On our 3rd day of scenic splendor we set out for Mount Patterson. Best known for the Snowbird Glacier that hangs off its North face above the Icefields Parkway. We headed North East from our camp at Caldron Lake toward the valley between Caldron Peak and Mount Patterson. We would have to descend into the valley beneath the Delta Glacier as it over hanged a drop off beneath Mistaya Mountain and we had no glacier travel gear to cross it.

Once further down the valley we noticed two possible routes back up the other side. One ascended a scree slope that looked miserable and the other traversed ledges beneath the Delta Glacier and involved less elevation loss. From a distance the ledges looked very thin and sketchy and objective hazard was also a concern. But not wanting to ascend miserable scree we decided to give it a shot. It turned out to be pleasantly wide and very scenic traversing under the glacier. We made sure to hustle while hiking beneath the glacier to minimize the risk from objective hazard. Once past the danger zone we took many pictures and had a good rest stop on the other side.

The Delta Glacier stretched out to the left of us and partially in front of us. We decided to head around the glacier on the right toward a subpeak of Mount Patterson. I was very sure that we could scramble to the top of this peak but was skeptical about whether we could find a way down from it to the West slopes of Mount Patterson. Once at the base of the sub peak I was unable to see any route around it that didn't involve glacier travel. It had already been a long trek for us by the time we reached the top of our peak. Even if there was a way down to the slopes of Mount Patterson we would not have kept going. We did find a rather large cairn on our summit which I figured was an indication that this peak is ascended often as a consolation prize when the glacier route up Mount Patterson is not in good condition. It certainly was our consolation summit.

The view was pretty darn good for a consolation summit. The Delta Glacier beneath Mistaya Mountain and the Barbette Glacier were fully visible from our viewpoint. The glacier hanging off of Barbette Mountain was one of the coolest I have ever seen. The Delta Glacier and the Barbette Glacier looked very enjoyable for ski touring. I will have to re-add this area to my wish list for winter. Unfortunately Mount Forbes was mostly blocked from our view by Mount Breaker. Howse Peak and Mount Chephren were very prominent nearby to the North.

As a final quest I decided to explore the ridge leading down to the slopes of Mount Patterson to see if it could be scrambled. After scrambling down a ways it got to the point were it was definitely not a scramble anymore. The exposure was quite incredible to say the least where I turned around. From our viewpoint we could clearly see that Mount Patterson could be scrambled from the North West slopes after ascending the valley beneath the North side of Mount Patterson. Unfortunately this ascent would involve lots of scree and a crossing of the Mistaya River.

One our way back down we decided that a quicker descent would be to head down the scree slope rather than traverse under the Delta Glacier again. Big mistake. That scree slope consisted of awkwardly sized loose rocks on hard glacial till. The entire descent was painful and slow. I need someone to tell me how to identify different kinds of scree slopes from a distance so that I can avoid the miserable ones like this one. Once we finally made it to the bottom of the valley we filled up our water and rested a bit before heading back up the other side to our camp at Caldron Lake

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