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Chief Joseph
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Joined: 10 Nov 2007
Posts: 7703 | TRs | Pics
Location: Verlot-Priest Lake |
Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
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fourteen410
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Joined: 23 May 2008
Posts: 2629 | TRs | Pics
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Bummer. I considered visiting it until I heard stories about how sketchy the final bit was.
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Eric Hansen
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Joined: 23 Mar 2015
Posts: 866 | TRs | Pics
Location: Wisconsin |
30+ years ago I was there on a day hike (didn't overnight) from the Lake O Hara hut. Not a whole lot of visibility that day, most of the high peaks had some cloud cover. That approach is just a long scree/talus scramble that is not technical, but many hikers wouldn't care for. The other side, from Lake Louise had a bad reputation. Memory has it having a nickname something like "the toilet" for avalanches running across the whole basin, "flushing".
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gb
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Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Posts: 6309 | TRs | Pics
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gb
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 Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:42 am |
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I stayed in the hut overnight a few times back in the 80's on climbs of Victoria and Lefroy. It was actually a very stark hut and place. The hut was stone-walled and did not even have windows. The views were ok but not nearly as good as those from other areas in that part of the Rockies.
 Chief Joseph
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Anne Elk
BrontosaurusTheorist
Joined: 07 Sep 2018
Posts: 2419 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle |
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Anne Elk
BrontosaurusTheorist
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Wed May 04, 2022 2:24 pm |
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Just saw your post, CJ. Back in the 80's I was living in Canada and working with a local filmmaker on a documentary about the history of Lake Louise for Parks Canada. Some live footage was shot at the hut and the crew was flown up there by helicopter. Unfortunately I was away at the time and missed the trip. There seems to have been a lot of erosion on both sides since that time. I'll see if I can hunt down some pics from then.
| Eric Hansen wrote: | | The other side, from Lake Louise had a bad reputation. Memory has it having a nickname something like "the toilet" for avalanches running across the whole basin, "flushing". |
It's historic name is "Death Trap Col", for the reason you cited. The col was the starting point for the first, and early ascents of Mt. Lefroy.
"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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hikerbiker
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Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 155 | TRs | Pics
Location: Rock Creek |
Pretty sure the approach to the Abbot Hut from Lake Louise climbs the "Mouse Trap" between the cliffs of Victoria and Lefroy. We climbed Victoria in a long day from Louise and I remember getting to the hut and checking it out for a few minutes. The Mouse Trap isn't really all that dangerous IMO: lots of climbs have objective hazards.
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gb
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Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Posts: 6309 | TRs | Pics
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gb
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Thu May 05, 2022 6:26 am |
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| hikerbiker wrote: | | Pretty sure the approach to the Abbot Hut from Lake Louise climbs the "Mouse Trap" between the cliffs of Victoria and Lefroy. We climbed Victoria in a long day from Louise and I remember getting to the hut and checking it out for a few minutes. The Mouse Trap isn't really all that dangerous IMO: lots of climbs have objective hazards. |
I've done Victoria three times, the first via "death trap". For several hundred yards the snow was completely covered with embedded ice cubes. The Glaciers on Victoria overhang this part of that approach. Canadian Guides would never do that approach.
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Anne Elk
BrontosaurusTheorist
Joined: 07 Sep 2018
Posts: 2419 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle |
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Anne Elk
BrontosaurusTheorist
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Thu May 05, 2022 9:30 am |
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| hikerbiker wrote: | | Pretty sure the approach to the Abbot Hut from Lake Louise climbs the "Mouse Trap" between the cliffs of Victoria and Lefroy. ... The Mouse Trap isn't really all that dangerous IMO: lots of climbs have objective hazards. |
The next time you're in Banff NP, perhaps you could stop by the Archives of the Canadian Rockies to verify: Death Trap Col is documented in the Alpine Journal of Canada and other historic works on climbing in the Lake Louise area. It's a great place to spend a rainy afternoon exploring local history. Or more contemporaneous, see the reference on SummitPost. In past decades that col posed more "objective hazards" when the hanging glaciers above on Victoria were considerably larger, and climbers of bygone eras were a lot more more circumspect than today's daredevils about taking unnecessary risks, for themselves or their clients; thus the name. 
"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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Too, bad, that would be an awesome place to spend the night, looks like it has a wood stove, anyone here ever go there?
