Mountaineering Camp - July 2010

by Dave McCormick

The Section just completed it's 3rd Mountaineering Camp, held this year out of the Stanley Mitchell hut in the Little Yoho Valley of Yoho National Park.

A total of 21 people, many beginners to mountaineering, attended this camp and had fun meeting new people, learning new techniques and skills and getting a tremendous amount of exercise climbing up and down hills.

Pictures are being added to our web album space, where you can see what happened during our 4 days of activities. We hope to have more stories sharing individual perspectives about the camp posted here in the coming days.

A couple of notes: Access to Mt President and Mt Vice President is becoming increasingly difficult. The bergschrund near President Pass increases in size annually and this year the small route remaining was threatened from overhead by 2 large snow cornices. There appears to be a possible route near the left side of the 'schrund, but it remains problematic for large groups.

The circle route around Mt McArthur and Mt Pollinger was lots of fun with no serious issues other than the short climb near Mt Pollinger. It was a relatively long day, but the route and the conditions were nearly ideal this year. Everyone enjoyed it.

Mt Kerr remains an enjoyable scramble and this year we had good conditions for lots of glissading (ie: bum sliding), crevasse rescue practice, self-arrest practice and a bit of excitement caused by some lightning arriving late one morning. Nothing like being able to lose elevation quickly!

Thanks go to Joel for taking on the Camp Manager's role. Also to Jesse and Mark for sharing the leadership and instructional tasks with me. Kobus helped us understand details of sunscreen chemistry and Mark explained maps. Thanks go also to some of the more experienced participants (thanks Jeff and Greg) who helped by knowing where to be when some assistance was needed. And finally to everyone who helped carry ropes, set up ropes, clean the hut, chop wood and all those little things that make an activity like this possible.

Plans for another camp next summer are already in the development stages. Stay tuned.