Mount Cavalier

Here is another report from the vault.  The reason I am posting these old reports is because one day the bivouac site will disappear and my trip reports with it. All the photos in this report are courtesy of Bob.  

On the eighth day of our Dais Glacier ski camp, Bob, Doug and I set out to climb Mt. Cavalier from the Cavalier Halberdier col. The day dawned clear but very windy with some blowing snow. As the morning progressed, the wind began to die, and by 10:00 when we set off the wind was calm with occasional gusts to 40 km/hr at camp - by the time we summited, it was virtually dead calm and very warm.

This was our second attempt on Cavalier; the first attempt was on day 2, where we approached from the north, climbing the crevassed glacier to the Cavalier-Jester col and then attempting the East Ridge. We were stopped less than 100 vertical meters short of the summit by an exposed traverse and steep, exposed slope with not-so-stable winter snow conditions.

From camp (375925 92N/6, 2080 m) on the Dais Glacier, we skied south across the glacier and gained the glaciated west ridge of Cavalier. We ascended the ridge (short section of step kicking due to frozen snow) to about 2300 m and then left the ridgeline and skied up the center of the glacier and through the col to the SW of Cavalier (383900) to gain access to the south slopes of our objective.

The south face of the peak is a reasonable snow route that is probably 40-45 degrees at its steepest. Due to our late start and the very warm day (now that the wind was gone) we deemed the avalanche hazard on these slopes to be rather high by the time we reached them. After considerable diddling and skiing hither and tither, we decided on using a rock step to gain the lower angled ridge that separates the south and east faces of the peak. Bob easily led the 10 m of solid rock (slinging two horns along the way), and then we all kicked and wallowed easily to the summit (very wet snow with boot penetration from 30-100+ cm). We basked in the hot sun and rubber-necked at the views for well over an hour before begrudgingly returning to camp. After reversing the wallow, we rappelled the rock step and skied roped until past the bergshrund found just NW of the Cavalier-Halberdier col. After passing the 'shrund, we unroped and skied down the ridge in increasingly soft and wet snow.