Four of Canada’s top adventure athletes launched an assault on one of the Bow Valley’s most daunting mountain challenges, but were beaten back by avalanches and quickly changing conditions.
For the past year, ultrarunning champ Adam Campbell, adventure race star Ryan Atkins, retired Olympic cross country skier Drew Goldsack and Boundless television star Simon Donato have planned to complete the Rundle Winter Traverse in a day, and film the effort for the Banff Mountain Film Fest.
On Friday (April 1), the fearless foursome launched their attack on the ridge, summiting seven of the 11 peaks on Rundle, before turning around.
“We didn’t get the full traverse. It warmed up quite a bit in the afternoon and we witnessed a big slide,” Donato said. “The conditions started to slip and we pulled the plug.”
Beginning on the East End of Rundle, the crew managed to push through soft snow and reach the summit of the seventh peak, but peaks eight to 11 were full of unknown hazards.
“We didn’t know what they would be like,” Donato said.
The route has been completed many times in summer, but only a handful of adventurers have braved it in winter – and none in a single day, to their knowledge.
Donato and Atkins set the summer speed record on the traverse last year, while Campbell has made his own solo attempt. Goldsack, a producer on U.S. documentary, Heroes Behind the Badge, is in charge of filming. The crew has made a series of investigative forays up the peak, and worked to find a day when the entire crew could tackle the project.
Donato said the crew wants to tell the tale of Mount Rundle in a short film, but another attempt on the traverse may have to wait until next year.
“We’re not blitzing it. We had a chat with guys like Will Gadd, Jack Firth and Chic Scott. They all told us the same thing – to enjoy the moment, not get too caught up in the goal.”
