North Twin is the 3rd highest mountain in the rockies and the highest mountain entirely in Alberta. The mountain requires a long approach across the Columbia Icefield and is not technically difficult to ascend. We were able to ski all the way to the summit on this trip. It is definitely a serious mountain and should only be attempted by experienced parties. On this trip we had ambitious plans to ascend North Twin, South Twin, West Twin and Twins Tower. Due to weather and difficult trail breaking we were not able to reach base camp till the 3rd day. On our summit day we ascended North Twin and after returning to base camp Maury and I decided to ascend the Stutfields, which turned out to be the most epic adventure to date for me.
We started skiing early Friday morning up the Athabasca Glacier. I was the only one without a sled, which was probably better since those sleds were more trouble than they were worth. On the way to the glacier we saw a lot of ptarmigans, at least 14 or more. There was enough snow for us to ski all the way to the glacier, which was way better than carrying them. For the most part the snow was good on the glacier. Just one or two spots with deep powder. We skied beneath the seracs on Snowdome without incident and ascended the ramp into a whiteout. There was a lot of powder slowing down our trail breaking and after about 2 hours we gave up on making it to base camp at Stutfield col and set up camp. This was for the better anyway since we were foolishly not following our gps and were heading in the wrong direction toward the trench. Not making it to base camp meant that we would lose one of our summit days. It snowed heavily on us for the rest of the day.
When we got up the next day I didn't see anything at first, but after a few minutes I could see a few stars. This motivated us all to get up and push on to base camp. The weather was better this day with a few foggy periods. The twins were clouded over the whole day, so we didn't miss anything from losing a summit day. It took us a fair bit of time to get to Stutfield col. This time we used the gps and didn't get sidetracked too much. We did end up getting too high on Snowdome though and had to ski back down a fair bit. Once at Stutfield col, we had to deal with super strong winds coming off of North Twin. We built an impressive snow wall for our tents, but it wasn't good enough since the wind eroded right through it over night.
We had perfect weather on our summit day. We skied up North Twin and had to put on our ski crampons for the upper section. We were able to ski to the summit without much difficulty. I got a full summit panorama as well as a lot of zoomed in panoramas of different ranges in all directions. The only mountains I missed were on the Hooker Icefield, which was covered in fog. We originally intended on bagging Twins Tower as well, but 2 of us were too tired to go on, so rather than having a long slow ascent of Twins Tower with tired people we headed back down to camp. This pissed off Maury who has the goal of being the youngest person to finish all the 11000's. He got over it though. We skied down with our skins and crampons on for the summit ridge. When we stopped to take off our skins Rob nearly fell into a crevasse. He took both of his skis off concentrating his weight completely on his feet. When he fell, he was lucky enough to have a ski placed between his feet to stop his fall. He would've fallen a long way down too since he had a lot of slack in the rope between him and David. Maury came to his aid to save his ski from plugging into the crevasse. This was very nice of him except for the fact that he unroped to do it. On his way back to his skis, Maury put his foot into the same crevasse, twice! We decided to keep the rope on for awhile longer till we were well off the summit ridge. My telemark bindings were causing me problems during the descent since the toe locks kept coming loose causing me to fall over during turns. I suck enough at skiing as it is.
Once back at camp, Maury and I still had lots of energy, so we decided to go for the Stutfields. West Stutfield turned out to be the crux of the trip. On the way up West Stutfield, we had to find our way around numerous open patches of ice. The wind was very strong on West Stutfield. After taking a panorama on the summit, we headed down to the col between West and East Stutfield. Once at the col, Maury wanted to check out Cromwell so we went and took a look at the route. So far on our ascent of the Stutfields, crevasses were not much of a concern. But looking down at the route to Cromwell there were a few big holes. After reaching Cromwell, the ascent would have been an easy slog up scree to the summit. Maury was very keen on getting Cromwell. We had 2 different routes to take us down to Cromwell. One passed into an easy bench nearby some big slots. Seeing as how there was just the 2 of us, I didn't like this option. I proposed traversing along the North slope of East Stutfield to the ascent ridge of Cromwell. There was a big slot further up the slope and one at the bottom of the slope. I probably should have expected there to be a lot of hidden crevasses between. The traverse didn't look too bad and if we were able to reach the ascent slopes of Cromwell quickly we might have had a good chance of bagging it. We were both very fit so I figured this might just work. We headed down and started traversing across. Not too far into the traverse I fell half way into a crevasse. It was just wide enough for my elbows to stop my fall. I managed to free myself, at which point I was having second thoughts about this route. Maury suggested I get out my probe and we probe our way to the col. I figured that this would slow us down quite a bit, but I decided to go on anyway. I managed to find quite a few crevasses with my probe. The snow was not deep and the slope that had looked fine from a distance was becoming steep and icy. Maury slipped and fell part way down the slope giving me a good scare. I was very thankful that he stopped because he would have pulled me off with him. This is where reality finally kicked in and we decided to turn around.
I had descended to the same level as Maury to tell him we were heading back. He agreed that things were not looking so good. We carried our skis back up to our tracks, which turned out to be quite exhausting for me. I guess I am just not used to that kind of exertion. It took me awhile to regain our tracks, at which point I was pretty slow and tired. Once we made it out of crevasse country, I ate a package of chocolate gel with caffeine in it. This stuff is my secret weapon for replenishing my energy. In about 20 min I was feeling better. I wasn't as fast as I would have liked to be so I had another one. Eating 2 chocolate gels in one day was a first for me. I almost never need to have any.
Since daylight was disappearing we skipped trying to bag East Stutfield and headed back up West Stutfield. There was a lot of regain for us to get back up West Stutfield and I was glad to have my energy levels back. Once near the top we were greeted with super strong winds, quite possibly the strongest I have ever encountered. We were in a hurry to make it back to camp before we completely lost daylight. There was now where on the mountain to find shelter since most of the snow was blown off leaving bare ice. This meant that our only option would be to keep going till we reached camp. At one point all the snow that we had used to ascend between the bare ice patches was gone. We had to put on our boot crampons and carry our skis down. The wind was so strong that we were taking precautions to make sure our skis didn't blow away while we were putting on our crampons. At one point the wind blew my toque right off my head. I had another one, fortunately. Once past the ice things were much better. We hiked down around a rock outcrop before putting our skis back on for the final traverse across Stutfield col to camp. Following Maury's gps we were able to find our camp without difficulty just as the last of the light vanished completely. Our friends were very relieved to see us return. There would have been no safe way to rescue us, since we had the only rope.
Our return day was cloudy for the most part. We skied back to Snowdome and down to the Athabasca Glacier with few views and plenty of whiteouts. Once at the Athabasca Glacier the snow became much easier since it was wind blown. The snow around Snowdome was soft and tiring. Things started clearing up as we descended to the Athabasca Glacier. Since everyone else had sleds, we had to snowplow down the ramp. Everyone had trouble with their sleds rolling over and getting tangled in the rope. Maury was so agitated by his sled that he unroped and skied down the glacier ahead of us. He dropped his water bottle in the danger zone under the seracs and Rob slowed down to grab it as we went by, slightly increasing our exposure time. We caught up to Maury further down who was getting even more agitated by his sled. At one point he pushed his sled down a steep slope without knowing whether there were crevasses below or not. Fortunately for him there weren't any. On the flatter part of the glacier the sleds were slowing us down enough that I felt as if I was pulling a barge. We made it back to the parking lot without any further trouble. A thoroughly enjoyable trip even though it turned out to be much more epic than I would've liked.
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