Mount Vaux | Other Sends

Mount Vaux
August 7 2022

As long time friend Jake Draper and I worked our way up to a day trip of the Haig Glacier and Mount French from the Kananaskis Lakes, we decided to go for a climber's scramble to make sure we were ready and landed on Mount Vaux. Vaux rises impressively above Highway 1 and is one of the larger peaks near Field. It's both close to the Goodsirs which explains the crap rock quality and is one of the looser mountains that either of us had ever been on.

A climber on the summit ridge of Mouth Vaux with a steep drop to the west and snow to the east.

The ascent starts off up a drainage and gets steep quickly with no real trail. The bottom half of this mountain is a slog and the elevation gain is relentless. After dealing with loose rubble for a while hands-on terrain begins but you have to be cautious, as Jake and I both found large rocks would move and risk rolling down the entire route. As the terrain got steeper and steeper, eventually we reached the persistent snow arete that leads to the final headwall before the final push to the summit. This portion was definitely serious with decent exposure but didn't last long, and afterwards we were finishing the steep loose terrain as we headed for the final ridge which ended up being an easy walk to the top.

For our descent we had to be careful not to dislodge any large rocks or lose our footing on the loose terrain but managed to reverse everything without issue and were looking forward to our main objective of the season coming up! Vaux was a great entry-level climber's scramble for us and although the descent was a bit tedious, it featured a good amount of serious terrain and great views!

links: STRAVA | GAIA
elapsed time: 8.5hrs
DIFFICULTY: climber's scramble

GPS satellite map of the route up Mount Vaux involving 10.09 kilometers in distance and 2141 in elevation gain making for a steep climb!