Date: September 9-10, 2023
Location: Purcell Mountains, British Columbia, Canada
Total Trip Distance: 10.36 mi / 16.67 km Total Elevation Gain: 6,400 ft / 1,951 m
Trip Duration: Day 1: 2 hours 17 min | Day 2: 6 hours 55 min
Team: With Alex Catalfamo
Field Notes: We did this trip with a fast and light bivy about 1,000 meters below the summit. However, most will do this in one long day. This is a very steep mountain. However, if one pays attention to route-finding it is nothing more than class 3 scrambling. If you find yourself on class 4 terrain you're off route. There is plenty of water on the ascent until the actual climb begins on the southwest face.
Rating: Class 3
Last Minute Decisions
It's funny that one of the best trips of summer almost didn't happen. This was our final weekend in Canada. Alex and I are heading back home to a wedding and then I'm going to move to New Zealand in October. So with one last weekend, we wanted to continue our flow of great trips.
We talked about what we wanted to do this weekend and I was in favor of an overnight trip because the weather was perfect. Alex had talked about doing Nelson all summer, but this is really a day trip. I figured we were going to do a traverse of Warrior and Cordonnier in Peter Lougheed National Park, but Alex wanted to go somewhere different.
The plan was then to drive up to Glacier National Park and climb Mount Afton. It looks to be a spectacular climb but is also a day trip. When I woke up in the morning I thought, "why the fuck are we driving 5 hours to do a day trip?" There is no right or wrong here - it's all personal preference. Alex and I have different goals and motivations in the mountains. We all do. For me personally, the last thing I want to do is work all week and be gifted a near perfect weather forecast, only to drive five hours to a place to do a day trip when there is so much to do with a significantly shorter drive. This would mean we would spend more time driving than hiking.
I figured I would just suck it up and go with it as Alex wanted to go to a place we've never been before leaving Canada. Again - different goals and motivations. Two hours into the drive with three more hours to go I was thinking what a mistake this was going to be and wanted to get out of the car. Then something magical happened. We were nearing Invermere I looked to my left and saw a massive, stunning, beautiful peak. Immediately I thought, "that's Mount Nelson." I checked my GPS and sure enough it was. I looked at Alex and suggested we should climb that instead. About a minute or two of back and forth he made a u-turn. He didn't need convincing anyways. We were going to climb Nelson, I was going to avoid driving another three hours, and Alex was going to summit the peak he desired most. Happy. Days.
A Very Steep Approach
After our low clearance, 2wd car bottomed out on Delphine Creek Road we reached the trailhead. My energy was back and I was psyched to head up the mountain. I was a bit nervous I'll admit. From the road, Nelson is a beast. I had read a few trip reports and others have made it out to be a "no fall extreme exposure" type of climb.
After a quick stretch, we packed up our things and got moving. I was experimenting this weekend with a fast and light approach. I was able to fit all of my gear into a Black Diamond Speed 22 liter pack (and I didn't have to cram anything in). The more and more I am in the mountains, the less I want to carry things around. I have a very minimalist mindset and want to be light on my feet. The beauty of this trip was getting to bring the tarp instead of a tent.
Once we left our car, the trail starts by crossing over a creek and then turning immediately to the climbers right. If the trail isn't obvious, there is a cairn and orange flagging tape. From here, the trail is relentlessly up for about 650 meters. I'm not kidding, this is the steepest trail I've ever been on in my life. We did 650 meters in one hour and we were not moving fast by any means.
On our way up we passed two different groups - a couple and a solo dude. Neither had summited as both had issues with route finding. Before doing the trip, Alex and I had both looked at the description and reviews of Mount Nelson on the All Trails app. Personally, I try to avoid using that app for beta on climbs / scrambles. The reason is because the majority of the people using that app have very limited experience in the mountains and will provide information that is either not useful or can hinder a trip.
Scrambling is not hiking just like alpine climbing is not scrambling. Neither is "superior" but requires a different level of fitness, skills, and experience.
All Trails is a hiking app, after all. On one review of Nelson in the All Trails app, a person wrote "fears like I've never experienced." This is written by a person who most likely did their first ever scramble on Nelson (nothing wrong with that). As I'll write later on, this is nothing more than a class 3 scramble. This is not to be judgemental but rather to aid in better trip planning (which is why I don't use All Trails for these types of trips). Better trip planning results in more summits, less headaches, less danger, and less time off route - all of which leads to a better experience. This is something I really value after spending a lot of my early years missing out on summits because of poor trip planning. Again - to each their own.
