• April 20, 2002
• Mountain height: 3,054 m (10,017 feet)
• Elevation gain: 1,150 m - we made it to approximately 1075 m
• Round-trip time: 10:30

Scrambling/snowshoeing with Mark.

Close just doesn't cut it! We made it to within 10-20 minutes of the summit, and had to turn around because of the lateness of the day. In retrospect we could have made it (the descent took less than half the time of the ascent), especially if the bonehead navigator (that would be me!) hadn't taken a wrong turn onto the Headwall Lakes Trail that took us 3.4 km and 45 minutes off course.

We started out out 9:15 am. After our detour we made it to the Chester Lake by 11:30 am. Looking at the gully was not very encouraging - it was covered in deep snow (as was the whole area and all of Mount Chester) and appeared to be a perfect setting for avalanches. We could see several avalanche runoffs at the side of the gully. We decided to go to the base of the gully and assess the situation from there. We were not optimistic about attempting this dangerous area. At the base, the snow seemed quite stable and we put on our snowshoes, roped ourselves together (we had just bought harnesses, after taking an introductory wall climbing course), and started up the gully.

It was a very long and tiring trudge to the saddle, taking us almost 2.5 hours. We were very pleased to have made it that far. The view of other mountains was spectacular even here. It was especially exciting to get our first view of the Mount Assiniboine. I thought it would be a small peak in the distance, however, it completely dominated the landscape.

The summit of Chester looked deceptively close from the saddle and we started up towards it. Of course, it was a great deal further than we thought and after another 2.5 hours of very steep snow scrambling, we were forced to turn back. Going down the gully, we tried to glissade, however the snow was too wet and we couldn't get going fast enough. As we started descending the gully, we noticed that there had been several small avalanches during the time we had been up the mountain. The most interesting part of the day occurred about half way down the gully when we heard a loud rumbling sound to our right. Mark saw it first - an avalanche about 70 m right in front of us, coming down from the side of the mountain. If we had been 2 minutes ahead we would have been in its path. I don't think it was big enough to have killed or seriously injured us, but it sure would have scared the living daylights out of us and knocked us off our feet. We just stood there and watched it come down. After, Mark said very poetically, "We'd better get the **** off this mountain now!" - and we did........somewhat hastily!

We arrived back at the car at 7:45 pm. In total - 10.5 hours of tough hiking and scrambling. It was a perfect day throughout and we were facing the sun both there and back. As a result, our faces were both quite badly sunburned and two days later, the upper layer of skin peeled off my entire face. A great day and a great scramble. We will be returning!

    
Mount Chester, from the Chester Lake hiking trail

    
Heading towards the saddle; behind me is run-off from a very small avalanche; when we returned through this area, there was evidence of numerous other avalanches that occurred during the day; this is also the area where we witnessed a larger avalanche come down about 50 meters in front of us 

    
Mark at the saddle; Mount Smuts is the dominant peak at the left and Mount Assiniboine can be seen at the center

    
Another view to the west;  notable peaks in this picture include Mount Birdwood (far left), Commonwealth Peak (hiding in front of Birdwood), Mount Smuts, The Fist, Mount Shark, Tent Ridge, and Mounts Eon and Assiniboine in the distance (at the center and right)

    
A view further south; Mount Murray, Mount Robertson, Mount Sir Douglas (the tallest peak in the picture), and Mount Burstall (front right )

    
Making my way up steeper terrain; that thing around my head is actually a tensor bandage; we were facing the hot sun for both ascent and descent and were doing anything to protect ourselves (sunscreen might have looked a little less foolish!)  

    
The south end of Gusty Peak (at the left) and The Fortress at the far end of the valley