Our day began with a 6:30am wakeup, so we could walk to Papa George's for a vegetarian Eggs Benny breakfast, to fuel our climbing adventure. We grabbed our lunch sandwiches and treats from the Bear's Paw first, then ate our Bennies and back to the hostel to pack up, check out, and head off to climb.
We got to the parking lot area for Morro and started on the hike at 10:15am; this is post-sufferfest because we drove instead of biking, but that's okay, as there may have been a bit of suffering still. It was still pretty cool as we started off up the Overlanded Trail, looking for the side trail up to the Guide's Route on Morro, and out chosen objective there, the Spring Break climbing route - 9 pitches of relatively moderate climbing, fully bolted, rising 290 meters.
We found the trail, and then the route fairly easily, seeing another group on the Guide's Route, about a pitch above us. We got organized and discussed our routines, as this was the first multipitch climb we have tried this year. I started up the first pitch, one of the harder ones, and quickly recalled how much loose rock and gravel there can be on limestone at this latitude - the ledges were covered in gravel and there were some big holds that were quite loose/could be pulled out.
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| At the base of Spring Break, all smiles. |
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| Looking up Spring Break, first pitch |
The first two pitches were fun climbing going up nearly vertical rock with big holds. The third pitch was lower angle but long, and the wind made communication impossible. Thankfully, Marieka had asked about this and we worked out a system of rope tugs to communicate "secure" (I'm secured to the anchor) and "belay is on" (it's all set up for you to climb), so Marieka would know when to start climbing.
As we went on, I started climbing faster and encouraging quick changeovers to keep climbing, as black clouds were hanging over us, it was not warm (I actually climbed in a lightly insulated long sleeved jacket), the wind was strong, and I could see the time passing on my watch.
We got to the top around 4pm and it was awesome, but there was no clear path out. Double-checking the route information also didn't help, as it just said "scramble up the path of least resistance". Who knew that a big part of the adventure would be finding the hiking trail to get off the mountain!
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| At the top of the climbing route, but not the end of the adventure. |
We scrambled and bush-wacked up, generally trending left, finding a few rock cairns and signs of human traffic between absolutely losing all signs of the best way, until I heard voices and, up and to our left, caught sight of the other pair of climbers. I felt a bit of frustration as Marieka needed a quick break, but I let this pass, reminded her about the fruit bar I had given her, and explored in that direction, finally finding the hiking trail - well-trod and marked with orange flagging tape. It had been half an hour and finding this came with a rush of relief. Taking a guess, we started down this trail, which generally headed in the right direction. However, I felt a silent worry when it began turning back to the left, towards the cliffs and climbing routes there. I recalled there was another climbing route between where we had finished and worried that this was coming from the top of this route. It was not until we had gone nearly 500 meters down this trail that I felt confident we were on the right trail. It was still a significant distance of steep hiking before we were back near where we had started.
It was almost 6pm Alberta time that we got back to the car and we drove back to Jasper while wolfing down our lunch sandwiches. There, we fuelled up, grabbed some snacks and juice for the road, and began the drive back home. Once we passed Mount Robson we drove into rain, which was our companion all the way home. As we arrived in Prince George slightly after 9, and we had no fresh food at home, we dined at Crossroads, then got home late, to roll into bed and worry about unpacking tomorrow.
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