Don_Serl

nice report and photos. tks. near as i can tell, the lodge is intended to be somewhere over by the base of the mtn in the centre background in the "Icy Pools" photo, left photo - 2nd row. cheers, don

i used and really liked G-14s for a couple years. they're strong and well suited to both waterfalls and mountains. the flat frames don't ball-up as badly as 'cookie cutters', but anti-botts are mandatory in my opinion anyway, at least for mountain use. switching between paired points and monos is pretty quick, altho best done at home. the heel bails are the best out there. the length adjustment is dead-easy. the curly-que toe bails allow the wire to drop nice and deeply into the boot welts, but i've found i've had to re-bend the curves a bit to get perfect fit. on the negative side, these bails will only work on stiff boots with good deep welts. and the curly bits tend to snag your other crampon occasionally when you're walking unless you're more careful about splaying your legs than i am. my Scottish buddy Simon Richardson tells me the curly bits eventually fatigue, requiring replacement of the bail or at least some rebending, but i never used 'em enuf to get to that stage. i dislike yoke-style toes cuz they're colder and less tight-fitting than wire bails, but they do have the advantage of allowing a fit to almost any boot, and of being dead-easy to get on, even in horrible conditions. overall: very fine 'poons. cheers, don

the application is from Bella Coola Heli Sports. the intention is to build a "4 season backcountry lodge" about 5km west of Ape Lake, over by the toe of Noieck Glacier. spectacular country indeed. the basic info was posted at: http://www2.lwbc.bc.ca/ApplicationPosting/viewpost.jsp?PostID=5591 i can't get the map PDF link to work right now; maybe the link is broken. there'll obviously be concern from some quarters of the self-propelled outdoor community. it'll be interesting to see how the various requirements for input develop. cheers, don

Exploring the Coast Mountains on Skis; John Baldwin. http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0969155018/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-0654329-7847255#reader-link or your local shop... cheers, don

the tracks from the previous day were apparently Andrew Boyd's... cheers,

there are now a few photos posted on westcoastice.com: http://www.westcoastice.com/Page82.aspx and: http://www.westcoastice.com/Page81.aspx conditions are good; get out and enjoy them while it lasts. note that there is a minor hockey tournament on March 12-17, but motels should be open again by this weekend. check ahead. cheers,

Climb: Marble Canyon + Shriek of the Sheep- Date of Climb: 3/5/2006 Trip Report: Craig McGee's posting on westcoastice.com (http://www.westcoastice.com/Page76.aspx) inspired Graham R and I to make "the drive" to Lillooet - the Shriek called! We got out of town at 4 a.m. Saturday, had the greasy winter-fuel breakfast in Cache Creek at 8 (at the Husky, which was more expensive than the Petrocan), and were in Marble Canyon below Deeping Wall at 10. A pair from Kamloops was halfway up the 1st pitch of Icy BC - they were the only other people we saw all day - they eventually climbed all 3 tiers (Air Care on the upper tier) on good dry ice. We led Deeping Wall centre and right - kinda hooked-out, so a give-away "big 4" right now - the left line was quite wet. We then did the 1st tier on Icy BC (very solid), then flailed trying to TR thru a blank section on Jolly Rancher. There's lotsa ice, and while some of it is wet, much is surprisingly dry. After a long hot shower at Mile O and the requisite Greek dinner at Dina's (visting with Cam and Matt, who had climbed Loose Lady Sat) we retired early without sampling the pubs - it had been a long day, and we were getting up early (wimpy, eh?). Had triple-bypass bfst at Reynolds after 6, got away about 7, and parked just beyond the gravel-pit at 8. I'd forgotten garbage bags and old sneakers, so I bare-footed it - Graham had heavy-duty bags, which he simply pulled right over his boots and taped at ankles and thighs - worked great. There were steps (from yesterday?) up the approach, which eased the going in the deeper snow high up. We were below the route before 10. Graham led the 1st pitch up a 40m consistent 75º-80º flow on the left. This was one of the most beautiful ice pitches I've ever climbed - lots of little hollows and niches for dead-easy tool placements, steep but super-secure - pure pleasure. I got the upper pitch, which (as Craig says) is a comparative soft-touch right now. At the same time, it's very thought-provoking, cuz you initially have to climb about 8m on "fronds" - good hooks, but no pro, and delicate and balancy footwork and movement. As I passed right around the main column (good screws) to gain the ramp on its far side, things got quite drippy and wet for a ways. There was only one 4m-5m section of vertical pulling. The exit was tricky, cuz the ice was thin in spots, so I angled left, then cut back right. The raps were all in place, with rings and/or links on 'em - good work, whoever set them [30m back to the alcove from the top, then 40m to the ground. Then 40m on the lower step, which we soloed to the left on the ascent]. Graham "bagged" back across the river (exactly where shown in the guide photo on page 205 - there's a "riffle" only about 8" deep), then put a rock in each bag and threw them back for me. Car-to-car 8hrs. Great route, superb location, nice views, good approach conditions, and excellent ice - if you ever want to do Shriek, this is the time! Cheers, Gear Notes: the usual... Approach Notes: minimal snow on Shriek approach until above 1st step.

