[TR] Merchant Peak - South Gully 10/25/2008

[iluka]

Trip: Merchant Peak - South Gully

 

Date: 10/25/2008

 

Trip Report:

Allan, DC and I went to climb Merchant Peak before the days got too short to get this one in. Now that we've climbed it, I can't say any of us are itching to go back and do it again.

 

We left the trailhead around 9AM following the trail to Barclay Lake. A few hundred meters after crossing the bridge over Barclay Creek, we came to a rocky streambed/wash on the left and turned off there. We followed the streambed up, finding easy travel on rocks and boulders for several hundred feet before arriving at the first of the three waterfalls that need to be circumnavigated. The first one was easily passed using a climbers trail that goes up to the left of the waterfall. From there we moved up the gully to the second waterfall. We got around this by scrambling the slopes on the right side, working our way up using a crack in the rock and some timely vegetable belays. Once above this, we continued up the gully to the third waterfall which we got around by making some Class 4 moves to get up the slabs on the right in the photo below.

 

 

The travel in the gully was pretty tricky most of the way as a lot of the rock is very lose and the slabs were pretty damp from the mist and the rain overnight. Don't waste your time looking for cairns in here... there's too much rock fall and they likely all get knocked over. The water level in the creek was pretty low, allowing easier travel in there than the last time I attempted this peak in June several years ago. Once above the third waterfall, we continued up. The next key landmark is a stream that comes down from the right, next to which is a short (20-feet or so) tower. You continue up about 50 meters past the tower to about 3900-4000 feet and then look up and to the right to find a large cave at the bottom of the cliff face. We headed towards the cave where we picked up the climbers trail that goes up into the drainage on the right and leads up to the upper basin on the mountain and the summit.

 

 

Once in this area, we caught some great views of the north face of Baring in the parting clouds:

 

 

The going on the climbers trail was easier than in the gully but still steep and with lots of loose rock in places. A few cairns came in handy to mark the route. We had to keep our eyes out for spots where the trail moved off faintly through some brush in a few places. After about 1000 feet of climbing, we finally got out into the open heather slopes on the upper mountain. The slopes were still steep but travel was much easier than anything we had travelled since entering the gully down below.

 

 

We never found a good climbers trail in here but managed to find our way up without much problem, heading up the left side of the basin. There was a small amount of snow but nothing that impeded travel. Once near the top of the basin, we angled left up the rocky slopes towards the summit finding anything from Class 2 to Class 3 scrambling, with perhaps 1-2 Class 4 moves. There was a bit more snow up here and some scattered areas of verglass but we found the travel pretty straightfoward. We arrived on the summit 5.25 hours after starting out and spent a few minutes eating, drying off and taking in some views as the clouds moved in and out

 

Allan arriving on the summit

 

Gunn Peak from the Merchant summit

 

Clouds to the west, clear to the west

 

DC and Allan

 

Anticipating a long trip down, we got going pretty quickly with the descent. It was slow going down the moist heather slopes. Once out of the upper basin, the travel down the lower slopes was quite unpleasant. It was all very steep and loose and didn't take much to send rocks (often large ones) careening down the slopes below us. After picking our way down the side drainage we finally got down to the main gully where we found more very unpleasant descending. Lots and lots of rock fall in there as well. Fortunately, things had dried out considerably since the morning and we were able to downclimb all of the tricky sections we had ascended earlier in the day. We fortunately made it down around the last waterfall and most of the way back to the Barclay Lake Trail before darkness came. We arrived back at the car at 7PM, 4.5 hours after starting down from the summit.

 

The gully on this peak was not fun. The rock fall was some of the worst I've seen on any scramble I've done. It was ridiculously easy to get stuff moving down hill and because it was so steep it got going pretty fast. I personally would not do this route if there were other parties either above or below me. It might be more straightforward in the early season when snow covers the gully but many reports I read referred to problems with weak bridges over the creek, faster water in the creek and moats. Someone also mentioned a new chockstone, which we saw, that blocked part of the route earlier in the season. I tried it once before and navigating around certain obstacles was hard due to how high the water was.

 

Car to summit: 5.25 hours

Summit to car: 4.5 hours

 

Gear:

Helmet!!!

Axe and crampons if planning an early season ascent when there's more snow

We had a rope in case we needed to belay in certain spots in the gully but didn't need to use it.

[JasonG]

Just an FYI- This is a MUCH better trip to do in the spring. Good step kicking almost the entire way up to the summit (with short bits of scrambling interspersed) and some ripping glissades on the way down. What you guys did most certainly looked unpleasant in comparison- Good job to stick it out!

[iluka]

Judging from what we found, early season would be much better. The key question is how early is early, as once the creek gets going, the travel in the gully gets more challenging. What month did you guys do it?

[JasonG]

I am pretty sure it was May (2000 or 2001), but you are right in that it will vary year to year. I think the gully normally fills in pretty well from large avalanches and should be good to go for at least a month April/May/June each year.

 

Although it may be tough to consider giving it another shot, I keep on meaning to go back because it was such a fantastic spring trip. Now I will know how bad it is without snow!

Edited October 29, 2008 by Heinrich