We met at Laggan's after admiring(?) recent snow quite low on Hector, Temple etc. Despite the fresh snow none of our enthusastic group bailed though and we were rewarded with a good trip to an area I would like to visit again.


Leaving Mosquito creek trailhead

After branching off the Mosquito creek trail and mild bush bashing finding Quartzite col went fairly smoothly. The coordinator was a bit confused as "Mosquito creeks north fork" as described in Bill Corbett's book split into 2(?) north forks .... maybe one is dry most of the time .... Bill Corbett's grid references worked very well. From Quartzite col we got a view of Willingdon with a dusting of snow.

Mount Willingdon from Quartzite col.

Arnold looking at mountains ..... from Quartzite col.

I was relieved as it looked "doable" from the col. Donning helmets we picked our way down Quartzite col to the beautiful upper Siffleur valley.


East side of Quartzite col

We got to camp after about 7 hours from the trailhead. A cool wind and we were in tocques etc. the bonus being no mosquitos!


Camp below Willingdon

Moonrise over Dipslope mountain

We left camp, I think, around 9:00 am with the very summit of Willingdon occasionally catching some cloud. Easy hiking and scrambling up along the old moraine past a quartzite sand beach got us to the scree west ridge.

Devon lakes, Devon mountain with Hector in the back.

Carl on the quartzite scrambly bit on Willingdon

From the col, we could see some icicles hanging around the crux cliff band near the summit .... hmmmm ... well let's poke our nose against it .... we did n't find the scree ridge that bad and were soon at the crux. I tried going straight up a drier piece of the cliff on pretty good holds but the top move would have involved a smear on downsloping slab which I was n't confident in ... so I backed off.


The wrong way!

Whilst I was fruitlessly messing around Alda found the right way on climber's left where an old rope left by an earlier party marked a relatively easy (though SC7 in my opinion) way to the upper scree. Then we were on top around 3 hours from camp with the cloud just tipping Willingdon occasionally and a few of the other high peaks in view. The whole length of the Wapta was laid out and Hector was also prominent though the views were marred a little as the cloud was touching some of the higher peaks.

The plan was to traverse east along the ridge to the other Willingdon summmits so we set off down a very ugly gully with ice on one side and very loose rock on the other.

Ugly gully below summit of Willingdon.

We had packed axes but not crampons. I had assumed that the "snow ridge" would be snow we could use an axe on. There was about 2 cms of snow on top of ice and we quickly came to a little arete which,without crampons and maybe even a couple of screws we backed off.


Icy arete on east ridge of Willingdon that stopped us.

Reascending the loose, ugly gully was just as unpleasant a place to be in the second time. Descent through the crux went safely.


Alda descending crux cliff band on Mount Willingdon.

We had lots of time to get back to camp so dawdled on the west ridge and enjoyed improving weather and views. In fact the worse weather all trip was probably while we were on the summit of Willingdon. After an early supper we wandered across the meadows to look at the other Devon lakes - a beautiful area.

Carl, Alda and David, disappointed, no doubt, by missing the other peaks of Willingdon wanted to bag Devon mountain on the way out. Arnold and I were nursing some foot injuries - though not preventing us from hiking out we wanted to preserve (well I did) our fragile bodies for future trips so we backed off the Devon mountain trip. So on the hike out we split up. We met up again in the meadows on the west side of Quartzite col with the Devon group reporting an SC6 ascent for the final slab section to the summit.

David descending Devon Mountain.

Carl, Alda and David on summit Devon mountain

The register had been placed in 1991 by the redoundtable Rick not many ascents but Bill Corbett's was one recorded (I should also note the Willingdon register recorded Bill Corbett's 3 ascents of Willingdon). The cloud was higher and less dense on this day so the views were better for the Devon group. (Carl, David or Alda please correct / add to this if you wish).


Upper Siffleur valley (Watermelon peak right of centre).

After returning to the trailhead around 7:00 pm we decided to head for refreshments at Lake Louise.After safely navigating some wilderness terrain over the 3 days a bit ironic we found that the reconstruction of the interchange of the #1 and the Icefield Parkway was very confusing. One driver ended up heading towards Golden! We ended up at the Outpost Pub (lineup at Bill Peyto's). I broke the mould having a salad while the others all had the goulash.

It was great for me to spend three days in the mountains with four people I have shared a few good trips with: Carl, Alda, David and Arnold and I hope to do again. The final details on this trip were put together by e-mail and phone calls the day before departure - thanks all for being flexible - good people, good times - C/S/P John with additional pictures from Carl.

Carl has posted a bunch of pictures here: Willingdon trip (thanks Carl).