you'd have trouble skiing immediately beneath the summit. there are a series of little rock walls and some bushy sections. on the way up, you avoid the rockwalls by traversing left (south), then cutting back to the crest once the way opens. you might be able to reverse this process on skis if the snowpack was hefty. i'm no skier, but i'd reckon in good snow conditions the actual ramp wouldn't be a big problem. there is one section of 60º or a bit steeper for perhaps 20m. problematically, there tends to be a big "groove" created by avvy snow, so it's not like it's an open slope. i suspect to hairiest part of the entire endeavour would be getting down the first 100m from the E ridge crest to the top of the ramp. this is at least as steep as the steep parts of the ramp itself, and requires a hard diagonal traverse and the crossing of a little snow-rib - and it's exposed as hell into a long, nasty gully. go climb the route, then you tell me! cheers, don

good going. nice outing, eh? a fave of mine... and your time makes me wonder a) what's the best time ctc anybody has done on this so far? b) what's the best that could be done? think it could go in 4 hrs ctc? (no pre-placed skis allowed for speeding the descent...) 5 hrs surely isn't overly challenging for a fit person/party travelling lite... (altho probably not for my somewhat-aged legs/lungs!) anybody got any info? did Guy ever "flash" this route and tell anyone about it? cheers, don

it was a long time ago that i was on the Kiwi Route (before the FA, actually - broken crampon ended the attempt), but there was certainly no need for rock pro on the route itself back then. however, you're gonna need it for the summit tower, and there are rock outcrops here and there along the lower arete, so slings and nuts can be useful (and quicker to place) than screws. the route's not very steep, so in good conditions u shld be able to solo (or simul) the arete, then rope up for the glacier higher up. the great couloir seems to vary a lot. when we did the FA it was solid cramponning but not overly icy, altho we roped up for 3 pitches at the top - it's steep up high! it's probably easier/faster/more dependable to belay from rock along the side than off screws. ditto for descent - rap from slings set on the rock. how many raps also depends on the iciness - late season, you'll probably do quite a bunch! u can also go down the N ridge of the NW peak (one short rap), then descend the W face if that's not icy. if it IS icy, you're better off in the couloir where u can get easier rap anchors (unless u'd prefer to frontpoint down 400m of open face... or set innumerable Abalakovs...) btw, take a bit of care with the rap anchors in the Great Couloir - i know of one incident in which a block pulled and the "rider" took a long slide (fortunately with no ill effects). cheers, don

i'll bet he rapped off the two bolts on the wall up around the corner to the right - whoever placed those should be platooned to rescue whatever ropes get stuck - terrible positioning - what WERE they thinking? Lyle (or Garry) why don't u "suggest" to the outdoor school guys at Kamloops that replacing those bolts in a more "puller-friendly" position would be a useful piece of community service. cheers,

