A long but ultimately tremendously rewarding day.
The scramble up to The Monarch starts from the far point of the Eohippus/Monarch Ramparts trail hike. Unfortunately, in order to get to the gully on the northwest side of The Monarch that is the scramble ascent, you first have to drop 100+ m and cross a wide talus slope. The gully was largely filled with snow.


Starting up the Gully

Manfred performed heroically in kick-stepping all the way up the snow slopes. It was good that we were carrying ice axes, both for the way up as well as the descent .From the bowl at the top of the gully we chose to ascend a narrow couloir to climber’s right of the peak.


Our Ascent Route

The terrain between the snow in the couloir and the summit ridge was very tricky. In was impossible to proceed without knocking down material, and the handholds all had to be checked carefully, many were only tenuously connected to the mountain. Once the ridge was attained we had splendid views to the south and east and a fairly straight forward scramble to the top.


Summit Ridge

After leaving the Sunshine parking lot shortly after 8, travelling via Simpson Pass and Eohippus Lake, lunching on the ramparts at around noon we reached the summit at about 3.


Summit Shot on The Monarch

The Monarch is not tremendously high, but it is far enough from higher peaks to provide a tremendous 360 degree panorama. There was no particular desire on anyone’s part to descend via our ascent route. John did an excellent job of scouting and routefinding a better descent route that would be climber’s left from the top of the entrance gully.


Pondering an alternate descent route. (Monarch Ramparts defined by snow cornice.)

We returned to the ramparts (what a grunt back up that slope late in the day) and then returned via Monarch Ramparts and the Healy Pass trail. We were back at the car shortly after 9:00.
Distance 26 km, net vertical 1200 m (gross vertical 1500-1600m), time 13 hours. Weather mostly sunny, and warm all day.
Many thanks to coordinator John, participants Jeannine, David, Yves, Manfred and Carl (scribe)


Side Trip!