Mount Macdonald SW Ridge via Herdman Couloir

Edit June 2017
Google killed Picasaweb and the photos in this post will no longer click through to larger versions. Here's the full album if you're interested: https://goo.gl/photos/YzdKRCnHkZkJpteKA

This was a milestone of sorts. Our last unclimbed peak of the 14 summits that make up the Asulkan Valley Horseshoe (Abbott, Afton, Rampart, Dome, Castor, Pollux, Leda, Youngs, Terminal, Sir Donald, Uto, Eagle, Avalanche, and finally Macdonald).



The Herdman is the obvious snow filled gully in the photo above (taken from Hermit meadows about 2 weeks later). It's best climbed during that narrow window in early season when there is still enough snow remaining to cover all of the scree and alder but not so much snow that you'd rather be skiing.

The day began with the same stream crossing that we had checked out a couple of weeks earlier.



Followed by the deceptively long haul up the broad gully.



And the final steep pitch below the col.



Giving us a spectacular view of the north side Mount Avalanche just a few hours from the car.



From the col we expected to simply cut across the ridge crest and find our way up the south west ridge. Almost immediately we encountered a 10m overhanging cliff that forced a tedious detour down and back up the south side. We could have just rappelled over it but there was no evidence of anyone else having done so and since we were coming back this way we did need to find a way back up anyway.

Once back on the ridge there was a little bit of interesting climbing.



But mostly it was just a matter of finding a way through the snow patches and over the shattered rocks which make up the majority of the route.



It was fun albeit a little tedious and eventually we were on top not far outside guidebook time.



Down was mostly uneventful with a couple of rappels and the gruelling detour off the ridge.



There was a frightening little incident part way back down the Herdman. We quite literally watched a fridge sized block peel out of the snow right below us and crash down the length of the gully in a devastating slow motion explosion of snow and rock and mayhem. If we'd been 50m further down the gully? Oh man. Better not to think about. But all's well that ends well and we could chalk up another lesson learned. We got out of there as quickly as we could but there were only so many places to hide.



The log across the creek was now a good 20cm under water and this provided the final entertainment at the end of a long 12 hour day. Crampons worked surprisingly well! Overall this isn't a great route with much more grovelling than most others of a similar (ie: easy!) grade in the area. All the same Macdonald is an impressive looking peak and we were happy to climb it.