I climbed the SW Face/Ridge of Mt Eon with Zac Robinson on July 23-24th under mostly clear skies, though as we drove home the skies were looking a bit apocalyptic at times. All the best to those affected by the wildfires.

The climbing route was snow-free other than crossing the avalanche debris in the main gully on the SW face. We could kick and chop steps with an ice axe across this snow in warm temperatures without using crampons. Some type of boot cleat or crampon would have been useful had it been cooler.

The rest of the route was dry and involved lots of scrambling with 4th or easy 5th-class climbing at times. We used several small to medium cams and a couple of medium nuts for protection on the steeper pitches and did a couple of 15-20 m rappels on the way back down.

The old logging road portion of the access was in reasonably good shape and driveable with a two-wheel drive vehicle that had a bit of clearance. The two old bridges are holding up for now. Very little chicken wire is available at the parking areas for Assiniboine Lake or Eon, so bring your own if you want to use it.

The SW face of Assiniboine still had quite a bit of snow on it from our vantage point.

Conrad Janzen