Mount King Edward makes up one of the 4 Canadian Rockies 11000ers typically accessed by driving over 90km out the Bush River Forest Service Road making it one of the more remote objectives on the list, the other 3 being
Mount Bryce,
Mount Bryce Center, and
Mount Alexandra.
Athough it isn't quite as far out as the truly wild mountains like
Tsar Mountain,
Tusk Peak, or Mount Clemenceau, it sits at the far end of the Columbia Icefield in one of the seldom visited corners of the Rockies far away from pretty much all signs of civilization. This and the fact that it's positioned near the center of many of the most remote peaks on the 11000ers of the Canadian Rockies list means that the summit views are truly a who's who of the remote giants of the range.
After an epic
Tsar Mountain
trip less than a week prior I was still feeling surprisingly good and eager to get out for more difficult objectives so
when I noticed a great looking high pressure and low cloud cover window around the Columbia Icefield just a few days later I knew I wanted to go for one of the peaks
out the Bush FSR.
Mount Bryce and Bryce Center
were the top objectives I had in mind but when I was unable to find a partner
with short notice for a mid week trip I decided I was more comfortable soloing Mount King Edward and went for it.
I had been wanting to check off King Edward sooner rather than later for a while due to the logistical challenge it presents to get right
so I couldn't pass up on what seemed like a perfect opportunity.
You have to wait for the road to open around May and then go for it ASAP before the Bush River that you have to cross starts raging
with the warming weather. What I failed to realize was that the price of picking a bluebird window for this peak was that the warm weather increased the water levels even more rapidly, making for an interesting crossing.
While the river levels are a major hurdle of this trip, timing the snow conditions right is also key to a successful summit bid.
The final section of the ascent bypasses the cliffy summit block onto the exposed SE face and without half-decent snow conditions this
section could easily be deadly if something were to go wrong. This peak can also be done dry but the SE face portion looks quite
gnarly and I'm not sure how you'd know what the river water levels would look like in the late summer so I knew I wanted to
target a spring ascent.
The Bush River FSR had been open for a couple weeks by this point but with weather being a bit mixed this seemed like the earliest reasonable opportunity that I had to go for this
peak so I took it.
After deciding to go for it solo at 1:30pm on the day of my approach I started throwing my gear together and by 4pm I was on my way
to Golden from Canmore. My 2008 Mazda 3 was able to handle the FSR fine and by 8:30pm I was geared up and leaving the car. The nice thing about the
river crossing for King Edward is that it's right at the start so you'll know if it'll go or not pretty quickly.
The crossing was quite sporty and on the way in I had to fight decently strong current belly button deep. Unfortunately the way out ended
up being even worse with the deepest section of the river chest deep, video on the left is the river level I had to cross for my exit. I ended up being pushed 3-5 meters by the current before my feet could touch again and I could walk out so this crossing was more of a swim, yikes.
After the initial crossing the old logging road makes for easy travel aside from some alders you have to deal with around
the 2-4km mark. By 4km I was able to don the skis, and once the trail fizzled out due to the snow I followed a
couple GPX files I had downloaded until I reached a nice treeline spot to camp. I reached camp 3 hours after I started and was able to see the
objective so it seemed like the perfect place, especially since I wanted to be out of the dense trees while solo to
avoid the bears. Before my trip Foresty Forest had told me that they camped near the river and a bear destroyed his tent while they were out on the mountain so I definitely wanted to avoid that.
Bryce rises impressively from the valley bottomThe crossing, I crossed 100-150m to the right, it seemed a bit less deep but was flowing faster
Headed up the old logging road, a couple familiar peaks that you pass through for the 3 cols approach to Alexandra on the rightLooking backMount Columbia poking out at high right, the alders get worse soon after this
The alders you can expect on routePut the skis on here, about 4km in
Columbia at dusk
Where I'd be camping for the night, 11:30pm, first view of the objective!Home sweet home for the next 4 hours
After a short sleep I was moving by 3:30am, reached the base of the mountain by 6am, and reached the summit by 9am.
I opted for the least crevassed terrain on the glacier since I was on my own so the line I took went around a small rocky high point south of King Edward
to the left before gaining it and continuing on to the base of the mountain with a general left trend as the further right you go on the glacier
the more serious the crevasses get.
