INTRO TO ASSINIBOINE / JULY 1997

My interest in climbing Assiniboine began when I started to reconnect with Dave Mention who I had lost track of after our trip to Gasherbrum II in 1991. Dave was interested in rekindling his alpine experiences and I had always wanted to do more stuff with him, so this idea didn't take long to turn into a real plan.

Doing things on the cheap is not a good thing when you want to climb this peak. Its a long walk into Magog Lake and an equally long walk out when you're done. But, that's how we did it in 97 on our first attempt. Gmoser's Hwy is a treat the first time you do it, but its still better than the long snow gully that was once the normal approach. We were curious enough to descend from the hut by way of the gully. Lots of step kicking facing in. Once is enough

We had the hut to ourselves for two days, one of which was spent watching the weather come and go. When it cleared it was fairly obvious that we were slightly under-equipped to do the route given the somewhat snowy conditions. We settled for a enjoyable romp up Sturdee and made plans to come back the next year.