Dru

Climb: Talchako Mountain-Northeast Ridge/Butt Date of Climb: 7/28/2004 Trip Report: Ray Borbon, James Nakagami, Fred Beckey and I went in to Talchako Mountain (3037m/9970') which is SE of Bella Coola and N of Mt Monarch. Ray had planned the whole trip and in fact had been bombarding me with pictures of Talchako for almost a year. Matt Perkins was supposed to come too but bailed at the last minute, due to some old skiing injury I believe. Ray, James and Fred arrived July 23. We went to the bar in Chilliwack. James and I got drunk and Fred liked our waitress. He asked in a loud voice if she was a "typical Chilliwack farm girl." Saturday July 24 we drove in Ray's Jeep and my Subaru to Bella Coola. This took about 12 hours. On the drive the smoke from forest fires was so thick that you could see the giant sunspot on the sun with the naked eye without squinting. In Hagensborg James and I got drunk in the bar again. We bivied by the old cannery site. There were amazing, wild, unbelievable strobe-light techno flashing aurora borealis in the night sky. It was my 32nd birthday Sunday July 25 we met Richard Lapointe of West Coast Helicopters and were flown in to Talchako in Richard's monster A-Star. The HUMVEE of helicopters. We could have even hauled in 200 lbs more of gear and food if we had wanted to! Basecamp was at 5400' SE of Talchako on a lake-dotted region of knolls. We had a super base camp site with 2 lakes within walking distance, good views of a huge forest fire to the east in Tweedsmuir Park, and hordes of hungry insects. Monday July 25. We were packed and ready to go. However Fred had a back injury and was feeling some pain so we decided to instead go on a recon mission. Ray and I set out for "Talchako North" a 2500m/8500' peak north of Talchako across a glacier to get some views of our route. We climbed the easternmost of Tal North's 4 summits in a 12 hour jaunt from basecamp via a class 4 scrambling route with some soloing through cliff bands. Our intended route on Talchako looked very impressive. We could not get to the other 3 summits of TN (all probably unclimbed) due to a steep gap and Ray's forgetting his harness not to mention running out of time on what was supposed to be a 5 hour recon mission only. East face from the moraines with NE ridge/butt facing camera. North face from Tal North with the NE ridge/butt obvious at left catching sun. Tuesday dawned incredibly smoky due to a wind shift. Visibility was 50 feet or less for most of the day. Ray, James and Fred all rested. I hiked south to examine Ratcliff. Crossing the river to Ratcliff looked insane so we regretfully bid adieu to Plan B and focussed all attention on Talchako. Ratcliff through the morning smoke. Wednesday morning we got up at 4 AM and set off. Fred was still hurting and stayed behind to read and practice yoga. James, Ray and I made the 4 hour death march approach through clouds of bugs and loose moraines then started climbing up Talchako's NE ridge. We climbed 16 pitches that day. The first 10 pitches or so were 5th class up to 5.7 and then there were about 6 pitches that were more 4th class-ish but we pitched them out due to the presence of wet rock and loose debris on ledges. James and Ray wore rock shoes for some of the climbing. The 5th pitch with James belaying and Ray climbing ahead of me. Ray getting water on some chossy but pretty-coloured ledges on the 14th pitch James working up the edge of the ice arete on the 16th pitch. On about p. 14 we started hitting icy snow patches and had some mixed climbing going on. At the end of the nominal P 16 (actually after about 18 or 19 pitches including shorter ones, but all lengths have been standardized to 60 m pitch lengths) about 6 PM we hit a super ledge and decided it was too good to pass up and bivied there. Dinner was "biftek" and other delicacies and the sunset was rad. Ray eating biftek at the bivi. Lights out.... The night was very cold and shivery and went on far too long. In the morning first light saw building clouds so drill sargeant Ray got us moving ASAP and we climbed about 11 more full pitches of rock and ice aretes up to 55-60 degrees to gain Talchako's eastern summit. The crux was a loose 5.8 chimney and there were several more pitches of 5.7-5.8 in this upper section. We traversed from the eastern summit to the central and western summits in search of a descent route. Also we found the summit register on the central summit. We may have made the 5th or 6th ascent of this peak, there were only 3 entries in the register and one other documented climb we know of, but it could have been climbed in spring when the cairn is under snow. Also there is some evidence the local Nuxalk and Ulkatcho did vision quests or something up here way back in the pre- European contact days. Going down! The descent went down about 4000' of downclimbing and scree ledges. There was one icy section to cross. Once we got to the base of the descent we had to do a traverse around the mountain back to camp. One section with a steep gully to cross was pretty tricky route finding. We made it back to camp around 7 PM. Fred gave up his yoga and break dancing practice long enough to make us some dinner. Fred busts a move. In asana yoga this is called the Horsecock Pose. Friday and Saturday involved rest, recuperation and swatting horeseflies. We ate a lot and hiked around near camp taking photos. James and I did some fun cragging on a half-pitch outcrop near camp climbing some good face routes up to 10a. Sunday we flew out and had a victory dinner. James and Ray blitzed it for home that night. Fred and I bivied near Williams Lake and got back here near noon today. The NE ridge of Talchako is about 27x60m pitches long, we climbed it in about 29-30 pitches but some were short. The hardest rock moves were 5.8. The ice aretes at the top were only about 50 degrees along the crest but due to taking too many pickets and not enough screws we avoided most of them on adjacent rock, however this meant we did have to climb some steeper ice up to 55-60 degrees on the flanks of the arete in a few spots. The overall rating is probably Alpine TD, YDS V 5.8. One knifeblade was left in place at the 18th belay. Looking SW from the summit to Princess Mountain... lots more to do! Gear Notes: light rack with 6 pins and nuts and cams to 2.5" three screws - should have taken 6 one ice axe and one third tool each - two technical tools would have been better 3 pickets - useless, could have been left in camp no rappels so the 20m of rap webbing was only used for bivi padding! Approach Notes: West Coast Helicopters A-Star, $750CDN a person 4 hr moraine slog from base camp

