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CIRQUE OF THE UNCLIMBABLES
A Mazama Bob Wilson Grant Funded Expedition To The Nahanni National Park Reserve
by Sam Bedell, Angie Brown, Damon Greenshields, and Kyle Tarry.
In late July, our group of four visited the Cirque of the Unclimbables in Canada’s Northwest Territories, with financial support from a Mazama Bob Wilson Grant. The goals of our expedition were twofold: to attempt to climb the classic Southeast Face route on Lotus Flower Tower, and to investigate the potential for linkups and traverses between the peaks in the cirque. We were not successful in all of these endeavors, but nonetheless enjoyed a fantastic adventure in a remote and beautiful location.
The Cirque of the Unclimbables is located in the Logan Mountains, a remote mountain range near the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories province. Much of the area is within the Nahanni National Park Reserve, the name of which is derived from the Indigenous Dene name for the area. At approximately 62 degrees north, “the Cirque” is at a similar latitude to Denali, but its location significantly further east results in much milder weather. Due to the remote location and lack of major population centers in the region, The Cirque has a relatively short history of exploration and climbing in the modern era, and sees fewer annual visitors than other regions with similar terrain. One of the earliest recorded expeditions by a European party was the 1937 Snyder party, which visited Glacier Lake, the current starting point for the hike into the Cirque itself. A notable expedition in 1955 by Wexler and others, detailed in the 1956 American Alpine Journal, was the first to climb major summits in the Cirque, and was also responsible for naming the area the “Cirque of the Unclimbables” due to the steep granite faces that were beyond the party’s abilities.
To access this beautiful range, we chose an approach that balanced minimizing cost while maximizing climbing time. We drove from Portland to Vancouver BC, and then took a commercial flight to Whitehorse (the largest city in northern Canada at approximately 30,000 people). From Whitehorse, we rented a car and drove six hours northeast to Finlayson Lake, where we boarded a small float plane that took us to the standard Cirque access point at Glacier Lake (elevation 2,600 feet). A steep hike guards the Cirque itself, which has a base camp in a picturesque alpine meadow (5,200 feet). We lugged heavy packs up the steep approach, with provisions for 12 days, along with a significant amount of climbing and camping gear. The camping area, commonly known as Fairy Meadows, is a field of large boulders among small creeks and alpine wildflowers. Several of the boulders are as large as a house and have overhanging faces that provide a sheltered camping area in stormy weather. Established in the Cirque, we set our sights on climbing Lotus Flower Tower in the soonest available good weather.
Lotus Flower Tower (8,400 feet) is only a small peak along the ridge that comprises the Cirque, but its immense southeast face rises 2,000 feet above the valley and is a nearly sheer face of unbroken granite. First climbed in 1968, its inclusion in the famous 50 Classic Climbs of North America has made the Southeast Face the most soughtafter objective in the region (although larger and more difficult routes do exist in the range). Graded as 5.10+ C0 V, the Southeast Face route is commonly climbed in one or two days, with an optional bivy on the halfway ledge (the only significant flat spot on the entire face). The route has approximately 20 pitches of climbing, none easier than 5.7, and includes a small amount of aid climbing to bypass a small roof near the summit.
On the day immediately following our hike up to Fairy Meadows, Angie and Damon took advantage of a great weather forecast to do a reconnaissance climb of Lotus, which turned into a successful summit after making good time on the lower half of the face. After reaching the summit, they rappeled back to the base by headlamp. They found the first three pitches to be wet with running water (this area often seeps even when the rest of the route is dry) but had great conditions higher on the route. Kyle and Sam waited several days and made their successful ascent three days later.
Both of our parties used a mix of free climbing and C0 aiding (“French free”) on the first three pitches, which are in a steep hand/fist crack corner system. Above this corner, the climbing eases slightly into a long chimney system, which runs for seven more pitches to the bivy ledge. Sustained 5.7 climbing in this area was dispatched primarily with long pitches of free climbing (neither of our teams did a significant amount of simul-climbing in this area due to the sustained nature of the climbing). At the halfway ledge, the nature of the climbing changes significantly, with 10 pitches of 5.9 climbing on the steep headwall that are primarily a mix of thin cracks and face climbing on knobs and crystals without the relief of any belay ledges. A three-foot roof with a hand crack on pitch 16 is the crux of the route (with a free climbing grade of 5.10+), which we aided using slings before continuing to free climb the crack systems above. Several more high-quality pitches lead to lowerangle terrain, with the summit a short scramble from the last pitch. Angie and Damon used a double rope system for the headwall pitches, while Kyle and Sam used a single rope and a tagline and utilized the “fix-and-follow” method (the follower climbed the pitch using a self-belay with a toprope solo system while the leader hauled a small bag with the tag line). The descent requires approximately 15 doublerope rappels, initially following the line of ascent down the headwall and then, below the bivy ledge, diverging from the ascent chimneys to follow a clean face to the base of the route.
