Vias em Mt Assiniboine Provincial Park

Mt Assiniboine is one of Canada’s most famous mountains, often nicknamed and compared to as the “Matterhorn” of the Rockies. The north face route is not much different to the popular North Ridge route (5.5). With lots of rock fall and extreme exposure, this a serious big mountain venture, so cold temperatures and early starts are a must. Normally done as a 3 day outing, parties with high fitness do it as a 48 hour slog. At 3,618 m (11,870 ft), it is the highest peak in the Southern Continental Ranges of the Canadian Rockies. Mount Assiniboine rises 2086m in prominence- making it unbelievably sheer.

The standard route on Assiniboine was climbed by William Douglas and a strong team of guides. Christian Hasler had already descended the route two years before. Hasler was one of Whymper's guides from the Matterhorn, thirty-eight years earlier. (Chris Jones, Climbing in North America, 1976)(Randy Morse, The Mountains of Canada, 1978)

Gmoser's Highway ("mosers") is the start of serious terrain. I once watched some gnarly East Face candidates rappel the scary snow gully to climbers left, after using Gmoser's on the way up. They had huge packs. I don't recommend the gully. Instead, lower your big pack down the upper headwall, 30' of steep jugs (5.0) with a landing that might save you. The crux of the lower traverse is the less difficult, but more exposed. A roped fall could be very dangerous. Have the rack ready, even though a fixed pin may be found at the low end belay.

30km’s into and the route out is 32.5 kilometers and involves 2420 of vertical gained and 5500 feet of descending on the day.