August 27th 2018. Roger’s Pass, British Columbia.
Round Trip: 5-6 hours*. Elevation Gained: 1190m
Moderate Scramble
I teamed up with my good buds Ben and Scott for this scramble, my very first in Glacier National Park. We lucked out with the weather and air quality that day, as Lake Louise was still quite smoggy from the various wildfires at that point in the summer still.
Mount Abbott 2420m is little more than a strenuous hike, while the summit ridge boasts moderate scrambling. Our original mission was to aim for Mount Afton – which is more along the lines of a Climber’s Scramble. Ben & I backed away part way up Afton while Scott managed to summit but in doing so had to do several “no-fall” moves and even one Dino move.
* 5-6 hours is probably accurate if aiming specifically for Mount Abbott. Our round trip ended up being closer to 7 hours in total.
The route is quite straightforward. Simply follow the popular hiking trail to Abbott’s Ridge and continue along the ridge.
For the most part the extension of the ridge is still technically hiking. As you continue your way across the ridge the exposure does increase and there are plenty of hands on moves involved closer to the summit. For our team this was more a fun leisurely scramble – compared to the more hectic missions of Mount Whyte and Snow Dome with Scott earlier that season.
In terms of the scrambling, there are a few cairns along the way but to anyone with basic route finding skills the way across and up is pretty obvious. Note that the climber’s right (Mt Afton side) is still quite exposed if tempted to avoid the exposure seen in the photos on the climber’s left. The scramble itself is generally over larger block like boulders and hand holds are plentiful.
As mentioned – our real objective was Mount Afton. We knew it was going to be a mission compared to Abbott. After the brief descent from Abbott and over the col we entertained the scramble up Afton. Scott charged up ahead and right away was in difficult terrain – more of a Climber’s Scramble vs a Difficult Scramble.
While Ben and I didn’t necessarily hit a crux – we soon found ourselves out of our comfort zones. After watching Scott tackle an exposed section off to the climber’s right, Ben and I tried going further left. Ben made it up one ledge that I myself tapped out on. While it was quite doable to ascend, I had zero confidence of being able to safely down climb back this way. We tapped out. Scott however, continued up – being that he was not comfortable down climbing back through the section either.
Long Story short – there’s a safer moderate scrambling route on the opposite side of Afton in which Scott was able to safely return from. If your keen to bag Afton and not fully confident with Difficult / Climber’s level scrambling this would be the longer but safer route up. I hopefully will make it back to Roger’s Pass to try the route out in the future!
Steep Sheep 