Coleman, Mount
Trip Report
On Thursday, July 30 2009 I joined Eric Coulthhard from Edmonton on a trip up Mount Coleman in Banff National Park.
In order to facilitate an earlier arrival back home to Calgary after the scramble, we both stayed overnight near the trailhead and agreed to leave the parking lot around 0530. This was my first scramble with Eric and we proved to have much in common, including our love of the mountains and our method of ascent.
I met Eric at the trailhead and we started up the trail in the dim light of a mountain morning. Eric was in great shape and we chatted and climbed up the rather steep trail to Sunset Pass. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this trail. It would be a bugger with a big pack on but got 500 vertical meters off the ascent in short order.
Once at the pass the sun was coming up, but there was still frost on the surrounding vegetation! We hiked through an empty Norman Lake campground and continued for our objective which was clearly to our left. We weren't sure if we should go all the way to Sunset Pass or not but soon itchy feet won out and we started crossing the open meadows / marsh area that makes up the Sunset Meadows. This is a beautiful and remote area - I'll be back for sure sometime to explore it more.
We ascended an obvious gully up the left shoulder of Coleman. The vegetation was wet from the morning frost and as we got higher into the warm sunshine we experienced the only negative part of our day - the bugs! I've heard rumors about the bugs around Sunset Pass and they're true. If you're in that area during a warm summer day I highly recommend that you bring some bug spray along.
As we got higher on the shoulder we realized that we could either traverse high above the gully on climber's left or descend slightly and go right up the gully. I voted for the gully for two reasons - there was snow which would provide easy step kicking and the higher traverse looked like it could get very tricky after a bit. Eric agreed with me and we descended slightly and began the grunt up to the high col.
As you gaze at the high col from the Sunset Pass trail you may not realize that you have to gain almost 900 meters just to the col but you will feel it once you start going up to it! :-) Eric did a great job kicking small steps in the snow patches that we came across and finally we reached the col to some fabulous views. Looking south was smokey because of fires but the views to the west and north were incredible. It was also very nice to realize that we were only about 300-400 vertical meters from the summit at this point and this was the fun stuff.
From the col to the summit I found the scrambling very enjoyable and not that difficult. We basically followed the crest of the ridge and eventually started finding the occasional cairn. I would caution against wandering too far to climber's right in search of a 'gully' because Kane's gully is the shallow one right next to the ridge crest on climber's right.
After some upper-moderate scrambling we popped out on the ridge and could see our short traverse to the main summit. We chose to carefully make our way along the glacier on the north side in order to access the final summit bump on the way up but it is avoidable on climber's right if you want to avoid it - there are some massive holes on this glacier and there's a good chance that some of them are right at the col so if you do venture onto it make sure you probe carefully. Because of our early start time we were on the summit of Coleman shortly after 10AM.
The summit was small but we both fit no problem. After 30-45 minutes in the very cool wind with some mind blowing views, we were ready to start heading down. We encountered no other problems except for the black flies lower down, which were merciless. We retured that attitude back on them several times. We chose to follow the main gully rather than our smaller ascent gully on the way down and that worked well. At first we traversed on animal trails alongside the skier's right but after a while we simply dropped right into the gully and enjoyed some very refreshing stream water in the increasing heat.
We chanced on Twin Falls which was a nice distraction on the way back to the Sunset Pass trail and had a nice walk back to the parking lot. This is a rarely ascended peak that deserves your attention if you like more remote scrambles with great views and no highway to the summit.
The evening before climbing Coleman I took some pictures near the Rampart Creek Campground. I heard rustling behind me and saw something along the highway...
Yep! A large black bear comes by:
We've already done 500 vertical meters and are crossing the meadows towards Mount Coleman. We went up the obvious gully on the left and then crossed over into the larger gully straight up to the col. It really doesn't look like it from this angle but it's almost 900 vertical meters to the col and 'only' about 350 vertical meters from there to the summit.
A great view of Mount Amery across the Sunset Meadows, looking back on the way up.
Getting higher up on the shoulder now, Mount Erasmus comes into view. Eric really wants to get up Erasmus! :-)
Using the snow was a great idea on the way up and even better on the way down!
Looking up at the final 350 vertical to the summit ridge from the col. Don't take the large gullies to climber's right, but stick as close as you can to climber's left on the ridge, you should see some cairns on the way. We came down the first larger gully though.
Looking back at the shoulder of Coleman with Amery in the background.
Eric poses on the summit ridge with Columbia and Saskatchewan dominating the background.
Looking up the Alexandra River valley.
I'm pretty sure that the big peak in the background is one of the Lyell's.
Eric goes around a corner on the way up to the ridge.
Eric scrambles a fun section - note the cairn above him:
An outlier of Cirrus Mountain:
Eric looks ahead at more interesting sections of the climb:
The North Saskatchewan River is far below us now. Mount Wilson is also in view.
Mount Columbia:
Coleman Lake and Cirrus Mountain from near the summit ridge:
Eric on the ridge:
Just before the summit there's an opportunity for slab climbing!
The views from the summit were awesome!
Mount Columbia looks big from here.
Mount Saskatchewan looks impressive too!
Summit panorama (click to view full size):
Mount Alexandra:
The glacier on Coleman is surprisingly steep and fractured. It would not be a straight-forward ascent.
Vern on the summit of Mount Coleman:
Looking up the Alexandra River valley from the summit:
The summit register was full of impressive names:
Sonny gives some entertaining thoughts:
Eric works his way back along the summit ridge:
Cirrus Mountain and Eric on the summit ridge:
Great views of the mountain from our descent gully:
Beautiful set of falls with Mount Coleman in the background (click to view full size):
