Trip: Mt. Robson - Emperor Face, House-Haley (FA)

Date: 5/25/2007

Trip Report:
Excited by a good forecast, Steve House drove north from Bend on Wednesday afternoon for his 7th attempt on Robson's Emperor Face. Fortunately all of the more talented climbers he approached could not go, so we met up in Seattle and hit the road up to Robson on Thursday morning.

On Thursday afternoon we flew with Yellowhead Helicopters to the Helmet-Robson col, and left the col at 4:30am on Friday to approach the Emperor Face by descending the ramped ice-fall above the Mist Glacier.

We climbed the face in two long lead blocks, both seven pitches long. My block had longer pitches (about 80m on average) and moderate climbing, then Steve's block had normal-length pitches (about 55m on average) and much more difficult climbing. Our route roughly followed the gully system immediately left of the Stump-Logan, but on the last pitch we suddenly encountered 3 fixed pitons. Presumably Stump and Logan finished a little bit to the left of the arete that is shown in most photos. Our route shared at least the last pitch with theirs, and perhaps the last two pitches.

I reached Steve's belay at the top of the headwall at 11:30pm, and we spent the short night sitting on a small ledge chopped from the ice. In the morning Steve led two easy mixed pitches up to the crest of the Emperor Ridge, which we then crossed onto the upper SW Face. We traversed across the South Face, me now feeling very sick for some reason (I think a bug that I have had ever since Patagonia), and joined the Wishbone Arete in deteriorating weather. The upper Wishbone Arete included some funky gargoyle climbing, and we topped out in a whiteout at 1:00pm.

We descended the Kain Route and then Steve hiked up to retrieve our camp at the Helmet-Robson col while I sat and contemplated vomiting. Our camp-to-camp time was approximately 36 hours. On Sunday we descended the Robson Glacier (sometimes stressfully off route due to the whiteout), and then hiked down to Kinney Lake, leaving the last 7km of walking for Monday morning.

I probably won't have time to post pictures until July, unfortunately.

Name dropper.

Good job.

That face is so big... awesome work guys! way to crush!

rating estimate? rack?

way to go guys!

awesome!

Nice work.

FUCK YEAH!!!!
Way to go Colin!

Outstanding!! As someone uninformed on the history of this face, I did some googling and found this nice write up: http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/article_blanchard-robson.htm#

Sounds like they absolutely crushed previous times on the face!

Where's the jaw dropping emoticon. Nice send d00d

good job dudes!

Solid

Steve House is aid.

NICE send fellas!

Awesome job!

http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/mtrobsonfa07/

Holy shit.

wait, I thought Colin was aid. I think that means their route is a sport climb then. the longest sport climb in the world!!

This weekend I got ropegunned up Givler's crack. Then it got a little chilly and windy, so I went home.

Steve and Colin and I should climb together sometime.

damn - http://www.bivouac.com/img/photo/4631_nface.jpg - that's the Emperor Face in the shade

Hell yeah!!! Fuck'n Awesome .

i wanna a do-over on life. Nice Colin. U

I've climbed harder.

I want a Colin Haley bobble head doll!
Way to keep kickin ass Colin! Climb high up there in the AK
Hey, when are you going to have pics of the gnarr?

Awesome stuff, Colin! Can't wait for pics.