| Route |
Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| Death Trap |
23 Aug 00 |
6:00 |
n/a |
| O'Hara |
01 Sep 00 |
3:30 |
2:00 |
| O'Hara |
06 Jul 01 |
6:11 |
n/a |
Abott's Pass Hut sits at 9,598 ft and is the base for Mt. LeFroy and Mt. Victoria. There are three
approaches to the hut. The normal route is to come up the scree slope from Lake O'Hara and Lake Oesa.
Coming up this route poses no problems. Snow will actually help going up the scree. The mountaineering
approach is up the death trap. Here, you have to watch out for falling seracs from Victoria, and LeFroy
likes to throw rocks at you all day. This is also true when climbing LeFroy. But, if you stay in the middle
of the lower Victoria glacier, you will avoid these two hazards. But what you can't avoid is the 'schrund.
More on that later. The third route is through the Fuhrmann Ledges. This basically cuts along the slopes
of LeFroy, but again, you have to remember that LeFroy likes to throw rocks at you.
|
DEATH TRAP ROUTE:
 23 Aug 00 -
To go up the Death Trap, follow the trail to the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House. After the tea house,
you'll see an extension of the trail, which continues further along the side of the glacier. From there,
make your way down onto the Lower Victoria Glacier. From here, you can look back and see Lake Louise, the
Chateau, and even Lake Louise ski area in the background.
|
 23 Aug 00 -
Here we see the Lower Victoria Glacier. Make your way around this corner. Watch out for falling seracs.
When we did this, the seracs were falling about every ten minutes or so.
|
 23 Aug 00 -
Once you get around the corner, you will be able to see the rest of the route to the hut. About half way up,
you will encounter, a 'schrund. For us, it was about 15 feet wide, the top part was about 25 feet higher, and
it stretched all the way across. At first, I belayed Rob down into the 'schrund, and he was going to ice climb
out the other side, but the ice was too soft. So we explored more trying to find the easier end to go around,
and we found a bridge (extremely exposed) that dumped us onto the 50° snow slopes of Victoria. We went
up that, and traverse all the way around the 'schrund. Once back on the glacier, the rest of the way was
regular glacier walking.
|
LAKE O'HARA ROUTE:
 23 Aug 00 -
The non-technical route is from Lake O'Hara. You take a bus from the Lake O'Hara parking lot off Hwy 1.
The bus ride is about thirty minutes long. Walking the road took me about 1:40, but that was going
from Lake O'Hara to the parking lot. From Lake O'Hara, follow the trails to Lake Oesa. It should take
about an hour.
|
 23 Aug 00 -
When you arrive at Lake Oesa, follow the trails for Abott's Pass Hut. It circles the lake on the left.
You'll go up through a rockband, and eventually round a corner that puts you at the base of a scree slope.
|
 23 Aug 00 -
The scree slope is miserable. If you do it in snow, you can really run up the slope. When I did this route,
there was snow on it, and I could kick steps the entire way up. The entire route, took me 3.5 hours.
|
INSIDE THE HUT:
 23 Aug 00 -
This is what the hut looks like on the inside. You have the main sitting area with the big fireplace for
boiling water. You also have the kitchen area shown in the very back. Not shown is the upstairs when you
have two big beds that sleeps about 20 people.
|
The bathroom is actually behind the hut, but it offers a great view of Mt. Victoria.
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