Stutfield Peak
May 8, 2015
3450m
Columbia Icefield, AB
The two summits of Stutfields (Main and NE) are nothing more than rounded snow humps on the northern end of Columbia Icefield, and yet, they’re listed as two separated 11,000ers. Even for just that reason they’re on my peak-bagging list but I don’t consider them as something I “have to climb”. With a week-long high pressure system building up in this early May, obviously the Stutfields were not the primary objectives when Vern, Kevin, Ben and I hauled 5 days’ supply to Columbia Icefield’s northern branch. The planning and approach is written in the trip report of my #1 priority, South Twin, while the return is written in my #2 priority, Twins Tower‘s trip report.
After a night of snow storm blizzard, we woke up under clear sky on the 2nd day of this expedition. As wished everybody was hoping to ascend the 4 Twins as early as we could but given the amount of fresh snow (at least 10 cm) and the gusting wind blowing all night long we decided it’s probably a safer choice to ascend the Stutfields and Cromwell first. To get either Stutfield NE or Mt. Cromwell one must ascend up and over the main summit of Stutfield Peak first, hence it’s the first peak bagged in this trip. We easily ski’d to Stutfield Col on some rolling terrain and from there on it’s nothing fancy. There’s one steep slope to ascend near a rocky band that I led a diagonal traversing line towards climber’s right, and after that it was an easy, albeit foreshortening slog up the gentle snow slope to the summit of my 21st 11,000er.
Almost good to go. A long day was ahead!
South Twin and North Twin from our camp. Our objectives for the next day
The mighty Mt. Columbia which we bagged 3 weeks ago
The Stutfields are nothing science. Just ski to the top.
There’s some height loss to Stutfield Col
The foreshortened slog up Stutfield Peak. There’s one steep slope to traverse/ascend
A view of Mt. Alberta and others from near Stutfield Col
What an amazing view of Twins Tower, especially knowing I’d be ascending it the next day
The typical slog…
Traversing the only steep slope. Photo by Vern
Summit Panorama from Stutfield Peak. Click to view large size.
The best view from here is towards North Twin and Twins Tower
Mt. Columbia again
Looking ahead to our 2nd and 3rd objectives – Cromwell and Stutfield NE
The wind was cold and strong in this morning. We were also aware it’s going to be a long day ahead, so didn’t stay any longer than necessary on this summit, but immediately focusing on our next objective, Mount Cromwell.
Steven's Peak-bagging Journey 