Mount Edith Cavell

APPROACH TO ASTORIA PASS

One detail I hadn't considered in advance was the fact that we needed to be on the east side of Portal Creek to reach Astoria Pass and the trail had been exclusively on the west side for the duration of our approach so that was a bit of a cause for concern given the strong flow earlier on. After taking a break at Portal Campground we continued along the trail but at that point we were pretty sick of the actively flowing water or deep snow where we were trying to go and the idea of skinning on the other side of the creek and getting the crossing over with seemed quite nice in comparison. While the flow was quite strong, soon after leaving the campground we found a wide section that wasn't too deep so we were able to get across without issue aside from some cold feet!

What we never realized and I didn't spot until writing this trip report is according to the map, the Portal Creek Trail actually supposedly has a bridge to the east side of the creek just 250m further up before heading back to the west side with another bridge so if this bridge is in fact still around which I would assume it is then don't do an unnecessary crossing like we did! Following the crossing the terrain started off relatively open but got more treed as we moved up and got a bit nasty in a couple places, but eventually it opened up again and it was alpine meadow terrain the rest of the way to the pass where we'd be spending the first night.

REACHING THE WEST FACE

After reaching Astoria Pass we had an hour or so more of sunlight before dusk and there wasn't much else to do besides getting a good night sleep before the biggest day of the trip the next day. We probably should've started earlier the next morning but bushwhacking in the dark sucks so it's hard to say, we were starting the ski down from the pass a bit after 4:30am and it wasn't long before the skis were back on the packs and we were plunged into the bush. The terrain started off more nasty with mud and lots of debris but the trees were never too densely packed and besides a couple nasty deadfall sections it was manageable for the most part. The toughest part about this section was the distance we had to cover in this terrain and it's not insignificant, about 2-2.5km of untouched bush and it gets old quick. Near the bottom of the slope we aimed further skier's right as to not miss the critical bridge that crosses the Astoria River, and we were very happy once we were back on trail.

From reaching the Tonquin Valley Trail, getting to the intersection for Edith Cavell's west face trail which for some reason isn't on Gaia only took a few minutes and from there the elevation gain for Cavell began. While clearly not as maintained, the west face trail provided fast travel especially compared to the speed we had gotten used to with the bushwhacking, so we made good time on the way up until we started encountering snow fully covering the trail as we neared the west face and opted to switch to skinning. Soon after we scoped out a snow line that looked like it continued all the way up the west face so we decided we'd take it rather than wrapping further around the peak following the summer route.

THE CLIMB

After switching from skins to crampons we started up our line and the conditions were nice and firm which boded well for the ascent. The couloir esc feature was never steeper than 40 degrees so the terrain felt pretty tame and once we topped out we had an annoying slope of choss to deal with in the crampons before returning to snow and climbing some low angle mixed terrain to reach a subpeak of Edith Cavell. Unfortunately at this point in the trip it was clear Rob and my speeds were quite different so we lost a lot of time here. Rob was hauling some heavy skis which definitely didn't help so once we both reached the subpeak and realized there would be no skiing higher up we ditched them and continued with much lighter packs.

The terrain from the subpeak to the summit wasn't all that technical, just hitting 3rd or 4th class a handful of times, but with the snowy conditions but still plenty of exposed rock, large cornices to watch out for, as well as wearing crampons the entire time, this section was slow going. At this point Rob and I had significantly different paces so I decided to push ahead to secure the summit and would check on him afterwards. Following the awkward mixed terrain on the long ridge the grade steepened just below the summit and I had some fun taking an unnecessary techy line before starting the ridge walk to the summit.

THE SHIVER BIVY, DESCENT, & EXIT

After spending a good chunk of time on the summit and checking out the ridge, I began descending and given that Rob was still climbing and keen he convinced me to join him on his way to the summit before we headed down soon after as it was getting quite late. At this point I knew we were pretty screwed in terms of getting any quality sleep since we didn't have bivy gear but my main focus was getting back to the subpeak before dark as that terrain would be heinous to do in the conditions we had it in without natural light. By the time I returned to the subpeak it was almost 10pm, the sun was setting, and I was getting tired so I figured when Rob caught up he'd want to rest up there as well so I started moving rocks around to make a pseudo sleeping spot.

Without any sleeping gear, the "sleeping" setup involved wearing all my layers and putting my lower body in my Hyperlite bag but as expected this still wasn't enough. I'd be out for 20-30 minutes and then wake up cold, flex to warm the body up and then fall asleep again on repeat so it wasn't exactly a restful night of sleep but better than nothing I guess. We knew that our good weather was ending on the third day of our trip and when Rob saw lightning in the distance to the west around 2am and woke me up we both knew we should get out of the alpine and we started descending once we got our gear sorted. Unfortuantely given the lack of a freeze skiing wasn't possible but given the lack of light and any proper sleep we were in no condition to ski anyway. We were able to descend to the trees relatively quickly despite some gross isothermal snow so it didn't make a huge difference.

By the time we returned to treeline there was enough light that we had nothing to worry about for routefinding, and although we were both pretty exhausted we began the plod out. Having a trail for this portion was nice but that would soon end once we were back across the Astoria River and we also had 600m to gain to get back to the pass which neither of us were looking forward to. The bushwhacking in the lower section is probably the least bad so that was manageable, and while on Cavell I had scoped out a rocky looking slope that I figured would be better than following the drainage and pushing through bush so after using some specific forks in the creek as landmarks we took a different line directly north and were able to find the choss slope. With this route, from this point the bushwhacking to get back to Astoria Pass was pretty much done with, and while it was still a bit tedious travel, I would recommend this way over blindly bushwhacking or following the drainage. Following the choss slope we followed a bench that headed NW in the direction of the pass, and once we reached snow and were able to skin it wasn't long before we were back.

When we got back to Astoria Pass the wind was extremely strong so we didn't plan to hang out any longer than we needed to and after packing up we started the ski down. Retracing our tracks back down through the alpine meadow and forested area to Portal Creek had a few sport sections dodging trees on skis but we made good time and unfortuantely while we did find a smaller bridge over a stream on the east side of Portal Creek, we never put two and two together that there was likely a proper bridge back across so we ended up doing another chilly crossing before the remainder of the hike out.

By the time we got back to Rob's truck it was 11pm and we were very happy that we could still get some food in Jasper. Looking back on it, if we had been moving at good speed we definitely could've avoided a sizable amount of the suffering this trip involved, but doing it in less than 3 days even if it was dry and you move fast would be a pretty big challenge. Thanks to the Edith Cavell Road being out, it's turned Cavell from what used to be an enjoyable day trip into an infinitely more complicated multiday mission, and it's not surprising at all why nobody's been doing it ever since. Following this outing I only had 1 trip remaining to finish the 11000ers, and with the speed record in mind the next time a solid window came around it was time to pull the trigger on the most remote giants in the range! Trip report coming soon.