Nice photos.
I know some people who had a close call with an avalanche on that descent during Spring last year. Careful out there! |
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206 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2012 : 10:14 PM
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Beautiful day to go up there.
Cheers,
Dan |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
465 Posts |
Posted - 03/30/2012 : 08:11 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by KARVITK
Wow what a tough challenge, good you both made it. That one shot of Morgan looks like you got some loose rocks on bedrock; although you call it typical.. it seems difficult nevertheless with I assume icy parts ?
K
Yep the whole gully is difficult to climber's scramble I guess. It's one band after another with snow and ice. The bedrock is actually very grippy that you can trust your friction holds there. Loose rock, i mean, scree or talus, are not everywhere due to the steepness of the whole thing. |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
465 Posts |
Posted - 03/30/2012 : 08:13 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by booewen
Nice photos.
I know some people who had a close call with an avalanche on that descent during Spring last year. Careful out there!
That's why we didn't consider the proper route should be that huge gully. It looks very steep from the bottom and we both were not sure if it's gonna slide. But on the way down we confirmed the snow was shallow and very solid. There were rocks penetrating through the snow that we had to avoid during glissading. |
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Roche Miette, a Wrong Gully Ascent in Winter
