Wapta Icefield - Day 3

August 16, 2012 - Mt. Gordon (3203m) and attempt at Mt. Rhondda (3055m)

Another 04:30 wakeup to a fantastic pancake breakfast. Hiked out to the glacier at 06:00 and roped up. We motored on across the ice into another bluebird day. After a couple hours we reached Gordon at the Vulture Col. A steep ice ramp took us up to the ridge which gave a phenomenal view down to Balfour hut. We started the scramble. This was steep and exposed. Most of it was soloed, but we pitched out three sections that approached some easy class 5 climbing. After a couple of hours on this, we reached the top of the ridge line and an easy scramble took us to the glacier. We roped up again and traversed over to the summit and had lunch in stunning views. Leisha modelled her crampons in bare feet for us (and to get a photo for Bill), nail polish and all. A huge sink hole crevase existed between the south summit and the true summit which was a neat thing to witness. We descended down a massive snow scoop where the echoes off of the bowl if you shouted into it were really neat. Mt Rhondda looked very close so we decided that since it was such a nice day we might as well climb it too. We descended down to the flats and ended up in a swamp with six inches of slushy snow water on top of the glacier. Picking our way through this took forever (well maybe only a couple of hours). Finally we reached the rock and headed up Rhondda. It was now almost 16:00 so we set a turn around time of 17:00 and ran up the rocky slope. We came to a snow traverse which was easy, and then climbed a steep rubble pile scramble for a couple hundred meters where we gained the summit ridge. A strange mailbox type contraption greeted us which must have been some sort of research equipment, although we could not determine what it was for. The ridge was fairly flat and we were almost out of time, so Ivan, Leisha, and I ran off down this while Hai took a nap by the mailbox. We crested rise after rise, thinking that each one was the summit, but there was always another bump just a little bit higher. Finally we scrambled a narrow ridge and up a steep bump which we thought must be the summit, but upon cresting this saw yet another higher bump another 500m away. Since it was now 17:00 we decided that Rhondda had won as we needed to get back across the glacier before dark and were already late for supper. Traversed back to Hai, and scrambled back down to the glacier. We roped up and I took the lead this time. Tried to bee line to the hut but made a bit of a detour to avoid the worst of the Swampta traverse. Finally arrived back at 19:30. Theresa had saved us supper (which was amazing as always). A 13.5 hour day meant this one was the most physically challenging day of this trip.

Approaching Vulture Col. The band of rock is our ascent route.