01
Mount Lefroy | 2011-07-09
|
|
Above stats are to the Abbot Pass Hut. Stats from the Hut to the summit are in page 12.
I was invited to Ben’s trip to attempt to summit Mount Lefroy. I couldn’t say “NO”. Weather forecast was perfect for the weekend, I was so pumped up!! Initially this was 4 man party but at the last minutes Wil have joined and that changed everything, mainly weather. Yoho didn’t like his present and decided to be nasty.
Day 1: To Abbot Pass Hut
Weather was snow/rain. Not fun to be at Lake O’Hara when it’s like that, but I was confident Sunday will be super, so under miserable condition we left the bus stop. This is well maintained area that we didn’t have much trouble following trail signs to get to the Lake Oesa. At near the lake shore, There were small trail signs to indicate the way to the hut (see page 3 for route line). From here to ascent gully, look for blue/yellow paint on rocks to indicate route. The condition was pretty much winter there. As we went up the gully, more fresh snow on the slope and soon we were in cloud. There was anywhere between 5 to 20 cm of new snow and under the snow we had good snow to kick step. Couldn’t see much but all we had to do was follow the gully so we arrived the hut without getting lost.
Day 2: Mount Lefroy
To be honest we were in doubt but since we came up here, we were ready to attempt. The weather forecast was sunny, but turned out to be windy snowing condition from Friday lasted until Sunday. We left the hut at 4:30 am. Still there was no visibility, but at least temperature stayed low. We took the same normal route covered in “The 11,000ers” book by Bill Corbett. We roped up at the first hump where terrain was flattened about 80 m up from the hut. There was 20 to 30 cm of new snow on the first 200 m elevation, but no sign of avalanche and weather wasn’t look like going to be sunny either so we kept continue ascending farther. As we went up, there wasn’t as much snow as lower bottom. We (or should say Ben) had to kick step more. There were couple of icy sections but wasn’t ice. We still could make steps. Nearing the summit the temp was -7°. The famous gully was steep as people say. It’s not the steepness that surprised me, it was 40 to 55 degrees most of the way, but how long it was. The steep slope was non-stop pretty much all the way up from the hut to the summit for 500 m elevation. Really the only flat place we had was the hump near the hut. So if you go, be sure to take care of other businesses such as drinking enough water and eating food. Go pee, etc. Make your trip more comfortable.
One of my friends who attempted Lefory next day after us, said there were avalanches even on the way to the hut in Sunday afternoon, so we were so lucky to be there at the right window. We heard or saw no avalanches in Sunday morning. Big thanks to Ben who coordinated the trip and taught us some rope work, and leading the team safely to the summit.
SUBSCRIBE