Mount Robson - Robson Glacier, August 2006
We drove to Robson Provincial Park, jaws dropping at the sight of the beast from the visitor's center. Without a doubt, Robson is far and away the most impressive mountain I have ever laid eyes upon (and that's just from the south-side)! We reserved our camps at Berg Lake and prepared to spend another 'glorious' night sleeping in the van. After discussing with the rangers we learned that nobody had made it up yet this year with recent parties claiming warm, unstable snow conditions on the Kain Face. Hopes weren't high, but we concocted a half-assed plan to pack minimally for a 4-day Robson trip and only go for it if reports from parties we encountered on the hike in were favorable (they were not). Hiking in, all we heard were tales of heinous travel through the Mousetrap (it is best to avoid the Mousetrap in this age of glacial recession by scrambling the ridge to its left) and loose mush and unstable layers of snow all on top of a deep layer of sugar. There was no ice to be found on the face! Uh oh...
Despite the less than favorable outlook we hiked the 15 miles with too-heavy packs to the Berg Lake camp. Wow! Needless to say, the views from this side of the mountain are captivating. We planned to at least make it to high camp on The Dome the next day and assess the conditions ourselves. Alas, we awoke to rain, thunder and lightning that first morning at Berg Lake Camp, and just returned to the tent for a few more hours of sleep instead. Plagued by motivational problems, we decided to make a go for Resplendent (a satellite of Robson), but seeing that it too was socked-in for most of the day we settled on just doing some glacier 'hiking'. (more...)
Click here to view photos.
