Sat, Aug 17 2013 - Mt Sarbach (View Original Event Details)
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We all met at 5:30am and piled into Rob's van for a 2.5 hour drive to our trailhead along the Icefields Parkway at Mistaya Canyon/ Howse Pass. This is just south of Saskatchewan Crossing. We did drive through some rain in the Lake Louise area but the rain stopped while driving north along the Parkway.
We began our trip at 8:40am by hiking up the Sarbach Lookout trail. It is 5.2km to the lookout along excellent trail. The lookout has long since been removed and the trees have since grown as there is no longer a view from the actual lookout site. We made good time up the trail and it was certainly a good way to get our legs warmed up for the mammoth climb which laid ahead. However, the rain began to fall while hiking up the trail and I asked the group what would be our bad weather tolerance for the day and all agreed to keep going so we did. The rain did stop soon after leaving the former lookout site and we found a good trail which went horizontal to the east side of the north ridge. After a few minutes, we left this beaten trail to scramble up to the ridge. Having done nearly 500m of elevation gain to the lookout site, it was still another 1100m+ elevation to the summit. Yep, this is a big mountain as Alan Kane so aptly states in his guidebook.
From the beaten trail, we managed to find a good slope to scramble with little loose scree and we ended up gaining the north ridge just below the first notch. This 3-4m notch was exposed but is easily bypassed and our group did just that. However, the next notch which is 10m, may not be easily bypassed. We discovered the narrow chimney which we all downclimbed with ease making sure of our holds as there is exposure and a slip or fall would be serious. We scrambled up the other side and here you reach a football field size plateau which offered pleasant hiking but the remainder of the climb is in view and still a long way away. We had some food here to reenergize ourselves before continuing up the next section of the ridge. This was steep but a beaten path went up through the rocks and the scrambling here was very enjoyable. We kept an eye on the swirling clouds and wondered what was coming our way. We did manage to avoid most of the rain but a brief rain spell on this upper ridge made us think at which point we would turn back. We all seemed keen on going up, at least to the false summit. As is the case, the higher you go, the more you want the summit. We did get up to the false summit but the beaten path leads you around the false summit and up to the main summit ridge. I had received some information that you could circle the summit block thus avoiding the 15m loose and seriously exposed summit ridge, we tried to go around the summit block but the loose scree and side sloping was too miserable so I led our group up through some loose scree and minor ledges which took us to the base of the summit ridge. One member was feeling ill and decided to turn back at about this point. The four of us continued up. With what appeared to be dry rock, I made my way across the airy 15m ridge to the summit. I did not find it loose but it was severely exposed. Clouds clinging to the east face did prevent us from seeing the full extent of the exposure. Two others made their way across and signed the register book with a couple summit photos.
We spent maybe at most 15min on the summit before returning. We retraced our steps across the exposed ridge and made our way down the mountain. We had no real issues going down. The 10m climb of the second notch posed no problem but I did find it easier going down than up. We bypassed the first notch and bashed our way down the side of the ridge to intersect that nice beaten trail to take us back to the Sarbach Lookout site. Here we took the Sarbach Lookout trail down and another 45min or so and we were back at the van at 8:40pm. A near exact return time of 12 hours.
Thanks to those who came out today. I had early on written off reaching the summit but 3 of us made
it and it was extra special. Having been on Survey Peak 3 weeks ago, I had seen Mt Forbes and was
looking forward to seeing it again but alas, Banff's highest mountain was socked in cloud all day
long. We did, however, have moments where views of other mountains were great especially on our
descent. A return to Sarbach would be nice when bluer skies prevail. Nevertheless, it was a sweet
day out! A great group of scramblers. We returned to Shouldice at 11:30pm.