Phil Widmer and I teamed up to guide Roy S up the Japanese route on Mt Alberta’s east face July 19-22.
We had excellent conditions for summit day from a bivy on the south shoulder at 2900m. We did not use crampons or axes for the approach to the bivy site or summit day. The route and summit ridge was snow free. The few snow patches we did travel through offered good steps in soft snow.
There was a trickle of water from snow melt not far from our bivy site to fill bottles, and also in the main upper gully a couple hundred meters below the summit ridge.
All rap stations seemed to be in decent shape and cord was added to back up certain stations.

Sadly, a cold front moved in on the morning of the 22nd with strong winds from the SE depositing 5cm of new snow at hut elevation (2700m) and up 20cm in wind blown areas with soft slabs forming. We could only see the bottom 1/3 of Alberta’s east face but it looked plastered with new snow and will likely take a least a few days of warm sun to dry out.

The Sunwapta crossing was mid thigh at the deepest if you choose your line carefully.

I included a picture of Woolley and Diadem taken on July 19.

This ascent adds Roy to the unofficial list of having climbed all 56 of the Rockies 11000ers.

Kris Irwin
Phil Widmer