Leaderboard

Trip: Canadian Border Peak (CBP) - NW Route Trip Date: 10/15/2022 Trip Report: Me and the boys, @Albuquerque Fred and Mike G, were at it again, this time we headed to the Great White North to climb Canadian Border Peak, on a record hot October day. We took Tamihi Creek Road to the drive able end at 2760' and began the hike up the road in the unseasonable heat and thick smoke from fires over in the upper Chilliwack valley. We hiked the road past 8 switchbacks to the distinct and at 5250', then plunged into the brush straight up to the ridge crest at 5700'. The brush wasn't as bad as we expected, but I could see if the blueberries and fireweed were wet it could be unpleasant; about half of it is brushy and the other half is reasonable forest. From the ridge crest we followed the ridge on a heather walk with a short scramble over a knob to the distinct NW shoulder of the peak. From this point the only beta we could find, Beckey, is pretty confusing. Even now rereading it I can't make any sense of his direction. Nonetheless, the route finding is actually very straightforward; go up gullies, trending right into different gullies when necessary, until there is a major buttress to your right and your looking up an intimidatingly steep gully with slabs and a huge dihedral making the left side. We scrambled up this on 3rd and 4th class terrain with loose rubble on top of everything, the rock is mostly sound, just covered in debris. Just below a flat spot in the NW shoulder (your left) you enter a boulder field with precarious rocks, we continued up this where the NW buttress basically merges into the rest of the mountain. Here is the crux pitch, a slab with wandering shallow cracks left of a bulgey off width layback/dihedral. It has been reported at 5.6. We scrambled (soloed) up broken ground about 50' to the right on blocks and good cracks. I call it 5.4 but with lots of holds and variations. Go up about 60', then work left on a slabby ledge into the gully where the crux pitch tops out at another buttress shoulder. From here it's up another gully with a step out to the right. This looked way more intimidating than it was and we weren't sure it would go, but there are ample holds to keep it fourth class. Up from there is an easy boulder field to the summit. We hung out on the summit watching the smoke gradually envelop the nearby peaks until we decided it was better to get down. From the base of the summit boulder field we made one 30m rap to the shoulder at the top of the crux pitch, then another ~20m rap to the boulder field below the crux. From here it was all careful down climbing and staying out of each other's fall line back to the easy heather ridge. On the way out we met lots of friendly dirt bikers that were clearing the brush from the sides of the old road, by now it's probably even more chill than the way up. All in all it wasn't nearly as bad as advertised, glad to have done it, probably won't go back. Incidentally, this climb was way better than American Border Peak. (This is not editorializing on politics or society). 8 hours car to car. 9 miles, about 4500' gain. Fred on approach, it's the one on the left: Mike scrambling slabs with debris: The crux is the dihedral just left of center, we soloed through the light rock to below the crack at center: The major gulley with huge dihedral on climber's left: Gear Notes: 2 30m ropes. Helmets! Approach Notes: The road is all brushed out and easy.