We recently reported (UKC News Report) that Nick Bullock and Will Sim had made the second ascent of the House-Anderson route on the North Face of Mount Alberta, Canada in two and a half days. We caught up with Nick and Will to find out more about their experience in Canada.

The North Face of Alberta is what I'd call a mythical face. In form, its pyramidal spike of a gable-end is so pleasingly intimidating, it must be one of the most spectacular faces I know of. This incredible photo by the aerial photographer John Scurlock is what insired me a few months ago to put the North Face of Alberta at the very top of my list of things to do.

Natalie: How did the style of climbing in Canada differ to your experiences in Europe/other parts of the world?

Nick: After 21 trips to the greater ranges, Canada - although first world -  has medium sized mountains that give big mountain challenges and in some of the most remote places, for mountaineers, in the world. When I say remote, what I mean is, as for Alberta, it’s a two hour drive up the icefields parkway which is quite remote, then a five/six hour walk to the Alberta hut - a small tin shed. Then an hour's walk, an abseil and eventually you are ready to climb. There is no phone signal and no one else for miles. To have an accident on a big face in Canada in my opinion is about as serious as it can get, it would generally be get yourself out. In this day and age this type of commitment in the mountains is becoming rare, and this goes for the Himalayas, Alaska, India, Pakistan. Maybe the nearest I came to this level of commitment before is on some of the things I climbed with Al Powell in Peru.

This style also has the advantages of once you have climbed you can easily return to good food, comfort and rock climbing. And for someone whose time is becoming more important this is a major thing now. It is such a pleasure to climb something like Alberta and then not lose months and months of fitness like you would in the Himalayas. There is also the lack of bureaucracy which is very refreshing. 

Natalie: Was there anything you hadn't prepared for?

Will: Ha, yes! I discovered my belay plate was missing just at the last point we could easily bail from. We went for it anyway, I wasn't too worried about the difference it would make belaying, but it seriously affected our ability to escape if need be, making a very committing route feel even more so. It was a perfect example of how sometimes things can seem far from ideal before starting something like that, but you have to go for it anyway.

Natalie: What were the hardest challenges to overcome on the route? 

Will: As always with a little known face/line the most difficult thing can be overcoming the intimidation before you set foot on it. Such are the peculiarities of the approach to the North Face of Alberta that we didn't actually see it properly until first light on the day we started, having already committed via the abseils to get to the bottom. Beside this, the climbing itself of course! The descent was pretty full on, "onsighting" a technical descent in good weather can be hard enough, but we couldn't see a thing!

What was your most memorable pitch?

Will: This route had a lot of memorable pitches, every metre on that head-wall was hard won. For me personally there was a pitch on the second day, which was pretty full on, very steep technical and pumpy with bad feet, no sleep and 800 metres already in my arms and legs. Definitely one of the hardest bits of climbing I've done on a big mountain. I'm sure Nick would have another pitch in mind though!

Nick: On the first day, we left the small tin shed which is the Alberta Hut at about 3,30am. The sun was setting immediately as I left to climb the first big ice pitch meaning it was approximately 8pm. I climbed this pitch which is clearly seen on the overview of the face and belayed Will up. He said he felt knackered and asked if I minded climbing the second ice pitch as "You are better at that stuff than me." The second ice pitch was an inverted triangle of compressed glacial ice clotted into a wide chimney/fault. It was now dark, about 9pm, maybe later and this was one of those times in climbing a big face you know is make or break. I said I didn't mind and set off. The climbing to beneath the inverted triangle was steep but pulling up beneath the overhanging ice I discovered that the whole thing was made from layers of thin ice skin like an onion and in between the layers was rotten snow. I first attempted to outflank climbing on the outside but this was also a thin sheet which I feared would collapse - possibly killing me and most certainly killing Will belaying beneath with only his rucksack on top of his head for protection. So I climbed direct to the middle where the ice was more solid and layered less. This led to a cave in the middle of the triangle but to my dismay the floor of the cave was aerated, the walls in general were rotten and there appeared to be no way out of the top which is what I was hoping. After a little while hoping the whole thing didn't collapse, I began to cut a hole through a wall which was about as thick as plasterboard and when it was large enough to allow me and my rucksack I crawled through the window into a safer, more solid world above.

This was the pitch for me, in my opinion a very dangerous pitch as the whole thing felt like it could collapse but it was also very satisfying to weave my way in and out, giving us a short pitch beneath the cave and a resting spot.  

Natalie: Do you plan to return to Canada for more routes in the future?

Nick: For me climbing in Canada remains one of the bastions for true adventure in the mountains and yes, I certainly hope to return and climb more Alpine routes such as something on North Twin or The Emperor Face of Robson.  

Natalie: Do you think the route will see a third ascent anytime soon?

Will: Hard to say. The whole North Face has only been climbed about 5 times since the 90's, and you can count all the people climbing those kind of routes in the Rockies on one hand. But we were out with Raph Slawinski (master of the Rockies) yesterday and he seemed very interested, so watch this space!

Read more about the trip on Nick's blog and Will's blog. 

Nick is sponsored by: Boreal, DMM and Mountain Equipment

Will is sponsored by: Edelweiss, Grivel, Outdoor Research and Scarpa