‘Rotten rock’: Climate change altering the face of Canadian mountaineering

Researchers used a century's worth of entries from the Abbot Pass hut's log to show how climate change is erasing historic climbs, and making others more dangerous.

The Abbot Pass hut stood for decades in a rugged saddle between two iconic peaks, overlooking the limpid turquoise of Banff National Park’s Lake Louise — a destination for alpinists from around the world until the ground melted beneath it and forced its closure.

University of Calgary researchers have now used a century’s worth of entries from the hut’s log to illuminate how climate change is erasing historic climbs, making others more dangerous and altering the face of Canadian mountaineering.

“There were absolutely comments about how climate change has impacted the Canadian Rockies and many hut visitors expressed sadness and concern over it,” wrote Kate Hanly, a geography doctoral candidate and co-author of a paper drawing on those logs published in the journal Climatic Change.

“Climate change is contributing to changes in mountaineering conditions in the Canadian Rockies,” she says in an email.

Mountain guides agree.

“Classic routes have changed,” says Paul Vidalin, president of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides with 25 years of guiding experience.

James Gudjonson, a vice-president of the Alpine Club of Canada, has been guiding climbers and skiers for 30 years.

“It’s really disheartening,” he says. “You know a lot (of routes) have gone away or are slowly going away and they’re not coming back.”