Mount Andromeda and Athabasca | 11000ers of the Canadian Rockies

Mount Andromeda & Athabasca
3450m, 11319ft | 3470m, 11385ft
June 29 2024

Mount Andromeda and Mount Athabasca make up the eastmost peaks of the Columbia Icefield and lie just south of the visitor center along the Icefield Parkway making them some of the most photographed 11000ers in the range. With their close proximity to the highway both are some of the shorter outings on the 11000ers of the Canadian Rockies list and involve very little time below the alpine making them highly enjoyable to get done. While they're both considered part of the Columbia Icefield they're not nearly as glaciated as the other lofty summits further north and west and although Andromeda is occasionally done on long icefield trips with other nearby objectives, both of Andromeda and Athabasca are frequently done as day trips given their short round trip time.

Each of these mountains have numerous routes ranging from relatively tame to highly technical with Andromeda being the more difficult and less often summitted of the two peaks. In recent years Athabasca has started to be considered a scramble in dry months due to the easiest route's tame nature but this line still involves some glacier travel so while it may lack in difficulty it still poses some hazards.

The impressive east ridge of Mount Andromeda with the line that can be climbed and skied visible.

With plans to go for Woolley and Diadem falling through I was left with the decision to either sit the day out or go for an objective solo and as I usually do I decided to send it. After looking over the various 11000ers I could gun for Andromeda and Athabasca seemed like the perfect option given the ease of access with their close proximity to the highway and the fact I had been on the lower AA glacier a few weeks prior for a glacier travel and crevasse rescue course so I was familiar with the terrain. I decided an early start was the safest option to reduce any chances of avalanches caused by solar so after a short night of sleep I was heading out by 2:20am and on the way to the AA col!

The approach to the lower AA glacier was as I remembered it, with quite a bit of loose scree once above the road, but in the grand scheme of 11000er approaches was wicked fast and it didn't take long to reach the first glacier and start heading higher up. The section above the lower glacier has some hands on terrain but was quite tame and the next thing I knew I was on the upper glacier and throwing the skis on. I made good time getting across the glacier staying on the north side to avoid the most crevassed areas and once the slope got steep as I neared the AA col the skis were back on the pack and I delicately crossed the bridged bergshrund before gaining the final meters to reach the col.

Next up was the ascent of the east ridge of Andromeda! The conditions weren't as firm as I would've liked so the steep initial section of the ridge was a grind to get up but once I topped out and the grade eased off travel became easier and it was a simple walk to the summit. It was quite cloudy at this point so I had to be cautious of the cornices along the ridge as I went up but some sun was getting through which improved visibility and made for some interesting views.

links: STRAVA | GAIA
elapsed time: 12hrs
DIFFICULTY: mountaineering - glacier travel, steep snow / ice climbing, 5th class

Already well onto the AA glacier, quite a bit of cloud

Pano looking north from the AA col, my line up the snowy east ridge of Andromeda at left

Athabasca from the top of the steeper section of Andromeda's east ridge

Looking up the Andromeda ridge, lots of corncies to watch out for!

Views opened up a bit but with the cloud I couldn't tell if the high point to the SW
was higher so I checked it out

The SW high point, found out it was lower after the fact but cant hurt to bag it
anyway!

Good skiing down Andromeda's east ridge, the steep section coming up!

After reaching the summit of Andromeda I wasn't sure if the high point further west was actually higher so I scoped it out, and after a socked in summit break I started the ski down. The ski down the east ridge started off chill with no real technical sections whatsoever but once I reached the steeper section I had to focus up. I had to make a couple committing turns with rocky terrain below so this was the crux of the descent but after traversing back to my ascent line I was able to descend without issue and make it back to the col in good time.

For my ascent of Athabasca I had been planning to take the standard "scramble" route but at this point in the day I didn't feel like losing the elevation just to regain it so I decided to try out the ridge that lead directly from the AA col to Athabasca. This ridge ended up being more complicated than I had expected, and when I reached a spot I couldn't follow I had to backtrack a bit before detouring onto south slopes to get around, but with the help of a few detours and some ridge sending I was able to reconnect with the standard route up Athabasca. The downside of deviating onto south slopes here was that they were getting hit with the most solar so this wasn't the place to hang out and posed an avalanche risk.

Getting up Athabasca was pretty much a walk and I enjoyed some interesting partial cloud cover on the summit ridge. After hanging out at the summit and chatting with a couple other groups I decided to start my descent while the snow was still half decent and got some good ski turns in back down to the AA glacier. Things had warmed up significantly by this point so I was glad I chose to start early.

Looking south with the beginning of the Saskatchewan Glacier in sight

Another look back at the line, it looks gnarlier from further away

Onto the ridge between Andromeda and Athabasca

The final avoidable difficult section, was fully in a cloud here

Part way down Athabasca, enjoying some good turns!

Clear views to Snow Dome, now that's a big serac!

Some scrambling to get back down to the lower glacier

Busy day at the icefields visitor center

And of course now it decides to clear up!

For my first solo 11000er outing this felt pretty dang good! On top of a smooth trip, checking off two peaks in one go was pretty sweet and I was stoked I decided to go for it. I'm not the biggest fan of soloing 11000ers because of all the hazards and the obvious risks of having no support system if something were to go wrong but on certain objectives with the proper plan the risks can be mitigated. Skiing the east ridge of Andromeda also served to boost my confidence on skis in the backcountry hugely and played a big part in how often I'd bring skis along on the peaks to come!

Following this trip it was be a bit over a week until the next opportunity came up to get in the alpine and with conditions looking good south of the Columbia Icefiled in remote BC wilderness plans were made to go for one of the less popular 11000ers!