Not a Story About Climbing Mt Waddington
Last fall, Tony Richardson (an Arc'teryx designer) and Jason Kruk (an Arc'teryx alpinist) took a trek into the backwoods of British Columbia in search of Mount Waddington. What they discovered – aside from slide alder, lichen-covered talus, and bog – was the curious disappearance of certainty.
The plan: Leave from Foster's Ranch at the North end, walk up the Scimitar Glacier, over Fury Gap to the South face of Waddington, then down the Waddington Glacier to the Scar camp and float the Homathko to Butte.
I became nervous, even anxious, about details like what was the best route to take … Jason, in his dry, unconcerned way, would always respond the same way; 'I don't know.'The planning: "Having extensively Google-earthed the section of river we needed to descend to reach Scimitar Creek, I was fairly confident the rapid we were portaging was the only real whitewater we would encounter …"
The pattern: "I became nervous, even anxious, about details like what was the best route to take … Jason, in his dry, unconcerned way, would always respond the same way; 'I don't know.'"
You can read Tony's full account of not climbing a mountain (but learning a great deal along the way) in the most recent issue of the Canadian Alpine Journal (Volume 95, 2012).