I'm not sure what caused this issue to surface a year and a half after the event (I missed it at the time), but it's clear there is a very fine-looking unclimbed peak out there in south-central Alaska called Mount Chakachamna. The rules of mountaineering are very simple and very clear: when you stand on top, you've climbed the mountain; otherwise, you have not. With the minor exception of allowing people to not kill themselves by forcing them to walk out onto dangerous cornices to attain the actual highest point, no other action counts as a completed ascent. Mr. Beckey himself was recently on a trip that accomplished the first ascent of a peak in Alaska (Oasis Peak) which had undergone a similar "near-ascent" 30 years ago by a BCMC party. [To quote from the 1976 BC Mtneer: "Then the summit ridge was gained with a few 4th class moves. At this point we were about 200' from what might have been the highest mound of snow. It was not entirely clear where the highest point was. The ridge was badly corniced and the side to traverse was sunward and hence avalanching. As it was getting late, we beat a hasty retreat."] [and AAJ 2001: "After swapping leads for 14 pitches, we were on top of the rock with roughly 150 metres of low angled snow separating us from the summit. At about 4 p.m. we got as close as we dared - 15 feet from the large summit cornice, which was baking in the sun."] The latter party - Kelvin Vail and Jon Walsh - get credit for the FA; the earlier party - the very strong pairing of Neil Humphrey and Paul Starr (of Devil's Thumb and Cat's Ears Spire fame) - do not, despite their lising Oasis as a first ascent in the addendum to the relevant BCM article. In the case of Mount Chakachamna, some later party will eventually come along to complete the first ascent of the peak that Mssrs Alongi and "Alpinfox" so nearly pulled off. Sorry guys, but Snowdrifter has it exactly correct: nice trip, great report, inspiring photos - but no FA! cheers, don

i should probably post no comment and let the legend grow, but i must correct... on the way to work, in the bright early morning sunshine, buzzing from having a GREAT time out, i realized that there was nothing i HAD to do today, and that my eyes were rolling in my head. so i hung a right across the bridge, went home, phoned off, soaked in a hot bathtub for 45 minutes, and caught 3 hrs sleep. now i've just finished a huge bacon and eggs fry-up, and the day STILL seems wonderful. i'm not sure what conditions are like higher and/or further inland, but out by the coast the snow is harder than a 16 year old boy at a hookers convention. get out there! cheers, don

how to climb Oregon Jack: step 1: buy the guide, step 2: follow the instructions. but seriously, it IS a great route - nice climbing, superb location. as you say, awesome! a few detailed suggestions beyond the guide info: go very early - there's really only room for one party at a time; eat a big breakfast in Cache Creek at 6 a.m. (Petrocan at N end of town is open 24 hrs); plan to be at end of road by 8 a.m. - latest! packed and ready to walk... new trail breaks left away from road about 300m beyond parking spot. DO NOT cross fence and fields down by parking spot. 20 min approach. you should easily be able to climb and rap the route in 2-3 hours; then head over the Marble Canyon for a cpl hrs to finish out the afternoon before hitting the fleshpots of Lillooet. agreed with other comments that it might not be in; check it out early - still time to get to M/C if it's screwed. cheers, don

Climb: de Pencier Bluffs-soloing Date of Climb: 2/5/2006 Trip Report: Graham R and I were not quite keen enough to do the long drive to Marble Canyon (altho it sounds from Wild Bill's report we should have), so we skied up to de Pencer Sunday morning. The approach was just 1 hr from the parking lot; the snow was much firmer than I expected, with 15cm of fluff on top. There were only icicles on the "routes" on N side of de Pencier, so we spent a cpl hours soloing blobs and drytooling stuff in the approach "swale" - deeeeep soft snow below, so you could try as hard as you wanted and plunge off with impunity - fun! We later swapped back to a S facing bluff about 200m east of the bottom of the upper (Brockton) chair - probably the location of "Patrol This" and "Patrol That". This had a generous "dabbing" of ice, which again gave great, challenging soloing and mixed/drytooling, all within "plunge" range of the snow (so long as you didn't get too tempted by "the next bulge"). The only problem was extracting yourself after you augered in! We finished by sucking it up a bit and soloing a gully line at the left side of the face, which had a secure-enough exit to make us "bold". Then we bumbled our way back down the skiruns. And today on the drive to work I noticed the first cherry blossoms I'd seen this spring - what a place! Gear Notes: took the gear for a walk... Approach Notes: skis

