 Mount Edith
- Canadian Rockies
Aug 23/2002.
Well I've always liked the looks of Mount Edith. It's just that Alan Kane's description in his book
"Scrambling in the Canadian Rockies" had me worried.
It seems to me though that he often makes the scrambles sound worse than they really are, and in the case of Mount Edith
I found this is true.
On the way up I had an ozone buzz. It felt like the nitrous oxide dentists use to make you numb before
they do their dirty deed. It could have been the late start.
Antioxidants are required in this situation.
It was hot, hot, hot
on the way up the lower part of the mountain to Cory pass. I passed
a blond couple and they tried to keep up to me but the heat makes it
doubly tough unless you have a mountain biking background where
dealing with intense pain is a thing to be relished. They had little
luck!
Once at the pass I noticed two people. One was a blip
just reaching the summit of Mount Louis. The other was a beautiful woman sitting with her
mate.
I noticed how
familiar she was to someone I used to know. She wore a bucket hat
and had a pleasant smile. The sunglasses completed the illusion. It
was uncanny.
As for the three peaks, the most difficult part for me was the chimney on the north side of the north peak. At one point all you have is a large polished foot hold.
On the way up I had
difficulty in getting my left foot onto it. I have an injury to my left knee that restricts mobility in that joint.
On the way down I also had an awkward moment with this slippery
foot hold. If you do fall at this point though it would only hurt, not kill, unless you bonk your head,
so of course
use a helmet. There is an alternate, less steep chimney on the south side.
The Center peak is just business as usual with no surprises to report. Once you are done with the views go down the gully to the south. It's wide and descends directly to the Center-South col. Once at the col if you look up you'll see a window in the South peak.
Kane's book makes it sound small but in reality a small elephant could get
through, assuming that it had prehensile appendages.
Once on top the way is easy as the ledges are wide and cairns mark the way. Be careful to look for the logical way, but I can report no real difficulties.
At one point, after reaching the southern most reach of the wall you must go up and into a crack that lies between the wall and a flake. In this flake you must pull yourself up and over a
stone.
After that the way is easy and
the final ridge is not particularly scary; Kane makes it sound worse than it is.
However this is just my opinion so if you go and kill yourself don't come back to haunt me and say "Oooooo Helmer you said it was easy!".
I'll say "you
poor klutz". RIP. You deserve it, you've earned your peace.
CANADIAN MOUNTAIN PANORAMAS
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26. Mt. Edith
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 ifficulty, my brethren, is the
nurse of greatness --a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her
foster-children into strength and athletic proportion.
William C. Bryant
1794-1878, American Poet, Newspaper Editor
 here is
one topic peremptorily forbidden to all well-bred, to all rational
mortals, namely, their distempers. If you have not slept, or if
you have slept, or if you have headache, or sciatica, or leprosy,
or thunder-stroke, I beseech you, by all angels, to hold your
peace, and not pollute the morning.
Ralph
Waldo Emerson
1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
 hen a noble life has prepared old
age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of
immortality.
Germaine De Stael
1766-1817, French-Swiss Novelist
©
CanadasMountains.com + Tim L. Helmer
Friday February 08, 2008 11:21 AM
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