Have you ever heard of the Cirque of the Unclimbables? I guess many people will say “No.” It is the name of a world-famous, incredibly remote alpine climbing area in Northern Canada. Unlike places like the Bugaboos, this legendary spot is extremely hard to get to. It is located deep inside the Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories, and there are absolutely no roads to reach this area.
Anyway, I will be posting about our big expedition to the Cirque here on my blog. It is a long story, so I am breaking it down into a few distinct volumes.
- Trip Type: Remote Wilderness Alpine Climbing Expedition
- Location: Nahanni National Park Reserve, Northwest Territories, Canada
- Expedition Members: 7 people
- Main Objective: Establish a new, ground-up free climbing route
- Access Method: Floatplane via Kluane Airways from Finlayson Lake Base
- Date: August 5th – August 29th, 2019
- Expedition Tag: Search “TheCirque2019” or click
#Cirqueoftheunclimbablesin the tag cloud for the full series
In 2018, I got a message from a climber in Japan. His name is Marubo. I had met him only once or twice before. It said that he wants to go to Cirque of the Unclimbables and put a new free climbing route, and he is looking for trip members. I was surprised and excited. I had done many winter trips, but never summer climbing trip. I answered “Yes”, and that was how this trip was started.
We were 7 of us and 5 members had to travel from Japan. I and Yuki arranged all the bookings and permits for this trip, because we were both living in Squamish. I emailed Kluane Airways to book our flight in May and actually confirmed our trip at the beginning of July. There were already few other groups booked their trip with Kluane Airways by then. I would suggest to book your date earlier before someone els takes your date.
* There is a way to save trip budget! Make sure to check Kluane Airways website.
On August 5th in 2019, 3 members arrived in Vancouver to join me and Yuki to drive to Yukon. Then, we did shopping and preparation, and left Squamish on 8th! Our trip has started!
We drove straight to Whitehorse to pick up 2 other members at the airport on 10th. At 17:00 on 10th, our team, 7 members finally gathered. We briefly greeted and started driving soon. Because our float plane flight into Nahanni park was scheduled at 10:00 on 11th, and the flight base was 520km away from Whitehorse. The road was rough. Most of the road was paved and some parts were dirt road.
When we got to the Finlayson Lake base, it was already 23:20. It was completely dark, so we went to sleep soon. Next morning, we got up at 7:00 to get our gear sorted. This was the first time for everyone to get together and talk about gears in person, and also this was the last time before the flight. Many team members were experienced climbers, so we did not have any issue getting ready. That was good.
Around 10:30, Warren the pilot arrived and quickly did an introduction and a flight briefing. Then, we were up in the air by 11:30! It was so fast! On this flight I and 3 other members could fit in, and we had to have another flight to get 3 other members and rest of the gears in.
What we saw from the sky was all forest. We flew over Warren’s fishing lodge in 10 minutes. Then we entered Nahanni National Park, and the landscape drastically changed into jagged peaks and huge glaciers. The flight was exactly 1 hour and it was so fun. I could not stop taking photos.
At 12:30, our float plane landed on Glacier Lake. The real adventure began from here. We got our gears out from the plane and repacked our backpacks to start on the approach trail to Cirque of the Unclimbables!!
To be continued…
Sea to sky 