Rundle 1 (2949m) - Winter Ascent

December 7th, 2024

This weekend, Greg and I would go for the summit on a winter ascent of Rundle 1, door-to-door from his apartment in Banff.

We woke up at 6 and put the final touches on our gear, packing a thermos of coffee that would be our luxury of the day. Soon we were off along the road through town and the path along Bow Falls down to the golf course. From here it was a steady hike across the mountain and climbing through the forest. The day was light once we crossed the central gully and worked our way up through the steepest section of trees to the base of the Dragon’s Back. Those who have been up Rundle 1 will know this as an interesting slabby and gravelly ridge that narrows at certain points with a long way down into the gully on each side.

Another party of two appeared behind us once we were above treeline. We had a quick chat with them once they caught up to us above the Dragon’s Back. We moved on up the steep slope. It was only about 15 minutes later, as the blowing snow intensified, that they passed us and suddenly turned back without a word or a glance. I continued blazing trail up to the summit ridge. The terrain conditions were what we call the perfectly worst conditions for crampons. Crampons are needed to avoid frequent slips, but the light fluffy snow doesn’t provide any buffer between crampons and the uneven rubbly terrain below. This is very tiring on the feet.

We popped up on the summit ridge and worked our way along to the summit. We were now in a cloudy ice-world, traversing across slabby sections covered in a thin mixed layer of snow and rime, taking extra care not to encroach on the light cornices adjacent to the ridge crest. After a couple detours below the ridge crest on the West side, we were on the summit! A quick confirmation on the map and some footage was all we had time for as we quickly lost our moving warmth. I threw on another jacket as we returned along the ridge to warm up.

We eventually descended below the clouds and had some cool views returning along the Dragon’s Back. It was a nice steady hike back to town, arriving in the dark. We achieved 1800m gain and 22km distance. Such an epic day!!!