Mount Warren is a candidate for being one of the peaks above 11000ft in the rockies. I personally would summit every near 11000ft peak in the rockies if I was trying to finish all the 11000ft peaks off. Our approach route follows the same path as that described in Bill Corbets book "The 11000nders of the Canadian Rockies". Follow his instructions for getting to Swan Pass which is where we set up base camp. From there we hiked up the Brazeau Icefield to a peak just East of Mount Brazeau, where we descended 450m to the lower icefield East of Mount Brazeau. You will have to navigate around crevasse fields in this area. Also beware of a hidden knee deep puddle of water under the snow in the lowest section of the traverse. To get to the flat area between Brazeau and Warren you will need to go around a big crevasse either left under cliffs or right and around. The cliffs have potential rock fall hazard but the other route is longer and loses more elevation. We opted for the cliffs due to the amount of postholing involved in this section. From the flat section between Brazeau and Warren hike up a scree slope to the right of an icefall coming off Mount Warren. Once above the scree slope you will need to cross a crevasse field to gain access to the ascent slope on the left side of the mountain. The crevasses were big and obvious when we went through and we were able to find an ice bridge to cross. Be careful on the snow slope as it gets as steep as 45 degrees at one point. Really stable snow conditions are required for a safe ascent of this slope. The summit ridge is long and straight forward to follow to the summit. The summit cairn is located on the second summit which some people claim to be the true summit. Although it was difficult for us to tell since our readings showed them to be about a couple meters different in height. We returned the way we came. The Brazeau Icefield is beautiful and the North face of Mount Brazeau is awe inspiring. This is a worthwhile approach route but it is very long and tiring and there are many potential hazards. It is probably safer to approach Mount Warren via Maligne Lake and camping closer to Mount Warren to shorten the distance traveled on the summit day.
I was very pleased to be invited along on a peakbagging adventure to the Brazeau Icefield by Ferenc. This was the first mountaineering trip where I was the most experienced participant. The other 2 people Chaba and Judit, were visiting from Hungary and were very fit, but had no mountaineering experience. This was also the fittest group I had climbed with so far. We tried to wait for a weather window and when one showed up we committed to that date only to see the forecast change of course.
We arrived at the trail head at 10am and began our plod through the forest. The first part of the trail uses the Jonas Shoulder/Brazeau Lake trail for 8km. We covered the first 8km very quickly. Unfortunately, the rest of the approach was not so easy. We branched off of the Jonas Shoulder trail to continue the approach along a creek heading into a flattish valley with a waterfall at the end of it. The hike through this valley was pleasant with some nice flowers and a few small creek crossings. After the waterfall the rest of the ascent for the day was miserable blocky scree with another 700m of gain. We all had very heavy packs and this section was tiring for everyone. The snow didn't make things any easier when we reached it. The postholing was slightly more appealing than the scree. At the top of the pass I ended up crawling across the snow to prevent deep postholing. We found some good tent pads on a moraine and set up camp. The weather was not looking great with high winds and many nasty clouds to the West.
We went to sleep with the intention of getting up around 1:30 and seeing if the weather improved and the snow had frozen. The clouds were not totally gone when we awoke and it seemed as though it had not frozen yet. This made me less than enthusiastic about the ascent. Ferenc got up and tested the snow and informed me that there was a weak crust. I figured we could hike up onto the icefield to check things out and if it looked hopeless then we could at least reuse our tracks the next day if conditions improved. I put on most of my layers to counter the strong cold wind we had at camp. While waiting for Chaba and Judit to get ready Ferenc went ahead and broke a trail to the edge of the icefield. In doing this he crossed a small glacial tongue which was probably crevasse free. I would not have felt comfortable hiking unroped across it without anyone nearby especially since it had water flowing down the middle.
When we finally caught up to him we decided to put Ferenc and myself in the middle of the rope. That way, if we had to do crevasse rescue then we could perform a faster rescue since Ferenc and I had more more experience. After a lot of trail breaking we were up on the higher icefield with awesome views. Chaba was tired from the trail-breaking so I took over for awhile. Ferenc really wanted to get Warren and Brazeau. He figured we could get them both in one day, which I said was impossible and unsafe to attempt. The weather was looking better with clear sky over us and to the East. We decided to try and get Warren which was much farther away than Brazeau. If we had to turn around then we could at least reuse or tracks the next day to get Brazeau.
