Alpha Centauri and North Star (Mountaineering)
If the unstable boulders don't scare you away then I have undersold my distaste for them
Alpha Centauri and North Star (Mountaineering)
Notable Visited Landmarks
Introduction
Mount Alpha Centauri and North Star Peak are 2 beautiful peaks located on the southern end of North Star Glacier in the Purcell range of British Columbia. This was my first trip into the area, and I was happy to see that there were not many other people in the area. This is always a bonus for me. Despite the incoming smoke from the BC wildfires, we still got enough of a taste to know that the views from this area are superb. The only thing about this area I did not enjoy was the instability of large boulders, walking over some of these things is like rolling dice, you do not know when they will tip, and you are going to injure yourself. This fact alone makes me reluctant to go back for another trip.
This trip can be completed in 2 days, with a fast approach on the first day of about 6km and 600m of elevation gain. The second day would be considerably longer having about 1100m of elevation to get up the 2 peaks and about 21km to get up, down, and out. We took our time though, making this a 3 day journey with a really casual first and last day. In terms of difficulty, this would be easy mountaineering. If you tried hard you could probably bypass Centaurus Glacier when going to Alpha Centauri but if you want to go to North Star you will need to take the glacier.
All in all, I would not recommend this trip because of the large unstable boulders. I feel like you could get good views and a remote setting elsewhere in the world without playing the odds that you may accidentally get crushed by one of these things.
Camp at Aberystwyth Lake
You are going to want to park at the Fish Creek Parking Lot across the 93 from Lake Louise. You will want to arrive there early, we started walking up the service road towards the Skoki trailhead at 4:05. The service road is 4km long and you’re just walking up a dirt road for this portion of the trip so there isn’t really a downfall to walking it in the dark. The Skoki trailhead is marked by the sign showing all the distances to the destinations in the Skoki area. Red Deer Lakes campground is 15km from there, a not so encouraging sight to see.
On July 2, 2021, year 2 of the covid, Urbi, Kayla, and I drove out from Calgary to Radium where we met up with Carlos. We continued to drive West from Radium on the Forster Creek Forest Service Road. This road is a gravel road but it doesn’t get too bad until the turnoff to the left at kilometer 36 where the road significantly worsens and gets very rocky. At the parking lot there is some chicken wire to protect vehicles from porcupines but there was not enough for all the vehicles there, so Urbi’s vehicle was left unprotected.
From the trailhead we followed the trail South-West towards the Welsh Lakes. We made it to the Lower Welsh Lake on trail, with no difficulty and relatively quickly. From the Lower Welsh Lake, we started heading around the lake on the East, off trail, and broke off from the shore to start gaining elevation when we met with a stream coming down from Aberystwyth Lake. We followed this stream on climber’s left up to Aberystwyth Lake where we then crossed the stream to an open area where we decided to set up camp.
Kayla on the trail to the Lower Welsh Lake
Lower Welsh Lake
Heading up to Aberystwyth Lake
Crossing the stream to get to our camp location.
After waiting out some rain we had a nice dinner and hung out at the campsite. The lake was a beautiful blue, as were the Welsh Lakes, and the evening was pleasant, though we would go to sleep early since we wanted an early start the next morning so that we could get good glacier conditions.
Aberystwyth Lake
Mount Alpha Centauri
The next morning, I woke up at 3am to eat some food and take some pictures of the stars. The rest of the group got up at 3:30 and we were shortly on our way South trying to make it to the Upper Welsh Lake. Not wanting to lose any elevation I led us too far up and directly South. We got cliffed out and had to back track and go around the ridge we were cliffed out on. Eventually we made it to the Upper Welsh Lake which we went around on the East side. Continuing South we made it to a small tarn at the bottom of the Centaurus Glacier where we stopped to rope up.
Benefits of waking up early, also eating food
On course again after I got us lost
The frozen tarn that we roped up next to
The glacier starts off trivially easy, with only a single crevasse visible on the entire glacier. There was a small patch of ice that we saw but were easily able to avoid by staying on the snow to climber’s right and passing above it. We continued to head South on the glacier looking for a break in the cliffs that would give us access to the ridge to the summit.
The trivially easy travel on Centaurus Glacier
Eventually we came to a spot where the rock was replaced by about 50 degree snow leading up to the ridge. We took this snow up to the ridge which presented no technical difficulties. Once up on the ridge and off the snow we got off the ridge proper and followed underneath the ridgeline on climber’s left. Soon we were on the summit of Mount Alpha Centauri, the smoke was coming in, but the views were still excellent, and we took a nice break while I contemplated the route to North Star Peak.
I am about to attack the 50 degree snow slope up to the ridge, photo credit to Carlos Bagni
The slope is in fact kind of steep, photo credit to Urban Pistek
Staying to climber’s left of the ridge proper
Looking back towards the Upper Welsh Lake from the summit of Mount Alpha Centauri
Looking towards North Star Peak from the summit of Mount Alpha Centauri
North Star Peak
The ridge to North Star Peak is mainly glaciated which we looked to use to our advantage, the issue was that the easy access to the glacier started off as steep ice and we did not have the experience to deal with that. But, after staying on the rock on the way towards North-Star we were able to make a class 3 downclimb to the glacier which was snow up to the summit block of North Star.
Starting the class 3 downclimb onto the North Star Glacier, drone footage by Urban Pistek
We followed the glacier just to climber’s right of the ridge proper up to the summit block of North Star, there were a couple of steepish sections but there wasn’t anything very difficult. Once at the summit block of North Star we made a terrifying class 4 ascent of the summit block. The reason it was terrifying was because the summit block appeared to be a stack of unstable large boulders. Though the views were good, we did not spend much time on the summit. We also wanted to head back quickly before the snow conditions got horrible.
Coming up one of the steeper sections
Summit block on our left, photo credit to Urban Pistek
Supraglacial lake on the North Star glacier, looking towards Gwendoline from North Star
Kayla about to come up the summit block of North Star
Looking back to Alpha Centauri, just under the summit block of North Star
Heading Back
We went back the way that we had gone up and the snow conditions were indeed horrible, lots of balling wet snow on the crampons. With all the smoke coming in from the forest fires we contemplated packing out that day, we had plenty of time. We ultimately decided to stay for another relaxing night though. In the morning we headed out through some light rain and many mosquitos.
Looks like someone took a bit of a slip on the steep snow slope
I am not sure if we were unlucky with the stability of the boulders here or if it indeed horrible for most places in the range. I would not recommend Alpha Centauri and North Star from this route though. I think you could look for a longer glaciated trip that takes you up Gwendoline and then you can traverse over to Alpha Centauri and North Star. We looked into bagging Gwendoline as well and Gwendoline has an alternate ascent route so this route is theoretically possible, though it could end up quite brutal in practice.