Not long after reaching the base of the mountain, switching to crampons, and starting my ascent I was met with a surprise when I
sank thigh deep into a bergshrund beside the first rock band on the mountain. This was a bit tedious to get around
but the line I took on the rock to the right was nothing past low 5th so it was quite tame. The overnight freeze hadn't been great
so up to this point I had been sinking knee to mid thigh deep but there was a decent amount of exposed scree on the south ridge
which was nice to be able to avoid the snow when I was punching through. Not long later I was at the SE face bypass section of
the route and with solid kick steps and decent snow conditions it ended up being a simple staircase to the summit!
My line cut through the rocky outcrops on the leftI gained the high point on the right after reaching the col aheadThe final glaciated section before reaching the mountainLooking back part way acrossSome unpleasant terrain at the bottom of the slope for those that ski the SE faceThe alpenglow arrives
The spot I punched through thigh deepThe bergshrund
The rock I used to bypass the shrund500 vertical meters off the summit now, looking upLooking down
Some fun hands on terrain through this rock band, easier options exist to the leftTsar, Tusk, and Clemenceau on the horizon
Nearing the summit blockLooking down from just below the summit blockThe summit block, the route cuts right underneatheThe stairway to heaven! Decent snow conditions made this section easySummit! My 31st 11000erQuite the ridge, and a sweet ski line down the east face from the summit if you've got the guts for it! Might come back for that line one day...11000ers from left to right, Alberta, Brazeau, Woolley, and The TwinsAndromeda, Mount Columbia, The Lyells, Forbes, and BryceThe Lyells, Forbes, Byrce, and waaay back Temple, Victoria, and The GoodsirsTsar Mountain, up there 6 days ago!
Tusk & Clemenceau, the most remote of the 11000ersMount Robson on the distant horizon, high on the to do list!
Summit pano, some of the most dramatic views I've had of the rockiesA feel for the grade of that east face
I had been thinking about skiing down the south face if conditions were good so I put my skis on at the summit and skied the upper ridge, but once I reached the more sun exposed south face the snow conditions significantly worsened and I decided to downclimb it. Once below the summit block I put the skis back on for the SW face and cconditions were pretty solid on the upper section so this was the best skiing of the trip. Things softened up lower down and then I had to deal with downclimbing the rocky step to get over the bergshrund which was annoying but from there it was pretty easy going.
I was a bit concerned about the snow bridges softerning up with the temperatures rising quite quickly but I got back across the glacier without issue and after getting through the rolling alpine terrain I was back at camp and backing up before heading out. The ski out from camp ended up being quite enjoyable and I was definitely glad I chose to go for King Edward when I did as skiing the treed section saved me a ton of time instead of having to hoof it. Once I reached the old road at 4km again it was back to the approach shoes I had ditched the night before and then a simmple hike out to the river before one last spike of adrenaline to cap off a sweet trip.
It's getting warm! Looking back at the traverse, nothing too technical but you wouldn't want to be here in high risk avy conditionsGood skiing, the SW face took a bit longer to heat up
The shrund on my way downSome new slides off of this face, good time to be off the mountain
Some rarely ascended peaks in these places, these are in The Chess GroupSome cool exposed slab under the glacierSkirted below the high point on the way down to avoid extra gainA neat supraglacial lake with Bryce towering behindMount Columbia's impressive west face and the gatorade lakeKing Edward, my tracks visible between the two rocky outcrops on the leftA close-up of the west face, I wonder if it's been skiedOne last look back, one of the better 11000er camps spots I've been
Fresh bear tracksAnd the ski out
Easy travel, this would be a tedious exit without snow
Nearly back at the riverCrossing time, oh boy...
Lots of evidence of the fires that happened out here last yearMount Sir Sandford from the Bush FSR, definitely high on my list after the Canadian Rockies 11kers!
Aside from the river crossing I found Mount King Edward quite enjoyable and definitely up there with my favorite 11000er skis descents to date. It's one of the objectives that doesn't get much attention because of how remote it is but the area to the west of Mount Columbia is one of the more scenic places out there and I could definitely see myself going back to visit some day!
Just a week later another clear weather window showed up near the Columbia Icefield and Devan and I were in communication again with plans to check off the
last 11000 foot peaks
we had left out the Bush FSR.
