Date: August 18 - 20, 2023
Location: Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
Total Trip Distance: 26.88 mi / 43.25 km Total Elevation Gain: 7,356 ft / 2,242 m
Trip Duration: 3 days
Team: With Alex Catalfamo
Field Notes: Excelsior Mountain is a straightforward scramble with little exposure and steepness. As indicted in the trip notes below, make sure to take the climbers left ridge to the col between Excelsior and Centre to avoid a horrible boulder field. I bailed 1,000 feet below the summit of Tekarra the following morning as I woke up with flu-like conditions.
Rating: Excelsior, Class 2
Smoke, Rain, and Snow
A few weeks ago Alex had come up with the idea of going to Jasper. Personally, I did not want to drive seven hours one-way when we have such fantastic mountains within a three hour radius. However, I was easily convinced by a waitress at a Mexican restaurant one night. Secondly, the Icefield Parkway is apparently a classic drive. Being in Canada for just the summer we had to commit (or really, I had to commit). Alex had come up with this trip and wanted to bag a few peaks off of the Skyline trail. We took three days off of work, woke up early on Friday, and made the seven hour drive north. The forecast wasn't incredibly inspiring. The smoke from the wildfires was particularly bad and the forecast for our hike in was calling for heavy snow and rain.
By the time we had driven an hour from Fernie, we were socked in with heavy smoke for the next four hours. We couldn't even see the mountains in front of us. What was once heavy smoke turned into heavy rain. We drove the entire Icefield Parkway in torrential freezing rain. Seven hours later we were in Jasper and the sky looked to be clearing.
We started hiking on the Skyline Trail that heads up to Signal Mountain. This is probably the easiest 3,000 feet you could even climb in your life. The grade is so casual I could've done 10,000. As we neared the junction to go towards Tekarra camp, the rain started coming down. Then the rain turned to snow. Then the snow really started coming down. You gotta love the mountains.
We arrived at Tekarra camp with only one other person there and a couple inches of snow on the ground. We were pretty cold, camp, and set up camp quickly. I love the feeling of eating a hot meal in your sleeping bad while watching steam fill the tent, blood pushing through your body to get warm.
Excelsior Mountain
The good thing about the cold weather is we slept like dogs. I think we got about seven hours each so we were thrilled. There was quite a bit of heavy fog / cloud in the valley so we took our time having breakfast, stretched out, and even did some Wim Hof in the tent. By 9 am we decided to make a move.
As soon as we departed the skies cleared. We followed the Skyline trail until you reach a patch of trees just before reaching the ridge of Centre Mountain that meets the trail. We took a left here and entered the basin between Excelsior and Centre. From here, it is important to work climbers left and gain the ridge made of alpine scrub / rock rather than the massive boulder field on the climbers right hand side. This should be extremely obvious. At first, we didn't go climbers left hard enough and were messing around on the boulders. I had us drop down a bit and gain the opposite ridge on the climbers left. What a difference! Smooth, easy travel led us to the col between Excelsior and Centre.
From the col, the climbing is never more than class 2 scrambling. We brought helmets and I felt it wasn't really necessary, but to each there own. There is an obvious ledge (as seen in the photo) that we easily bypassed by sidling left underneath it. Once passed this obvious ledge, we climbed straight up to gain the summit ridge. Our only difficulty was the 2 inches of fresh snow on top of loose rocks, so care was to be taken. Soon enough we were standing on the summit with clouds obscuring many of the surrounding peaks.
One could imagine the views would be quite special on a clear day. We hung out for a bit, enjoyed the silence, snapped obligatory summit photos, and made our way back to camp.
Mount Tekarra
We arrived back at camp at 2:30 and casually took an hour to pack things up. We had eyed a tarn on the map about 1,500 feet below Tekarra and decided to move camp for an easier summit day. It took about an hour to reach this "high camp" from Tekarra camp. I'm glad we made the move, it was beautiful and very peaceful.
As we arrived at camp, I found myself feeling run down and unwell. I figured it was the shitty food I had been eating for the last two days. So what did I do? I ate two packages of some ramen noodle type of thing, stretched out, and went to bed. I fell asleep rather quickly but woke up at 1:30 in the morning with my heart pounding and my body feeling very tired. It felt as if I was coming down with the flu.
I attempted to calm my mind, focus on my breathing, and get back to sleep. By 5:30 it was time to get up as we had a mountain to summit and a seven hour drive ahead of us. I felt extremely run down and had no energy. Fuck. It was the first time I was "sick" in three years. I figured I'd still give it a go and see what happened once I started moving. There was no improvement. I felt nauseous, weak, and dizzy.
1,000 feet from the summit and an icy, snow covered scree gully ahead of us and I decided this was my finish line. I was also slowing Alex down and knew he wanted to bag this peak. I told him I'd wait for him in camp. Personally, I have no issue turning around in the mountains. Of course I want the summit, but bad things happen in the mountains when one doesn't pay attention. The mountain gives signs, the body gives signs, and one's intuition gives signs. Today, the mountain conditions were shit for scrambling. Icy, steep, snow covered gully. I watched as Alex climbed and knocked off rocks that screamed down below where I would've been climbing. Safer for him to be solo.
My body hurt. It was tired and needed rest.
My intuition spoke clearly - this isn't your day. I've made a lot of mistakes in the mountain and have gotten away unscathed (except that one time I shattered my foot falling 20 feet - that fucked me up). Also, I love climbing mountains...but I've learned my happiness doesn't depend on it. I'm at peace with not summiting every mountain I try to climb. Some people are okay with that internally, some are not. There is no right or wrong - only consequences.
I made my way back down to camp and went back to bed. It felt nice to layer Alex's bag on top of mine and feel the tent warm up with the rising sun. Unfortunately, wildfire smoke was coming back with a vengeance. Alex said it totally obscured the summit view. By 10 Alex was back at camp. I had a coffee, we quickly packed camp and made the 4 hour non-stop walk out to the car. Not going to lie - I felt like shit. The drive home was not fun and I almost puked. Oddly enough, I woke up the next morning after sleeping ten and a half hours and felt amazing. Life is a complete mystery. Happy days...
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