After careful deliberation over the last few days, I decided that Silverhorn on Mt Athabasca would make an excellent choice for Jen’s first alpine climb. It’s just steep enough that ice tools, screws, and running belays are a good idea, so it wouldn’t be a boring slog. Plus, it’s short enough that it wouldn’t completely run Jen into the ground and make her never want to come back to the mountains.
Our alarm went off at 3:00, and we were at the trailhead well before 4:00am. The trail up the moraine went relatively quick, and we were on the first glacier Jen would ever cross before the sun started to rise. By this time, we had run into a crew of four other climbers who turned out to be guides on a training trip of one sort or another, and they were headed up the same route that we were. Luckily, Silverhorn is plenty wide for all six of us.
About an hour after putting on the crampons and roping up we were standing in the cirque below the North Face and getting ready to cross Jen’s first ‘schrund. Firm neve made the climbing fast and fun, and despite being pretty worked from an early alarm and the first half of the longest day she’d ever spent in the mountains, Jen did really good and made quick progress. At the top of Silverhorn, Jen decided to skip the main summit in favor of still having enough energy to walk off the mountain. So, after a bit of hanging out on top and checking out the view, I promptly botched the very first part of the descent and brought us down a long talus field to the shoulder. It was here where Jen’s crampons decided to collect every last ounce of snow they collected and start balling up right as we had to cross the most exposed part of the descent.
Snowballing plagued her for the entire walk down, and she pretty much destroyed an ice tool keeping it clear, but eventually we made it down the glacier, down the moraine, and back to the truck where we gladly threw on sandals, downed the last beer in the cooler, and headed north to Jasper for a well-deserved rest day. In classic alpine tradition, Jen said in the car that she may consider doing another peak, but it would definitely not be a regular thing. A week later, she was telling everyone at work how awesome the day was. Poor short-term memory is the first sign of alpinism.