Both of our climbing teams elected to climb the route in a single push without a bivy on the ledge in order to keep pack weight and volume as low as possible for the sustained steep climbing. We all approached the base of the route in the dark, began climbing around sunrise, and took 14–16 hours to reach the summit. Several hours of rappelling brought us back to the base, and we returned to camp approximately 24 hours after departing.
After successful climbs of Lotus Flower Tower, we rested and enjoyed some of the cragging around Fairly Meadows (highlights include the 5.12 sport route on a distinct feature called “the Penguin” and a horizontal roof hand crack under a huge boulder). Angie and Damon climbed the first four pitches of “Riders on the Storm” on East Huey Tower and reported excellent 5.10 crack climbing. Angie and Damon then climbed “Brent’s Hammer” (5.11 III) to the summit of Terrace Tower while Kyle and Sam climbed the West Ridge of East Huey (5.9 III).
We also looked at the potential for longer traverses between peaks but ultimately did not attempt any of our proposed routes. Due to the long, dark winters and significant precipitation, the range can be quite vegetated and rock quality is variable. The ridgeline connecting the Huey summits appeared to be exposed knife-edge granite covered in moss and lichen when viewed from the Huey Notch, while the section between Huey and Phenocryst had a significant amount of loose, poor-quality rock when viewed from Lotus. We also considered crossing the notch between Lotus Flower Tower and Mt. Sir James MacBrien to look at objectives on the backside of the Cirque and in the Mt. Polymer area, but unfortunately, we did not have the required two-day period of good weather for a bivy in that basin.
With a poor weather outlook for the remaining few days of our trip, we hightailed it down to Glacier Lake and lucked out in snagging a last-minute flight out with Warren Lefave of Inconnu Lodge. Warren has been flying climbers into the range for nearly four decades, and his experience was apparent when the engine on our plane died while flying through a rainstorm and he calmly remarked “Hm, a little carb icing” before getting it fired back up. Warren provided us with hot showers and a dinner buffet at Inconnu Lodge before flying us back to the parking lot the following morning. From there we reversed our previous travels and adjusted our return flights. We took advantage of the early return to make a stop in Squamish, where Angie and Damon climbed Rock On to Squamish Buttress, and Kyle and Sam climbed Angel’s Crest (both routes graded 5.10 IV, although we all agreed that after a week of climbing in the Cirque, climbing long routes in Squamish felt downright civilized).
Our team feels extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit such a beautiful and remote area, and to have successfully climbed the sought-after Southeast Face of Lotus Flower Tower. If you like adventurous travel and alpine granite, the Cirque of the Unclimbables deserves a place on your to-do list.
Team Bios
■ Damon Greenshields: Born in Joseph, Oregon, Damon moved to Portland in 2018 after graduating from Oregon State (go Beavs). Since taking BCEP and ICS (2018–2020), he has found joy in testing himself on technical climbs throughout the western U.S. He has a hard time correctly spelling license.
■ Kyle Tarry: Born in New Hampshire, Kyle has lived in Portland since 2015 and has climbed alpine rock and ice routes in the Cascades, Peru, Alaska, and New Zealand. His favorite cheese is extra sharp cheddar.
■ Angie Brown: Angie moved to Portland from Indiana for grad school in 2018. She immediately got into mountaineering after taking Advanced Rock and enjoys long ridge scrambles when she isn’t working on an offwidth. Angie gets a stomachache whenever Kyle tries to give her his cheese.
■ Sam Bedell: Born in Reno and currently living in Bend after a college stint in Bellingham, Sam is a Smith Rock regular and has climbed long routes across the western U.S. and Canada.
