Fist, The
Trip Report
After scrambling Mount Smuts Dave, Blair and I figured that we should tack on another difficult scramble just to make sure our day was filled up! We circled all the way around Mount Smuts after descending it's harrowing gully and side-sloped for what seemed like hours till we finally came to the Smuts / Fist col. Actually it did take us quite a while to do the hike around Smuts and to The Fist. There were sections of nasty bushwhacking and sections of really bad side-sloping and even some pretty slick snow we had to cross. It actually took us 3 hours to go from the summit of Smuts to the Fist / Smuts col while going all the way from the parking lot to the summit of Smuts only took me 2.5 hours!
We met up with a group of climbers from Edmonton at the Smuts / Fist col just after they came off The Fist. After chatting for a bit we headed for the ascent gully. The climb up the ascent gully was fun but a lot looser than Smuts! It was also a lot less exposed but a slip still would have hurt a bit. Rockfall was the main concern in the gully - but be forewarned, it is a steep endeavour and not to be taken too lightly. I wouldn't even consider trying it without a helmet and certainly not if anyone else was in the gully already.
Eventually we popped out of the gully and navigated some really exposed terrain to get to the summit. While Blair searched out some exposed stuff to fool around on, Dave and I sucked in the views and as much liquids as we could! We didn't stay at the summit for long and soon were dumping rocks on eachother down the gully.
Other than one tense moment when Dave put all his weight on the exact rock I had just told him was loose and sent 50lbs of rock crashing down over my hand and just past Blair (he thought I meant the OTHER one!) - we made it down with no major incidents. I'm sure glad I am 6ft tall because some of the downclimbing in the gully was a lot easier for someone with good reach! If you're not used to very steep and loose terrain and you haven't just done Smuts I think you could find this scramble quite difficult in places. It kind of reminded me a bit of the upper part of Dolomite Peak.
Once we made it back to the col we spent the next hour bushwhacking our way down to the trail and out to our bikes. I was surprised that there was no trail down from the col but I think we might have done better by traversing further south before cutting down. Bikes are really nice after a long, hot day of walking and we were at the parking lot in no time flat. Round trip time was just under 9 hours.
 The side sloping hurt but there were hundreds and hundreds of beautiful flowers to help distract us from the pain! |
 Blair cuts up a section of our side-sloping experience. |
 Dave coming down the ridge on the Smuts - Fist col. |
 The ascent gully from the col. |
 Dave in the ascent gully. |
 Blair fooling around at the summit of The Fist. |
 Vern and Blair on the summit. |
 Panorama of Mount Smuts from the summit of The Fist. |
 Dave on the summit with his last Spray Lakes objective in the background (Mount Nestor). |
 Blair using friction to slow himself down in The Fist's gully on descent. |
 Smuts through The Fist's descent gully - I'm waiting for Dave to finish kicking down rocks! |