After the first 650 meters, the trail mellows and finds its way into a basin. We broke out of the trees and got a view of Mount Nelson in the distance. It is indeed a steep mountain. We kept climbing up, following a stream on our right. After climbing 1,000 meters from the valley floor, we eyed the last patch of green in the valley and made camp.
The night was simply perfect. There was almost no wind, there were no bugs, and the temp really cooled off. We didn't even pitch the tarp and opted to sleep under the stars. We had our first fire of the whole summer in a protected cove of some rocks and watched the stars slowly come out overhead. It was probably the best night of the whole summer and I went to bed thanking God for the gift of being alive. After counting five shooting stars I tried my best to fall asleep.
Mount Nelson
"Hahahahaha." It was 4 am and I was wondering why Alex was laughing just like he was wondering why I was moving around at 4 am. It was cold. When I walked near his bag he broke out in laughter and said that he hadn't slept all night. Neither had I. We've been cursed this summer with very poor sleep in the hills. Oh well! We were absolutely stoked to go up Nelson.
I grabbed the fuel can and made a coffee. I sat in my sleeping bag, laid back against a patch of grass, and drank a delicious hot coffee under a blanket of stars. You wonder in these moments if you're dreaming. Alex then had the idea of the summer and relight the fire from last night. So here we are at 4:30 in the morning under the silence of a looming dawn and a looming Mount Nelson. Perfection. I almost enjoy these moments more than the summits.
Once we had enough light to move without headlamps we made our way towards Nelson. As we neared the foot of the southwest face Alex commented, "most mountains get less steep the closer you get, Nelson seems to get steeper the closer you get." This seemed to be the case.
At the bottom of the face I thought I had scoped a good line to the summit block. There is an obvious gully / rock ramp that leads through the cliff bands. At the top of the gully it meets a wall. From here, go climbers right to bypass this wall and climb above it. Then sidle back climbers left onto the face where unimpeded travel meets the summit block. From there, we would make a decision on how to reach the top.
We took this proposed route and began our climb. Indeed it was steep, but never more than class 3 scrambling. I only used my hands for balance, but not for climbing. At the top of the gully, we sidled climbers right and got onto the face. From here it was a straight grind to reach the summit block. The view behind us towards Sultana Peak was amazing.
At the top of the face we reached the summit block. There was a big cairn that someone had marked with a piece of flagging tape indicating the route. The route goes up to the climbers left through an obvious gap in the face. I looked at Alex - "take us to the summit bro." You could tell how fired up he was to be here. He had wanted to bag Nelson all summer and here we were just fifty meters from the top!
Alex charged up the easy class 3 slopes and yelled down for me to come next. Once past this obstacle, the climb goes up easy ledges to reach the summit ridge. Alex cheered out as he spotted the cross on the summit. I snapped a photo of him alone on the peak and then went to join him. Mount Nelson, 9 am, all alone in the Purcells. Magic.
Descent
This peak made for my 19th Canadian summit this summer. For Alex, number 20. Before we came out here I didn't think that we would have had so many amazing trips. It seems like everything fell into place. Nelson was just another domino to fall. Perfect weather, perfect camp spot, no issues with route finding, and a good slog. We snapped our final photos and made the decision to walk the 2,000 meters back down to the car.
We practiced good mountain sense by not descending on top of each other for the descent. When coming off the face, one has to take care here. The rockfall danger here is no joke. It seems like the Canadian Rockies are one massive pile of loose rocks. Both of our new shoes are literally falling apart after five or six weeks of scrambling out here. The terrain is super rough. I'll spare the details, but I was relieved to get off the face as its rough going. We got to the bottom and I stripped down to just shorts for the walk out. We rock hopped our way back to camp and threw our things into our bags. The final jaunt back to the car was one thing - steep. My quads were annihilated on the final 650 meter descent to the car. Holy shit! This was so steep - did I say that enough? At the car we had one last objective - a cold plunge. If anyone actually reads this blog besides my mom, you know I love cold water. So we found a pullout and laid down into the frigid Toby Creek, ending an epic final trip of glorious Canadian summer peak bagging.
Happy days...
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