Climb: Slesse-Navigator Wall

Date of Climb: 8/16/2005

Trip Report:
I'm not sure exactly what to say. Typically I post TRs of climbs I think people would enjoy repeating. Navigator Wall is not one of those climbs. It is a hard climb for hardmen and if you are one of those maybe you would truely enjoy the climbing. However I am definitely not a hardman and I am glad it's over. With that said it was one of the better adventures in my climbing career and I'm happy to have (past tense)done it.

I was joined by Sol (aka Frosty) on Monday afternoon and we headed north to get into position for a push on Tuesday. We found that the Slesse Creek road is now waterbarred, no probably for a truck but definitely an issue for Sol's minivan. Luckily it's not a big deal as it's only about a thirty minute walk from the trailhead. I pushed my bike up the road a bit before realizing that was stupid, then chained it to a tree.

We headed around to Nesakwatch Creek where we again stopped at the first waterbar. In the morning we discovered that this too is about a 35 minute walk from the old trailhead. Basically a CJ7 would not give you much of an advantage over a Toyota Prius.

We left the car at 2 AM and reached the propellor cairn around 5:15 AM. This is a beautiful spot. 30 minutes of outrageous slab hiking got us to the base of the climb.



What to say...what to say.... The first pitch was great! And so was the 19th! The rest well...most of it wasn't that bad, some of it was quite good!

Sol leading the crux "overhanging fingercrack" pitch



On the 5.8 slab pitch mid-route



But the headwall, OH DEAR GOD the headwall!

Hard sustained climbing on vertical to overhanging, loose, dirty diorite. Mediocre gear and a semi-hanging belay off of two hollow flakes with 1700' of air beneath your heels. I whimpered up my pitch, Sol meditated up his.
We both agreed once was enough. That was definitely not what climbing is about for us.

From the sandy ledges Sol took us home, gracefully scaling the "outrageous" 10b corner. This pitch was a total anomoly for the climb, 120+ feet of splitter hands on solid rock. Like a Split Pillar in the mountains. A few more pitches and we were on the summit eleven hours after starting up the rock.

Cranking up the 10b corner



To descend we did two long rappels down the northwest route then quickly scrambled up and over to the loose gully of the standard descent of Slesse.

The off-shore flow had moved in as predicted and we had an incredible view of a sea of clouds churning about in the valley below.




Twenty-one hours after leaving the car I'm biking up the Chilliwack River Road. My Tikka casts a feeble glow against the gloomy night. A few small rain drops quickly build to a thunderous downpour. I'm soaked, I have miles yet to go and I'm smiling.


Gear Notes:
Medium-large rack to 4". Extra #2 Camalots for pitch 19. Red Fred topo is perfect. KM clearly plagarized it.

Approach Notes:
Mellowest approach on Slesse.

Kick-ass!!


Question: have you done the E Pillar on Slesse?

KILLER!!!

Nice work gents!

That is exactly what TR's are supposed to be like. Nice work, sounds like a fun day.

did you trend leftward on the lower slabs and cut back right across the grass ledges? hope you didn't follow my rap slings!

nice friggin job, i'm jealous and bummed at the same time. i really wanted to do this route before you posted this TR (partner got wicked scared, didn't feel like a shouting match) and now i still want to do it for the adventure, but not for much else now i guess. it's always a let down when someone tells you a route you really want to do really really sucks. Nav wall and Tuning Fork some to mind in particular.

So once again, proud job. ED1 is pretty solid!

Is a

Quote:

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climbing carrier

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something like a pet carrier? A little hutch with breathing holes? Those sound cool. I gotta get one. Then my partners can drag me up the walls with less effort on my part

Ross: I haven't climbed the East Pillar. It too looks hard, sustained and loose. Check out Dan and Forrests TR from a couple summers back.

Mike: It probably would have helped matters had you not gotten off route on the FIRST pitch.

Dru: F#@K OFF!

If anyone cares I still think the North Rib is one of the classiest routes I've done in the Cascades. I would HIGHLY recommend that one.

Well now that you edited it my joke doesn't make much sense

i think it's funny Dru. now get the fuck back in the cage!

well, good work. i still think that i want to climb it, so since you two wont go up again, any takers??

sounds like that put some hair on your chest

when?

Nice job guys!!
Sounds like a real deal adventure.

Wow, that sounded scary but somehow enticing

My friends went up near this recently and said at the base of the real climbing it looked like such a pile of shit they pulled the plug and went home. Sounds to me the peak should have been named Sleezee.

nice work!