Elevation Gain: 1,926m
Distance: 14.53km
Total Time: 10 hours 22 minutes
Date: September 1st, 2024
Uto Peak is often overshadowed by the ever impressive Mount Sir Donald just a short hop away. However, it boasts its own classic route via the southwest ridge which comes highly recommended by most who climb it. It even gets a special mention in the guide book for the area. For these reasons it was high on Alex, Trevor and mine’s list for our first foray into the Roger’s Pass area. Of course we were constantly tempted by Sir Donald, especially after seeing it in person, but the conga lines tempered our ambitions. The day prior, we had a successful ascent of Mount Tupper and now we found ourselves just across the highway at the Sir Donald trail head.
We started hiking in around 7am and again were blown away by the amazing trail network that had been put in place. After a steady pace through the breezy open valley we reached the backcountry camping site for Sir Donald. There were about 7 or 8 tents visible and no doubt most were headed for Sir Donald itself. The ridge up Uto looked clear as expected and the route was quite aesthetic.
From the camp site we booted up screen and talus and then took a wide ledge system to gain the Uto-Sir Donald col. Here we briefly flirted with the idea of going up Sir Donald anyways, but at this point it was 10am and we could see at least 5 or 6 parties ahead. Finally after some hemming and hawing we returned to our original plan of Uto and geared up for the climb. We started with some fun exposed 4th class moves climber’s left of the ridge crest and then scrambled up several sections of steep walls and large ledges moving left or right wherever the terrain appeared best. The crux came about halfway up and felt a bit harder than 5.1 but I think we took a harder line than usual? After the crux came an exposed traverse into a corner system and then easier climbing to regain the ridge crest.
Above this corner the climbing eased off and we followed 3rd and 4th class rock all the way up to the summit. While I’ve been short for words to describe the route, it definitely earned its classic status.
We had reached the summit sometime around 11:30am with lots of day light left. With so much time at our disposal, we started to consider a traverse to Eagle Peak and perhaps even Avalanche Mountain. Everyone liked the idea, so we set off down the Northwest ridge towards Eagle Peak.