Leaderboard

Trip: Slesse Northeast Buttress - 2nd Winter Ascent - Date: 4/6/2015 Trip Report: This is a full month late, likely a by product of my brain exploding after my Patagonia trip as well as this climb I am about to describe. It is now undeniable that I have some kind of addiction to climbing Slesse Mountain. I have climbed the mountain more than 10 times by at least five different routes both solo and with partners. I think the main reasons for this are that: 1: It is ridiculously easy to access from the East. 2: The East flank of the mountain is hands down the raddest face in the area. 3: I can be a creature of habit. I had always wanted to climb a big route on Slesse in the winter, and after learning to 'really' mixed climb in the Canadian Rockies it became even more of a priority. I spent most of my winter in Patagonia, managing to bang off some great climbs in the Torres, including a solo ascent of the beautiful Cerro Torre. As I made the journey back north to Canadia a bit of sleuthing had me convinced that Slesse must be in the 'condition of the century' for winter climbing. I tried to find a partner to attempt Navigator Wall, but with only one or two days of stable weather remaining it was too short of notice. Listening to an interview with Stevie Haston on the airplane, I heard him describe his free solo ascent of The Walker Spur in winter which got me psyched, so I began to formulate a new plan. I had climbed the Northeast Buttress of Slesse too many times in summer, including a speed ascent in one hour and fifteen minutes. But in winter the line would certainly provide a completely new challenge. The line had only seen one winter ascent, in 1986, which required several bivouacs as well as aid on the upper headwall. Because I knew the route intimately I was able to slowly convince myself that I may be able to free solo the route in winter, for the 2nd winter ascent and first free winter ascent. It seemed a bit of a lofty goal, so I brought along an 80 meter 6mm Esprit cord and some pins and wires to bail with 'just in case'. John Scurlock photo. Isn't it just irresistible?! My sister, who lives in Chilliwack dropped me off at the start of Nesakwatch Creek FSR and I briskly walked to the Memorial Plaque beneath the mountain where I spent the night. I awoke at 4am the following morning, and after spending nearly an hour huddled in my sleeping bag I mustered the psyche to get a move on. At 5am, I left the memorial and approached directly through the basin beneath the mountain. The snow conditions were generally quite good, and a short WI2 step soon brought me to the slightly threatened slopes beneath the toe of the Buttress. I veered left here, joining the standard summer approach through the pocket glacier cirque. The upper section of the cirque still held a surprising number of deep crevasses, likely caused by avalanche debris from the East Face forming deep craters on impact. I crossed over several bergschrunds on the right hand side of the cirque then climbed directly up to the bypass ramps leading to the Buttress crest. This section, normally a third class ledge walk in summer, was a surprisingly steep and exposed traverse on snow. As I neared the crest the angle and exposure kicked back and I quickly made my way upwards on good snow to the first 5.8 rock pitch. This pitch was surprisingly easy in the conditions I found it in, the air was just warm enough that I could climb barehanded, as long as I stopped every two minutes to re warm my numb fingers. The pitch only required a few minutes of careful climbing and soon I was back on steep snow and neve, now accustomed to the exposure. Dylan Johnson photo of the route, taken the day before my solo. Line shown in red. On the traverse into the Beckey Ramps I climbed slightly too high and had to make a very exposed down climb to reach the correct ramp on the north face. The ramps were coated with perfect ice and neve, making for fun, fast and easy climbing with a spectacular view down into the 'Heart of Darkness'. "This is rad", I said out loud. The ramps led me back onto the crest of the Buttress and the second 5.8 rock pitch, which looked to be slightly more mixed than the pitch lower down. I removed my gloves again, and was able to climb about half the pitch with my hands before transitioning to proper mixed climbing. Finding a thin crack for my right tool, I danced over leftwards with my feet on small patches of ice until I could reach a thin veneer in which to place my left tool. The pitch felt around M5 in difficulty, and above the climbing slowly eased off until I reached