A few days ago, Tom Livingstone and Uisdean Hawthorn climbed the north face of Mount Alberta (3,691m). The route, first climbed by Steve House and Vince Anderson in 2008 and repeated by Nick Bullock and Will Sim two years ago, involves overhanging ice, steep dry tooling and loose mixed climbing up to M8. We called them in Canada to find out how it went.
SS: So why the Rockies, and why this route in particular?
TL: Will Sim and Nick Bullock are friends of ours, so we got firsthand stories both before and after they made the second ascent of the House-Anderson route. We were so inspired by Mount Alberta – it looked outrageous with this incredible north face. If you asked a child to draw a mountain they would draw a pointy thing just like this. So that led to us going out to the Rockies last September. We didn't get good conditions that time unfortunately, and had to bail.
"In a vertical world of limestone climbing it was so surreal to find a giant tunnel running into the heart of the mountain."
SS: What do you both do, that means you can drop everything and go to Canada for a month whenever you want?
TL: We both live for climbing at the moment! I do some outdoor instructing and a bit of rope access, so I can be poor and go on all these trips.
UH: I’m a joiner. I worked a lot for four years when I was finishing my apprenticeship, and now I do as little as possible. A friend in Canada, Nick Sharpe, kindly let us stay at his place for free and use his Jeep, so that saved us a lot of money. We met him in the pub last year and he said: “Next year just stay at ours!”
TL: Not long after we arrived in Canada, a seven-day weather window appeared on the forecast. We’d worked out the logistics last time, so we set off as soon as we could.
The food they took for the climb; plus one dehydrated meal each.
UH: Canadian’s would say Mount Alberta’s just up the road: you drive for three hours then you walk for five hours over Woolly Shoulder to this little garden shed, the Alberta Hut, which has incredible views over iconic peaks. You can see both Mount Alberta and the Twins, which are next to it. We’ve been there three times and never seen anyone else.
TL: The only signs of life were a few bear tracks on the glacier. You know the Cosmiques Hut above Chamonix, and then 100m down the ridge there’s that bivvy shack? The Alberta Hut is more like that. We got some sleep there, and set off at 1am. You have to descend a rock band to get to the start of the route, so it’s very committing from the start.
UH: Just before I started abseiling, Tom heard something big falling down the face of Mount Alberta. We both felt intimidated and actually starting up the route was one of the hardest bits of the next 40 hours.
WATCH: Uisdean describes standing under the monster face
TL: Then at first light we started swinging leads over all these features we’d read so much about, and studied and researched and dreamed about.
SS: Any tricky bits?
UH: The main tricky bit was a roof before you pull into this snowy alcove. Nick and Will had had to aid it so we knew it was hard. I aided some of the roof, but there wasn't much to go on. The last piece of gear was a knife-blade at my feet and I was having to hook and scrape in sugary snow to try to get over the roof. Tom was out of sight so I felt really alone.
Then I pulled up and fell off. Somehow my axe slid back and caught on something invisible, and the leash of my axe held my fall. Leashes often snap so I felt pretty lucky. The second time I managed to somehow get onto the sloping snowy ledge. After that there were some bullet hard ice pillars and an ice mushroom. Tom led that pitch.
.jpg)
Tom on the ice mushroom. Photo: Uisdean Hawthorn
TL: I had to clip into my ice axes a few times and sit my weight on them because I was dangling below this massive roof and it would have been a very bad idea to fall. It was unfortunate we didn’t have the route in the same condition as Vince and Steve did when they made the first ascent. They climbed all the pitches free, but we had to do these couple of moves of aid.
UH: Then we had one of the strangest nights in the mountains I've ever had. We had heard stories and seen the photos of this huge cave halfway up the face, but it was absolutely mind-blowing.
Tom leading out of the cave the next day. Photo: Uisdean Hawthorn
TL: In a vertical world of limestone climbing it was so surreal to find a giant tunnel running into the heart of the mountain. It twisted and turned; you’d think it had ended and then there would be another 90-degree corner. It was like something out of Lord of the Rings, and nice to have a relatively comfortable and dry bivvy.
UH: Tom started day two with an airy traverse out of the cave, then I went straight up an improbable looking flake. It felt very committing, probably hard Scottish VII with some loose rock. Despite the clear forecast, cloud had engulfed us by then. We were worried a storm was coming in, and it all felt absolutely wild. Then we popped out at the top of the headwall and reached the summit at 1pm.
.jpg)
Tom looking ready for cake and a sit down. Photo: Uisdean Hawthorn
UH: The weather picked up as we traversed the long summit ridge and abseiled the seven pitches of the Japanese Route. By the time we got back to the glacier it was storming, but an hour later were in a dry hut grinning.
SS: It sounds like it went really smoothly. How do you prepare for a trip like this?
UH: We had hours of discussions before we went, holding up sleeping bags and insulated pants and deciding which to take, and staring at other people’s accounts of the route for hours and hours!
TL: We’ve climbed a lot together over the past year. We were in the Alps two weeks ago, and having done a few bigger routes together helped us make good decisions about what to take.
SS: How does the Rockies compare to the Alps?
TL: It's a different world! In the Alps someone’s probably done the route two days ago, there are probably videos, you can go to the guide’s office, you have phone signal and the weather forecast is more reliable. Out there there’s no one, and no helicopters. The only human thing we could see from Mount Alberta was our own footprints far, far below.
The long summit ridge and surrounding terrain. Photo: Uisdean Hawthorn
SS: Sounds like you climb well together.
TL and UH look at each other: Um, I suppose so...
SS: Sorry to pry into your relationship.
TL: We've had some snuggles on bivvies. I won't use the word 'spooning'...
SS: OK, moving on. What's next, are you planning to get anything else done out there?
UH: We’re here till the end of September, currently spending a few days eating and sleeping and eating some more, and watching the weather.
TL: We’re at the mercy of the conditions, but if we get another fantastic weather window like this we’d definitely like to get on another route.
SS: Good luck!
Tom and Uisdean would like to thank their sponsors: DMM, La Sportiva, Mountain Equipment, OTE Sports Nutrition, Scarpa, Edelweiss, Grivel and trac.
.jpg)
We want to say a big thanks to every BMC member who continues to support us through the Coronavirus crisis.
From weekly Facebook Lives and GB Climbing home training videos, to our access team working to re-open the crags and fight for your mountain access, we couldn’t do it without you.
Did you know that we've launched a U27 membership offer for just £1.50 / month? And with full membership from £2.50 / month, it's never been easier to join and support our work:
https://www.thebmc.co.uk/join-the-bmc-for-1-month-U27-membership
« Back