• May 1, 2004
• Mountain height:  2,974 m (9,757 ft)
• Elevation gain:     1,380 m
• Ascent time to summit:  6:25
• Roundtrip time to second summit (marginally lower): approx. 30 minutes
• Descent time:       6:50
• Roundtrip time:    14:50

Mountaineering and snowshoeing with Mark.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." (A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, 1859). Okay....so Dickens was not exactly referring to an ascent of Narao Peak, but the quote certainly best describes our third (in as many months) and successful trip to Narao's summit. We experienced the best and the worst, some wisdom and some foolishness, belief and incredulity, light and darkness, hope and despair, everything and nothing, Heaven and Hell. Like our second attempt, on March 28, 2004, this 15-hour day had its fair share of joyous moments and an equal number of desperate and sobering ones. And also, like both previous attempts, the scenery was unparalleled, and not a single iota less-breathtaking, even though we had seen it twice before.  

We were hoping that much of the snow from the parking lot to the treeline would have melted, making that part of the ascent easier. Unfortunately, that was not the case and it still took us 3 hours to make it up to the ridge. However, the snow, in the early morning, was quite firm and we were ascended with relative ease...compared to our descent down the same slope, anyway (more to come...). 

So as not to repeat details of the ascent covered in our previous descriptions, I'll skip to the crux. Last time, we ascended the crux rock step head-on, up steep and snow-covered terrain. This time, we opted to traverse steep snow slopes to the right and go around the rockband. In retrospect, staying on the ridge was considerably faster, though it did require a rappel to descend. The traverse was time-consuming and required great caution and patience setting up good belays. Anyone who has seen this slope knows that a slip here would probably result in serious injuries. Fortunately, there were a few rocks protruding from the deep snow and we were able to set up 4 good sling belays across the slope. Unfortunately, this was also the scene of the day's first incident, when one of us stepped on the rope with our crampons, severing it completely in one place and half way through in another - a couple of makeshift knots and we continued on. Coincidentally, we were discussing retiring that rope on the way to the mountain....looks like that decision has been made!

The remainder of the ascent, under perfectly clear skies once again, was easy and uneventful. 6 and half hours after leaving the car, we topped out on a summit that boasts a panorama that is second-to-none. After signing the register and taking a ton of photos, we continued on to a second, slight lower summit, about 15 minutes away. The view from there was only slightly different, but it was worth the effort and having taken three tries to summit, we wanted to enjoy as much of the mountain as we could.  

The descent was hands down our most nightmarish to date, far surpassing last week's epic descent on Mount Lorette. Surprisingly, the nightmare occurred on the section you would least expect. We left the summit at 5:05 pm and with at least two more hours of daylight than the March 28 attempt, we didn't anticipate having to do much, if any, of the descent in the dark. Wrong again, as our 11:55 pm completion time would attest!

We returned the same way, again traversing the steep, snow slopes slowly and cautiously. Rappelling down the rockband, as we did last time, would have been a great deal faster, but with our rope in its "3-piece" present condition, this was not an option. The problems started when we wasted about an hour trying to locate our snowshoes, which we had left on a slope, just above the treeline. Upon finding them, we put them on and started down. Unfortunately, the daytime heat had softened the deep snow significantly, and even with snowshoes we were sinking, sometimes up to our waists, in the snow. It was also the wet type of snow that sets like concrete around anything that sinks into it, making travel extremely slow, laborious, and requiring great amounts of energy. To make matters worse, one of my gaiters broke and with each step snow would be forced into my boot. Within 10 minutes, my entire right foot was in block of ice and I became concerned that it would suffer permanent damage with extended time in this condition. Mark, eventually, had similar concerns of his own. 

We tried every conceivable method of descent to speed up the process - snowshoes, no snowshoes, glissading (a lousy day to leave out Crazy Carpets in the car), crawling - nothing worked. From the treeline, it took us a solid 2 hours of painstaking travel to finally get back to the car and I have never been so relieved to see that big hunk of metal. We arrived back in Calgary at 3:30 am - 21 hours after leaving.

Back to Charles Dickens:
The Best: unparalleled scenery and finally making the summit
The Worst: the nightmarish descent in knee to waist deep snow
The Wisdom: avoiding by crux by traversing around it
The Foolishness: cutting the rope into 3 pieces with our crampons while avoiding by crux by traversing around it!
The Belief: "we're actually going to summit this bloody mountain!"
The Incredulity: "we actually summitted this bloody mountain!"
The Light: 12 plus hours of beautiful daylight and perfect weather
The Dark: "it's 11:30 at night and we're still on this bloody mountain!"
The Hope: "we may live through this one"
The Despair: "there's no way we're getting out of this one"
Everything: atop a mountain on a beautiful day with perfection in every direction
Nothing: "If we don't survive to develop the photos, who cares about the scenery!"
Heaven: "I see the car!"
Hell: "I left the car keys at the summit" (just kidding!)