Climbing Mount Sir Donald

I had the great privilege of climbing Mount Sir Donald in Rogers Pass this summer with my great friend Trevor Howe.  I have looked at this mountain so many times over the years and dreamed of being on top of it, and this summer that dream came true.  We hiked up through the Illecillewaet Valley and bivyed at the Sir Donald - Uto col.  It was a beautiful night and so no tarp was needed.  We heard a few major rockfalls throughout the night, but being at the bivy, there was no danger for us (except maybe contracting some disease from our nightly visitor - the chipmunk).  Our route follows the lefthand skyline.

This is showing the hike up under the West face of Sir Donald.  If you look carefully, you can see the face in the very top of the picture.  The valley was incredibly hot that day (around 30c), but the evening was much cooler...I think our thermometer read about 8c at the bivy if I remember correctly.

This is Trevor and I enjoying coffee and the view from the col toward the Purcell range.  We look a little sillier than normal because the other party at the col asked us a question just as the timer on my camera took the picture...

This is me getting fairly close to the summit.  Behind me stretches the remote Northern Selkirks...this is an incredible place!

This is Trevor working the rope as we are nearing the summit.  Sir Donald has such a classic mountain shape, I can assure you, the summit isn't that comfortable with drops every direction for thousands of feet.  If I remember correctly, its summit is around 10,800 feet.  Our route was the Northwest Ridge.  We simulclimbed much of the route as it is necessary in order to get up and down in a day.  There was only one other party on route this day; a guide and two clients, a father and son.  The dad was over 60 (I only hope I am in that kind of shape at that age).  I was exhausted by the end of the day which took us 15 hours from the col to the summit and back.  The other party left us at the col at around 4:30am, we left at 5:30am, but because of our bypass route on the descent, we made up good time.  They followed the Northwest ridge all the way down and were on the mountain for a total of 20 hours...

This is me rappelling part of the route.

This is the view South from the summit with the Purcell Range on the far left.  The major glacier in the photo is the Illecillewaet Glacier - does it get better than this view?  I had so much fun with Trev -it would be hard to find a better friend or climber.  I hope to climb in this area again sometime in the future, but for now, I will look at pictures and continue to dream...