to huge bivy ledge at mid height. At the bivy ledge I took a break to eat some snacks and assess conditions on the upper headwall. The steepest pitch appeared to be fairly free of ice, but above, where the angle relented slightly, the rock was decorated by a patchwork of thin white ice. It looked interesting to say the least. The snowslope leading to the headwall was relatively boring and does not need much description, nor does the WI3 runnel I took to bypass the first 5.8 pitch on the headwall. The 'rotten pillar' pitch was straightforward enough and soon I was on the crux, stemming in crampons around detached flakes in a corner. On top of one of these flakes I paused to remove my crampons and warm my hands before embarking on a slightly insecure bit of climbing on downwards sloping holds. I traversed back right to a small roof which I passed on juggy finger locks, and now at the apex of the small overhang I was able to peer upwards to the iced up slabs I had observed from below. It was clear I was going to need my crampons again. I placed a large nut and clipped myself to it for security, then gingerly stepped into my crampons one foot at a time. I mentally rehearsed my next sequence as it appeared from my airy stance, then removed the nut securing me to the wall and committed. I switched my feet on a good hold and stepped up and right onto the slab. With my frontpoints set in small divots I balanced upwards, holding a small edge with my left hand for balance. I uclipped the ice tool from my right side and reached upwards for a small bit of ice pasted to the wall. Now at the edge of my comfort zone, I gently tapped the tool twice against the ice until the first two teeth sunk in. I tested the tool carefully, then took care not to make any sudden movements while I slowly searched out higher edges for my feet. The edges I found sloped slightly downwards but my frontpoints found purchase enough to balance higher still. I carefully pulled out my left tool and placed it in thin but good ice above bringing me to a comfortable stance on a ledge. The crux now behind me, I allowed the mental RPM to decrease steadily until I was ready to continue. Jim Nelson photo from their 1986 ascent. This shows the crux pitch with the same patches of thin ice that I encountered. As I climbed excellent mixed terrain above I could really admire my wildly exposed position on this beatiful mountain. The whole buttress stretched out below me, black stone stained white with snow and ice. My tools found purchase on the well featured rock and the climbing gradually eased off pitch by pitch until I crested the final summit ridge and found myself standing in the sun. Eating a bar with the summit register in hand, I wrote, "Northeast Buttress - 2nd winter ascent. March 9 2015. Very exciting". The crux pitch was likely delicate M6, perhaps M5+, but someone will have to do a second free winter ascent to verify. The west side of the mountain was surprisingly warm compared to the shady, iced up North face, but the ledges and gullies were still covered in snow and neve making for a quick and pleasant descent. Descending the scree slopes on the Crossover Pass descent was nicely facilitated by the well settled snow and I was rewarded with a spectacular view of the route I had just climbed. After stumbling down the steep wooded trail below, I arrived at my bivouac site and ate a candy bar before packing up my equipment. Walking the road back towards civilization I pondered my options. I had no ride back and considered walking the fity kilometers to my sister's house through the night. I thought back to the ascent I had just made, it's often surreal when a long time dream, like climbing Slesse in winter, glides into the present, then into the past. I knew that my mind needed a break, I needed to relax and digest the adventures of the past months. As I thought these things, an animal control vehicle pulled up to offer me a ride. The driver was a likeable guy named Mark and we chatted, mostly about travelling, until he pulled up to a bus stop in Chilliwack and bode me farewell. A bus arrived a moment later and soon I was just a block from my sister's home. Her husband Robert saw me walking down the street through the window and came to greet me at the door. They welcomed me in happily, and at 6:30pm we all sat down to a delicious supper. Parting shot, taken from a plane that flew around the mountain the day of my solo. If you zoom in on a high res version my track is visible bottom center. Gear Notes: Lightweight bail kit! Approach Notes: Super chill relative to radness of climb.

