It’s a well-known fact that you’re gonna get a real ass kicking on the hike into Wedgemount Lake. I had made the trip several times in the past and knew the drill. This time was no exception. There is about twelve hundred metres elevation gain in a little less than seven km. That is steep in anybody’s book. Laden as we were with overnight gear and climbing stuff made this a real slog-fest. Good thing was that this was years ago when we were young and dumb. The saving graces were of course the shortness of the actual distance and the beauty of the area once you finally made the lake. Colin and I headed up the trail in late afternoon and made the hut just before twilight, and were pleased to find that we had the place to ourselves.
I had climbed Wedge before, by another route, in another epic day, but that story is recounted elsewhere. This trip we were going for the elegant NW arête. It’s the thin ridge on the edge of the shadow line in the centre of the photo. It provides wonderful climbing with great position and exposure. The difficulty and danger of the route are totally dependent upon the snow conditions; which can vary from mush to bullet hard ice. And can render the ridge with a rounded or a knife edge countenance.
This was late in the month of May, and we had been treated to a weather smorgasbord on the hike in, facing wind, mist, snow, and even hail, so as we settled in for the night we were more than a bit concerned that we would have poor weather for our climb on the following day. However the day dawned crisp and fair. We decided that we would take the most direct route possible to the arête itself. This involved crossing the glacier, and navigating through a small icefall before we arrived at the base of the western flank of the ridge. There is a fairly steep face here that has a serious bergschrund that needs to be negotiated. Ice tools in hand we dispatched with that in short order, and were soon on the crest of the arête. We were delighted to find the snow in perfect condition. The arête itself was rounded and not knife-edge, so it was pretty smooth going. At no time did we think that the other would have to throw themselves off the other side if the other guy slipped off one side, although in theory that could be a possibility. There certainly was a lot of air on either side of us which was exhilarating. The snow got harder and icier of course as we moved higher, but never too hard that the crampons didn’t get good purchase. Colin and I both agree that this really was one of the best days we have ever spent in the mountains. Unfortunately in seemingly no time at all the real fun was over, as the angle eased and we found ourselves stepping onto the summit. Two guys sharing a well gained summit, on a beauty day, with no one else around for miles in any direction; it really doesn’t get too much better than this. This is the essence of what we do this for, distilled down into one brief moment in time. But of course the reverie can’t last forever and we were faced with the uncomfortable drudgery of descending the interminable talus on the other side, and the hike back to the hut. We packed up our stuff and headed down the steep trail. We met a family about halfway down on their way up that looked really shagged out and had apparently been on the trail for some length of time. They wanted to know how far the hut was, and we said not far… but then Colin after hearing how long they had been hiking for suggests that a better plan might be for them to camp the night right there. It never ceases to amaze me how some people are so underprepared for endeavours they embark on. We left them to their night on the boulder field and we jogged down the trail into the gathering dusk.
Epilogue:
This story unfortunately has a tragic epilogue that goes with it. In the early autumn of nineteen eighty nine a friend of mine died on this route. Scott was one of my closest climbing partners, and was best man at my wedding. He was twenty nine at the time, and himself a newlywed. Scott was one of these guys that would drive you nuts. Totally ‘type-A’. He had a long history of throwing caution to the wind with his devil may care attitude, and apparently had used up some of his nine lives already with his antics. But he was a fun guy to hang out with and to climb with, and would share his last grain of rice with you. Problem was that he was still relatively new to climbing so maybe his experience was not aligned with his sights and his zeal. He had some decent alpine climbs under his belt, including a nice ascent of Skyladder on Andromeda, as well as two good attempts on Robson.
After our lack of summiting Robson earlier in the year, I think that Scott felt that he needed some form of redemption, and I guess he was seeking just that by soloing Wedge by the NW arête. I had received a call from Scott whilst he was on a business trip to Vancouver. He knew that I had climbed this route and wanted the beta. We had a lengthy conversation and I told him what I knew of the climb of course, but I also strongly cautioned him about soloing it, and how dangerous it could be dependent upon the conditions. In fact I was kind of jealous that he was out there getting to climb and I was missing out on the action. But I was thousands of kilometers away and that was that. Before we said our goodbyes he sounded uncertain that he was actually going to do this, and seemed to be wrestling with the decision to climb or to come home for the weekend to be with Patti.
I found out his decision a few days later when we got a call from his cousin, saying that he had died. We were all stunned of course. The tears didn’t stop for days. The thoughts would constantly come to me about things like; it was me that really introduced Scott to climbing, what could I have said on that phone call that would have changed things, could we have climbed differently over the years that would have fostered a different attitude? Years later I am still not sure if the universe works that way or not.
In the following days details would come to be clearer as we got more information. Apparently he did make the summit. He also apparently opted to down climb the route as opposed to walking off the long talus slopes on the other side. He must have slipped and been unable to self-arrest. The climb is exposed and it’s very easy to see that a fall of this nature would have the outcome that it did.