6 of us attempted Mt Biddle from the Elizabeth Parker Hut at Lake O'Hara. Denis and Danielle turned back from the Biddle-Park ridge, Sim and Alda made the complete trip on foot in 19.5 hours (including 2 'storm' hours', David made the summit but along with Greg "enjoyed" a cold overnight and scenic helicopter descent with Parks Canada. Sean's "book of lies" rates this 5.4 and about 12 hours return - the same technical difficulty as Schaeffer. Maybe it is, but the difficulty is sustained, the rock loose and Biddle a much more serious ascent.


Mt. Oderay and Lake McArthur from Ridge to Mt. Biddle

Greg, Alda and Sim on the ridge to Mt. Biddle

Good trail to Macarthur Lake, traverse lake taking care not to fall in, ascend grotty couloir to Biddle Pass, along ridge to where the climbing begins. Dump ice-axe and crampons. Following some slips, D & D turned back here. Some serious scrambling soon turned to 3 roped pitches.


Mt. Biddle - start of the crux

Mt. Biddle - the crux, part 2 of 4

Sim led these with confidence. Seans's description of "death by cheese grater" is a good assessment of an uncontrolled fall here. Now some more scrambling over slabs to the summit block. Route finding, big storm approaching, about 3.00pm. David, Sim and Alda take refuge on the East side of the summit block. Unbeknown to them, Greg finds refuge on the SW side and settles down for the night. He has the rope. At 5.00pm the storm abates and Sim finds an "easy" route to the summit. David and Alda follow with more difficulty. At 5.30pm David, Sim and Alda start back down keeping an eye out for Greg. Despite a partial backtrack he is not seen and the highest anchor point is reached at 7.30pm. Greg, who has the rope, has not been seen since 3.30pm despite several forrays into the storm by Sim and Alda to look for him. We fear the worst. Sim and Alda decide to descend without the rope but taking all the prussiks and tape that we possess. David settles down for the night. Sim and Alda make it back to the hut at 1.40am and raise the alarm. After a cool but windless and rainless night David is picked up by tandem helicopter cable at 6.45am by Parks Canada. Greg is found soon after and all retire to a good breakfast and siesta. Thanks to Parks Canada for their extremely prompt action. Thanks also to Sim for leading the crucial pitches on this difficult mountain, to Sim and Alda for keeping their senses in difficult conditions and to Anita for coordinating the rescue. An incident report has been submitted which emphasises the need to keep together at ALL times. Scribe David. Good trip.

PS The nearest I got to Park Mountain was an outstanding view of it while sailing through space on the end of a helicopter cable high above Macarthur Lake. That is, when I opened my eyes.

PPS I went back the next day and retrieved my axe and crampons from Biddle ridge. The Biddle/Park couloir remained ugly. Greg's poles are still up there higher on the ridge.
Two digitized slides added by David in May 2020.