So much discussion of risk is only "just-so stories". I survived because my risk decision making process and resultant acceptance of the risk of my activities was accurate, and somebody else died because they made a mistake. Except that that's horseshit. I got lucky many times. I fell off the north Apron 3rd class walk off ledge on a wet patch and caught myself on a tree at the lip of Voodoo Amour with my legs over the edge. I put a crampon through my gaiter on the approach ice to Cascade and slid for 100 m before self-arresting with a desperate overhand in the only patch of snow and turf on an otherwise entirely icy slab. I stopped for lunch or a snack twice only to have cornice collapses come down right where I would have been if I kept on going while climbing alpine routes. Any of those could have killed me. I wager everyone that's climbed has stories of close calls like that. Lucky isn't a learned behaviour. And it's nothing to moralize about.

Trip: Silver Peak - Northwest Ridge Trip Date: 03/17/2018 Trip Report: This was the second week in a row when the avalanche risk was comparatively low according to NWAC. After going through the options, we decided to tackle Silver Peak via the Northwest Ridge. The mountain tingled our curiosity since it was ranked in the list of most unsuccessful attempts (along with Mt. Si, which dampens the list’s credibility somewhat). The road to the trailhead was snowed in and forced us to park a little way off on the forest road (1850’). We started our jaunt up the road at 7.30 and met up with the Annette Lake trail. At 9 AM and 3300’, we decided to get off the trail and start our climb up to the ridgeline. The steep section up the hill required us to put on snowshoes and we decided to take a short break. After some GUs and granola bars, we put our legs to work and got to the foot of the ridgeline around 4600’. Eventually, the team got onto the ridge but was forced to reassess the route due to the precarious cornices and knife edges. Eventually, it was decided to downclimb to the bowl to our left (4850’) and find a safer spot somewhere ahead to regain the ridge. At 5100’ in the ski bowl, we found a feasible way on to the ridge with a climbable route to the summit. However, the downclimb in snowshoes had pushed back our timeline and it was already noon when we began our climb from the bowl. It was the last 300 feet up the mountain that gave us an idea of why the mountain ranks high in the list of unsuccessful attempts, especially in the winter. A teammate of ours decided to stay back a little above 5300’ as he wasn’t comfortable with an exposed traverse in snowshoes. Beyond that, we had to downclimb a couple of exposed slopes to keep away from cornices and try to find a route amongst the trees. The fact that we had snowshoes made it that much harder as sections with consolidated and fluffy snow were equally abundant. After some precarious moves, we finally found a straight-shot up the last 50 feet on the mountain and were happily snapping summit pictures around 1.30. Granite (with its avalanche chutes in full glory), Chair and Kaleetan peak were clearly visible amongst the clouds. Our way down was via the standard west slope all the way to Annette Lake and take the trail all the way down. We had texted our teammate to downclimb and meet us at the lake. Until the tree line, the crampons let us make good time. Like the way up, the last 300 feet down to the lake were just painful and slow as we postholed and made excruciatingly slow progress. Despite that, we met up with our teammate at the lake at 3.45. With the hard part of the climb all behind us, we took a long break and put on our snowshoes again for the long trudge back. The struggle ended a little after 6 and we were on our way back to civilization. Like most other climbs, it was a good day in the mountains regardless of the struggle. Trip times: Annette Lake TH to toe of the ridgeline (~4600') - 3 hours Toe of ridgeline to atop the ridge (~5300') - 1.30 hours 5300' to summit (5607') - 1.15 hours Summit to car - 4.45 hours For Silver Peak GPX, Silver Peak Peakbagger TR. This GPX is filtered to the show the straight-forward route. For the unscrubbed version, SIlver Peak GPX. For more visuals on the route, Flickr/Silver Peak. downclimbing the ridgeline in to the ski bowl navigating the last few hundred feet to the summit atop the ridgeline making our way down the west slope Gear Notes: Snowshoes, crampons Approach Notes: The road is snowed in and might require a short walk to the TH. The Annette Lake trail is nicely consolidated.

Awesome! You guys should make this and the TRs more obvious on the home page.

Trip: Old Settler - West Buttess Date: 9/13/2009 Trip Report: When I saw the weather forecast calling for sunny skies on the weekend I immediately began thinking of hard climbs do go and do, then it dawned on me that my girlfriend, Tamara, had only made one foray into the alpine this year and it had ended six pitches up when our rope was chopped by a falling rock. I figured I should take here on a nice alpine trip before the weather started to turn for the worse. I had climbed the west buttress of Old Settler previously and knew it was well worth repeating. It is about 10-12 pitches in length but never exceeding easy 5th class (perfect for scrambling), has a short approach and phenomenal rock! I called up my friend Matt and he liked the idea so at 7:00 on Saturday morning he picked us up in Agassiz and off we went. Some time was wasted searching for my helmet (which was never found) but we reached the start of the approach at about 8:45 and were off by 9:00. An hour and a half of overgrown road walking and some bushwacking brought us to Daiphy lake below the Settler. After some chilling att he lake we hiked up to the base of the buttress. WE switched to rock shoes and started climbing. The rock is awesome and the climbing is exposed and fun! After an hour and a half of simul soloingwe reached the summit (south summit) and chilled for a while. The descent is traighforward and easy with some 4th class down climbing and lots of easy talus hiking back tot he lake. Tamara's boots self destructed on the descent and the soles came right off making the hike out a bit painful for her feet but she is a trooper and managed just fine. The hike down was uneventful other than a nose bledd (stopped with a sock) and some angry wasps (no one got stung) and were back at he car 8 hours after starting. This climb always keeps a smile on your face! Highly reccommended! Gear Notes: Rock Shoes. Approach Notes: Drive up Talc Creek from Harrison East FSR. Easy approach, take the right side of the bowl to the lake.