I led us further up the icefield to a point where we had to lose about 450m of elevation. We hiked down to the edge of the icefield beside an unnamed peak and made our way down the slope to the lower icefield South East of Mount Brazeau. I could see there were some crevasse fields to avoid in this area. One was right ahead of us where we wanted to go and another was on our right. I wanted to hike between the 2 if possible to reach the next lower section of the icefield beside the East face of Brazeau. To do this we needed to get closer to the crevasse field ahead of us. I made sure we were keeping the rope tight in this section. While leading us through this section I found 3 crevasses with sagging snow bridges. 2 were small enough to step over and the 3rd I tested with my probe and found the snow bridge strong enough to step onto. It was not strong enough on our return though as Chaba found out. The crevasses were not wide but they were probably very deep. After the third crevasse we turned right to hike away from the crevasse field. Once far enough away from it, we descended down to the bottom of our elevation loss onto a flat section of the icefield.
While hiking through this section we started breaking through the snow. Apparently we aren't the first group to encounter bad postholing in this section. Bill Corbet attempted Mount Warren via this same route and turned around at this point due to the postholing. At one point I stepped into water and got my boot wet. I wasn't sure of the extent of this hidden water so we crawled across on top of the snow. The postholing continued and I was becoming increasingly concerned and tired. I told Ferenc that if this snow continues like this then we should turn around. The slope on Warren could get very dangerous if the snow becomes isothermal, plus it will take us forever to hike back since the snow we were able to walk on before would become postholing. Ferenc told me that he could posthole for 24 hours, so I made the decision to let him lead us through this crap. There was a big crevasse ahead of us and we could either go left beneath a cliff or right down more of the icefield and around it adding more distance and elevation loss. Ferenc suggested we head for the slopes beneath the cliff since the snow would be firmer from the avalanche debris. I decided to give it a shot, if the snow continued to be terrible then we would turn around. We postholed our way to the slope which was very supportive, thankfully.
We contoured around Brazeau to another flat section of the icefield. The North face of Brazeau was spectacular with incredible icefalls. The snow on this section was very supportive so we continued our trek. We had 2 options for reaching the snow slope on Warren. One was to go left of an icefall up a steep and dangerous looking snow and ice slope, or to go right of the icefall up a scree slope then crossing a crevasse field to the ascent slope. We chose the less dangerous option of going up the scree. I figured we could probably navigate our way through the crevasse field. If it was really bad we would have to bail. The scree turned out to be not that bad and the crevasses were wide and obvious. Ferenc found a nice ice bridge to cross over the crevasses.
By the time we reached the snow slope weather was moving in and the solar effect on the slope was greatly diminished, thankfully. Ferenc, in his infinite fitness broke trail all the way up this long tiring steep slope. The snow was postholing down to our knees and the slope angle got to be 45 degrees at one point. I saw no warning signs for avalanches during our ascent. Ferenc was so fast that it was all I could do just to keep up to him. By the time we has reached the summit ridge it had become very cloudy and storms were a definite possibility. We managed to make both summits and sign the register. No one else had signed the register since it had been placed 5 years earlier. Apparently, all the other parties that summited since then never found it. It is hard to say which of the 2 summits is higher since our readings from both were very close.
On the way down the slope Judit wasn't comfortable with walking down and backed down most of the slope. We were able to return to the lower icefield without any trouble. When we got back to the postholing section the snow had softened making it worse and some of the supportive snow further up was now postholing as well. Ferenc plowed through the swimming pool hidden under the snow. The snow wasn't supportive enough to crawl over this section anymore. We all go our boots soaking wet walking through this knee deep water. Ferenc, finally got tired of leading so Chaba took over. While walking through the crevasse area I led us through on the way in Chaba put his foot into a crevasse. At that point we all decided to crawl across the snowbridges. I made sure to keep the rope super tight through this section. Performing crevasse rescue with our boots soaking wet could have easily gotten us all hypothermic.
Once past the crevasses a snow storm had caught us and was pelting our faces with icy snow in strong winds. Chaba did a great job breaking trail back to the upper icefield where we followed his gps track back to camp. We were all very thankful to be back at camp especially since we were all cold from our wet boots. I changed into new socks in my tent and managed to make some dinner. I was so tired I almost fell asleep while eating it. I forgot to take the insoles out of my boots so they were still wet in the morning.
Ferenc still wanted to do Brazeau the next day. The weather didn't cooperate during the night so we slept in. In the morning it looked a little better so Ferenc and I decided to give it a shot. Chaba and Judit weren't interested so it was just the 2 of us. While we were gearing up for the glacier a big storm came through which chased us back into our tent. I got cold so I climbed back into my comfy sleeping bag which put me back to sleep for another hour. When the storms gave us a break we took down camp and headed down.
The return trek was much warmer and storm free than the previous day. It was long and tedious to get out though. We got to enjoy some nice glissading down from the col followed by miserable scree bashing down to the waterfall. By the time we reached the cars we were pretty dead except for Judit who was surprisingly cheerful. I was very glad to have some 3 day old coffee waiting for me in the car to give me enough fuel to drive to Jasper where I could get some more
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