Mt Robson

By jeff - Posted on 04 September 2010

No....I didn't climb it.....yet. But it has been a dream of mine to climb and ski Mt Robson (3934m) for a while. So what better way to get the lay of the land than go visit? So last week Kristin and I took off for a week in the Canadian Rockies. We blazed 10 hours north from Seattle to the Visitors Center just in time before they closed down to get permits to hike to Berg Lake. Robson was socked in that evening. As we were leaving the visitors center we saw a chart saying last year they saw the summit 64% of the time due to it's notoriously bad weather.

We grabbed an over priced camp site (a theme which would be continued throughout our trip), grilled quesadilla's, and went to sleep in the rain. We got an early start the next morning only to realize I lost the permit. So we napped till the office opened, got another one, and blazed up the trail.

Kristin crossing the bluest water we've ever seen.

We lucked out with occasional glimpses of the summit. From the trailhead, Robson rises nearly 3000m (9000') which is the same vertical rise from the base camp of Everest to it's summit. After 17k, we got our first glimpse of the Emperor Face and the North Face. The Emperor Face has only seen a few ascents by the likes of Mugs Stump, Steve House, Colin Haley, among other hardmen. The North Face, long regarded as one of the greatest snow/ice climbs in the world, was skied by Troy Jungen and Ptor Spricenieks in the 90's. You can stare at both for hours. I'm not kidding. I think I just stared for at least 5 hours.

The North Face (left) and Emperor Face (right). Photo: Kristin Campbell