So Top 3 Bad Partner Stories: 1. My Own Mistake A partner of mine gave his buddy my number and told him I was generally down to get down in the backcountry. This poor guy called me way....way after sober thirty asking if I wanted to skiing near lolo pass the next day. My response..."Hell yeah I wanna go shkiing, why not get an early start at it, pick me up at 6am." Just to make sure I wouldn't forget I set an alarm then and there. God knows when I got home that night but in those days I was catching the occasional sunrise. This part is a bit hazy, I was totally blacked out, but this is what I've gathered. I was awake and packed when he got there. However I forgot my goggles, gloves, shell, water food, basically everything except my headlamp little first aid kit and knife I always left in the top of my pack. I was ravenous and made him pullover so I could get a delicious gas station breakfast sammy (you'll hear more about this later, it came back). We were the first car in the parking lot and made great time over the first ridge. After topping out on the top of second I needed a nap. He agreed to do a run and come back up and wake me up. I threw down my skis pulled the hood to my DAS over my head and passed out. Well before said partner made it back up another party found me and they must have thought I was dead because they went WFR on me (not it full ppe) I think they were a little let down because like most nonresponsive patients I was just tanked. Well I came to, we did a few more runs, built a booter and headed home. It was 5 or 6 at night when my hangover decided to walup me. I was doubled over after a full day of skiing on the side of the road barf blasting the asphalt. We did partner up again and of course I was sober, but I have met other climber skiers that have actually heard this story and it was told in good light. I would never do that do that to a partner without being in the condition I was in. So let this be a lesson. DON"T MAKE PLANS WITH SOMEONE YOU DON"T KNOW IF THEY ARE HAMMERED! 2. The Lonely Marine I went to Red Rocks with a guy that was super motivated, somewhat in experienced but a good guy. It ended up being a sport climbing trip, but the prize is in the puddin. I awoke to heavy breathing in our two man tent. After a seconds awareness I realized he was rubbin one out. So I made every conceivable "hey I am waking up sound." It didn't work, he just kept after it, so I finally piped up and shot out a laundry list of profanities then got out of the tent and slept in the dirt. We don't together anymore. 3. Headwound Hippie A dear friend of mine had a tragic ground fall that resulted in some brain damage. At least that is the excuse use to describe Nick behavior. Nick is 6' 5" manimal. You can smell him from a block away, he lived in the woods, and had/has a pretty organic view of the world. Anyone that has met him has at least 10 Nick stories. After my first Nick experience I swore I would never tie in with him again..... I was wrong. We shuttled from the Tokositna to the Kahiltna to meet some friends on the Buttress. My partner was going to climb with his wife and I was going to climb with our friend Mike. At BC we learned that Nick's partner hadn't showed up and he was now soloing. He had taken off the day before. All the way to 14 camp we found Nick Artifacts, you know the things he didn't think he would need like his skis, his shovel (borrowed), his saw (also borrowed), and his rope. and rather than bury them he just threw them on the side of the trail and put a wand next to them. We found Nick at 14 recovering from some mild AMS. He had almost made it to 17, 3 days after leaving BC, and coming in from sea level. his reasoning. He reasoning, he brought 12lbs of various grains and that is it for food. He bought and I tent and a -35 degree feathered friends bag but didn't have money for anything else. He was wearing a 1960 drab green arctic suit with a white fake fur collar and bunny boots. Somehow he ended up climbing with us and eventually short-roped to me. At 17 camp I awoke to a pooping sound. Upon further investigation I discovered Nick sitting on his CMC dropping a bomb.....while cooking breakfast right outside his tent. Then on summit day I led and broke trail avoiding the autobaun to Denali pass. I was rope to Mike then Nick and the weather was such that once we got around the pass the visibility wasn't so great and the wind was blowing so hard that I was only able to communicate with Mike. We summited in a lenticular and it was on the summit that finally saw how messed up Nick was. He sat down around 19,500 or somewhere near the bottom of pig hill and was done moving on his own. So helped him along for a while, then had to load his 6'5" frame on my 5'9" stick figure and carry him back to the fixed lines that we would now have to use. Thank god we ran into some other people that helped us get him back to 17 camp, because after breaking all that trail and then Carrying his huge ass down 1500ft I was beat and Mike and I probably wouldn't have been able to safely get him down.

Trip: Mt Reford - West Ridge Date: 9/8/2007 Trip Report: I joined the BCMC trip up Rexford on September 8-9, It was great...we did it as an overnighter and a couple other climbers and I did the North Ridge of the North Nesakwatch Spire too. A great trip and a great area!