The Germans were confused and mistook the area for the Kichatna Spires. They werent much help at all.

i just escaped from fred by shutting and locking my front door in an hour or so i can go out with a can of lysol and disinfect the passenger seat!

its a microwave tower next time do the north ridge traverse and descend the sw ridge for the best 5 hours of granite scrambling out there!

I just got back. The Helicopter approach from the Bogus Mtn. Mine via the Mt. Beaujeste area renders the bushwack nuncupatory.

Apparently last night was pretty good Tonight might also be good. Check out the photos here

some indian dude showed me how you can fish using a coke can for a reel, and no rod, back in 1992. we ate a lot of trout, char and salmon that summer. i can't remember what the bait was though. maybe a chunk of bacon fat? i have been on lakes where you didnt even need a rod the fish just jumped right in the boat! i like to club them on the head

packed full of summits

the a1 motel is a bit better than the akai.

but only Miss Normandy is a "REAL PERSON, DAMNIT"

"never mind the dog beware of owner"

cold turkey at least I will have Fred and Ray and MattP and James for company so we can spray and battlecage in person instead of virtually.

edited cause ben was hey, hey, hey LAY-DEEZ!!!!

I am gonna take 9 days off and go sit in a tent on a glacier, nows you guys chance to spit out those sour grapes and catch up!

5) Klenke!

A friend of mine was at Cultus Lake back in the early 90's when a chromed out Cadillac arrived at the beach towing a jet boat. Out of the car hop 2 large athletic black men described as looking like CFL players. These guys are dressed to the 9's and soon change into brand new wetsuits and beach attire. The jet boat is launched and a water ski attached. One guy stands on the beach with waterskis holding the tow-rope and the other guy jumps behind the boat wheel. "ARE YOU READY SKI KING?" "MAKE IT HAPPEN CAPTAIN!" Engine gunned and the boat shoots off... skiier has forgotten to attach himself to his water skis, and is dragged off the skis and along on his stomach after the boat for 500 yards or so before boat pilot looks around and sees whats happening.... Anyways we used to use "Are you ready Ski King" and "Make it happen Captain" instead of On belay, off belay etc.

1) people who post questions as TRs 2) political threads 3) people who refer to the Coast Mountains as the Coast Range. You are all so suck. Thank you for allowing Canadian to post.

and on the 2 year anniversary too!

well what does the OED know anyways here's what good old wikipedia has to say on the subject

no. selkirks south stops in the badshot range.

can you go back to 1994 and buy me 3 pairs of boreal vectors size 9?

i thought it was 5.8+

Is there an axis of rogue waves like there is an axis of evil rogue states?

the south ridge is the best route in the world. it was originally rated 5.7 even washington climbers will find it pretty hard for 5.7