top of page

August 28, 2019

First Rock Band after Sentinel Pass

Banff National Park, Alberta

 

 

Stats as Recorded by Suunto Traverse

Distance : 10.53km

Elevation : 903m 

Ascent :  2h39m 

Descent : 2h31m 

Tower of Babel.JPG

Mount Temple as seen from the other side of Moraine Lake (Tower of Babel). 

Start of Scramble.jpg

I was so excited to take my fiancée on his first 11,000-er. Having done Mount Temple last year, I knew how finnicky it was for weather  so I had been watching recent scrambling trip reports and waiting for the weather to improve all summer (which took a long time. Second rainiest summer season in Edmonton's history!) August 28th looked good. Projected to be sunny. I finished my shift at 10 PM and we left straight away for Moraine Lake, given the crux of the hike being finding parking. We arrived at 3:45 A.M., where approximately 25% of the parking lot had filled already. Wanted to reach Sentinel Pass around sunrise so we wouldn't be scrambling in the dark (like my Tower of Babel fiasco), so we took a 1 hour nap before wandering up the trail. 

I won't go into the trip report much, since we didn't even reach any difficult sections. Will edit this another time when we actually summit. But allow me to tell you the story. It was windy on Sentinel Pass. We took a break at the rock shelter and cooked some food to warm up and fuel us before hiking to get to the summit, then started up the rock band. Stay left for less scree on the ascent of this section. 5 minutes up, the storm rolled in. I still had not purchased gloves yet after Mount Tyrwhitt, and was regrettably very cold and numb in my hands. Freezing rain pelted down on us and we were soaked. But this is where the "Oh crap" moment came in -- not with the weather, but with actual bowel problems. My fiancée must have eaten something weird the night before, because he had to go multiple times that day.  But he ended up having to defecate on the mountain, and after wiping and covering up the remnants with a rock to allow it to biodegrade, we started up the rock band again.
K: "Oh crap, why does it feel so wet?" 
D: "Uh... did you wipe properly?" 
K: "I don't know... it was hard, people were coming up already, I tried to just get it done as fast as possible."
This banter went on for another 15 minutes as we ascended and as I laughed my face off, and we decided it is better to not risk a diaper rash in case he had not wiped cleanly. It was hard to tell given how soaked we were by the freezing rain. 

 

Grand Sentinel.jpg

Grand Sentinel. 

Ten Peaks.jpg

Valley of Ten Peaks.

bottom of page