actually, tom, i've been seriously thinking about buying a pair of G-12s for more "comparison". i like the Grivel binding system better than Petzl's, and i did have many good days out on the G14s. i feel like i've been "retro-revolutionized" by coming BACK to flat front points with the Vasaks, and i'm pretty keen to try out the Grivel "theory" on how to do this. the only things holding me back are: 1. the G12s are heavier than the Vasaks, and 2. i probably shouldn't just drop another hundred bucks on toys. maybe i'll weaken... btw, just keep those points sharp, and i'll bet the G12s are brilliant. cheers, don

absolutely. i did everything with the G-14s for about 2 years before the Sarken/Vasak "espisode" over the past couple years. and i've still got a lot of respect for them as great all-rounders. plus the curly toe bails on the Grivels fit my boot welts better than the wire bails on the Petzls (all the designers seems to have forgotten that "hips" are necessary on toe bails, to allow full fit of the curve into the welt and then to provide clearance over the sole structure of the boot). and i find the Grivel heel-pieces simpler and more secure than the Petzls. BUT: in the end, the weight started to "weigh me down". and once i kinda "rediscovered" flat front points i realized how much i prefer them to verticals. i used the G-14s again one day this winter as a reality check vs the Vasaks, and was put off by the comparative difficulty i had "chipping" into steep ice without just creating a couple "divots" and having the points not really grabbing anything. (that was with twin front points - i also used the G-14s over the years some as monos, which i prefered for the little bit of mixed/rock i did, but i never got "in tune" with monos on ice.) call me retro - others may find different "tools" suit their style better - i'm totally satisfied at the moment with the Vasaks. (p.s. with the exception of the toe bails, and if they cause me trouble, i'll pull 'em and substitute Grivels... or old Chouinards...) cheers, don

i used Sarkens pretty extensively over the past year and a half, both on ice and in the mountains. in the end, i decided they are OK, but i was sorta underwhelmed. i had no problems in the alpine, but i found the T-section front points shattered water-ice more than i'd have liked. so it was time to move on... on the positive side, using the Sarkens turned me on to Petzl crampons in general, and i "discovered" the Vasaks, which have turned out to be the best-performing crampons i've used in at least a decade (for my approach and technique, anyway). they're light, the metal is pretty tough (stays sharp better than most), and i positively LOVE the front points. i should explain that i'm into flat "chisel" front points. they give better support in alpine neve, they "settle onto" mini-texture on water-ice, and they "snag" tiny edges on rock way better than vertical points. the Petzls come with Euro-typical "V" points, so i filed the "V" off the front of the factory points till i had 4 or 5mm or so width, squared off across the tips. (file mostly flat from the bottom, not the top, to maintain a sharp penetrating plane, and to maintain "thickness" to stand on) the modified points just SLIP into the ice. and they are stable as hell on almost anything on rock. this might even be better than having my old Chouinard rigids "on the road" again! delightful... cheers, don

wow! thread-drift. now it's about Shaun, not about the activity itself. and while i don't really want to get into a "defense" of Shaun, i've just gotta speak up. i don't know Shaun well enough to know what he HAS done and not done. but i do feel moved to suggest that this thread has drifted into "uncomfortable" terrain. and as usual, the anonymity of websites is the culprit. maybe we should be just a little cautious about slandering somebody based on third-hand (or more remote yet) reports. perhaps, in some dream world, posters would not type stuff they wouldn't be comfortable saying directly to the person involved, face to face. could we try to live the golden rule, even in our "wasted hours" on sites like this? i'm well aware Shaun is not everybody's "cuppa tea", and i'm also well aware that there is "controversy" surrounding his activities, his guiding, his self-promotion, and so on, BUT: he's energetic, he gets lots of people involved, and he HAS done a bunch of the exploration (and publicizing of) the ice in the "north of Superior" area. if part of what he has to offer to make part of his living is 30-foot first ascents for middle-aged office workers or 13 year old girls, and if they go away happy, i see no harm at all. some people find him abrasive (i do too, in a way), but my judgement over quite a long period around the Langtang trip was that if you take yourself too seriously, you'll almost certainly not get along very well with Shaun - but if you are "light-hearted" enough to just laugh at his crap, he turns out to be stimulating and hilarious company. i have no FACTS one way or 'tother about false first ascent claims - does anyone out there? if so, was there intent to deceive, or just lack of information? i have no FACTS one way or 'tother about a gym going broke (but if it did, that's called bankruptcy, and for sure people get burned when it happens - unpleasant, but perfectly legal. a cpl of my best friends have gone thru it...) we've all seen jealousies and rivalries in every one of our climbing communities. "strong" characters provoke others. myself, i LIKE "characters", flaws and all, and Shaun qualifies BIG-time. i'd gladly share climbing time again with him. so if you want to criticize the commercial, self-aggrandizing, "false" side of first ascents for hire, let's fly at it. but could we just shelve the character assassination? 'ad hominem' arguments are unworthy and demeaning, not to mention dangerous logical fallacies (the danger being that you lose focus on the ISSUE when you pay attention to the PERSON). rid your life of them and you (and the planet around you) will be better for it. i'm not sure what set all of this off - friendship coupled with the instinct to defend those who aren't "here" to defend themselves, i suppose. plus the knowledge that NONE of us are perfect, and the conviction that bulletin boards are not the places to "list" those imperfections. here endeth my tirade. as you were... cheers, don

