Belated Robinson Trip Report

[handslive]

I made a list. I checked it several times more than twice. I needed a list because we were packing in a bit more of a hurry than normal and actually I would need a list anyway. Somehow 'camera' didn't make the list. Well, I've never had my own camera before, so this was no surprise. Anyway, the camera ended up staying home while me and my stuff went hiking. Aargh.

The drive out was quiet (for me anyway). My two books (Pashazade, by Jon Grimwood, and All Tomorrow's Parties, by William Gibson) were in my pack in the trunk, but I'd downloaded and formatted for TealDoc on my Visor the Gutenberg Project's copy of The Three Musketeers.

Mount Robson was marvelously clear when we arrived (it always knows when purplejavatroll is arriving). We confirmed our booking at the trail office, ate a little lunch, and hit the trail. It was a nice hike and I kicked myself a little for not having a camera.

Our first night was at Whitehorn, about 10km in. It's a nice campsite and the hike wasn't too hard. The next day we headed on to Berg Lake and arrived with my sister C complaining that we really weren't ever going to arrive. pjt and I got our old tent pad from last time (nicely balanced between close to things and off the beaten track). The view across the lake was lovely and I kicked myself for not having a camera.

Day three we decided in the afternoon, since it was nice out, to do a short hike up to Hargeaves Lake and around to Toboggan Falls. We had a slightly nerve-racking traverse of a steep scree slope to get from our view of the lake back onto the trail, but it went well. And I was really kicking myself for not having a camera.

C had been having some trouble with her hip flexors following the hike in and this little day hike didn't help matters much, unfortunately. The next day, she decided to take the day off while pjt and I hiked up to Snowbird Pass. This is about 22km round-trip with a similar change in elevation (over 700m) as hiking the whole trail to Berg Lake (which is about 22km one way). So, it's about twice as steep as going to Berg Lake.

C's decision to stay back was probably a good one. pjt and I had to invent a new phrase for the difficulty of this hike. Previous hikes, using terminology from one pjt's trail guide books, have been 'arduous' or 'pulse-pounding'. This one was 'heart-stopping'.

The first kilometer or so is flat and travels around the tip of Berg Lake and then follows a river up to a small lake which sits just below Robson Glacier. At this point the trail climbs very quickly above the glacier. The entire trail is just packed scree in a variety of ankle-twisting sizes. At one point, they've had to reinforce the trail with 4x4 posts and they've put steel poles in with heavy chain to assist hikers going up and down the path (and hopefully prevent them falling the 100m or so down onto a lower ridge of scree.

At the top of this climb (which is probably half the altitude gain), there is a marvelous view of Robson's north face and of the glacier. (And I'm badly bruised from self-kicking by this point.) Then we turn and cross one of the most stunning alpine meadows I've ever been in. It's probably just under 2km across this meadow, populated by fat little chipmunks and an amazing number of marmots. Then we hit scree again and climb rapidly to the top of the pass. This climb feels worse, although I'm not sure it's actually as steep as the first ascent was, because you're walking more or less straight towards your destination which doesn't seem to get any closer for the first 2km or so.

And then suddenly, you're at the top. We stopped for lunch and to search for our lungs in the debris. After a 45min rest, we headed up another steep scree slope (I tell you, there's a lot of loose gravel in the Rockies) we got our first view of (I think) Coleman Glacier. By know, I'm insensible with regret over the missing camera. We traverse the slope to the next marker, which gives a damn good view of the middle of the glacier, and pjt takes about 10 or 15 pictures right here. You can't really convey the size of it with pictures. You can pan about 180deg and not see either end of the glacier. The expanse of ice is huge. We went to the next marker where you start to see the slope of the mountain the glacier proceeds down at (I think) the western edge.

Then it was time to turn around and go back. Ouch. When I've successfully repressed the memories of the actual hike, I'm going to have to back with my camera in tow. It's on my list now. And maybe I'll have a light tripod with me by then.

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