fully agreed that Shaun is an interesting character. a half dozen of us Vancouverites went to Langtang Lirung in Nepal on a trip he put together in 1984, and we laughed our heads off most of the 2 months we were gone. the stories he had to tell almost seemed too good to be true - and probably many of them WERE! he just seems to thrive on misadventure - like the time Shining Path guerillas invaded his basecamp in the Huayhuash (during which time he hid and protected from certain death a local police officer); or his misfortune in being swept off the roof of an Indian bus as it passed under a roadside tree (he was not missed until his wife noted his "absence" when the bus stopped in the next town - I saw the casts!); or his tales of watching the Detroit riots from the roofs of Windsor Ontario; or his reports on the "national sports" of Thunder Bay: drinking and wife beating! etc, etc... the first ascents may be only 30 feet tall, but Shaun's tales are WAY bigger than that! and probably worth whatever one pays... cheers, don

not so, dru. we belayed at the base of the ice hose on the right - the ice in the photo with the climber on it was an insubstantial-looking curtain this year. both Scott and I, and you and Steve, climbed the narrowish righthand ice flow; I moved left to belay so that Scott could lead the centre of the fall, which consisted of two sequential columns, each about 10m high - these show in Jesse's photo as tiers of icicles, left of a couple small exposures of rock. Steve continued directly on up, climbing the right side of the upper tier, right of the exposed noses of rock. As for the issue of length, the guide says 30m, which I got from the FA party. Perhaps they soloed the lower section (our first pitch) and "counted" only the "main" pitch? The correct information should certainly be around 60m, perhaps even more if you climbed all the way to the very top of the ice - we omitted the upper, heavily snow-shrouded, low angle stuff. As for the difficulty, while the ice was typically Coastal and "tricky", there is no way this was grade 5. The steep sections are only 8m-10m long, and nothing is dead-vertical. (Admittedly, we TR'ed thru a half-metre roof for "sport" after completeling the "real" climb, but that was not mandatory...) The guide says 4+; that's accurate. [P.S. Best approach by far is in the trees right of the avvy chute under the route. Drew and I flailed up on our snowshoes; Scott and Steve abandoned their skis just above the creek and postholed - not too bad; the old snow had a bit of a crust under the trees. 1 1/2 hrs from creek to route - a strenuous way to gain 200m!] cheers, don

Two useful guides cover the area: The Bella Coola Valley & Vicinity: Hiking Trails & Routes [iSBN 0969723903], and Hikes in Tweedsmuir South Provinical Park [iSBN 0969723911]. Both are by Scott Whittemore. They were published in 1993 and 1994 respectively. So far as I can tell, they are both out of print - they're no longer available at MEC, for instance. Perhaps you can find copies on abebooks.com or some other site. Or do some web searching and track down a couple retailers in Bella Coola - they might still carry them. At very least, they must be available in the local library up there. I have a cabin in the Chilcotin, near Tatla Lake, up on the plateau about 200km east of Bella Coola. We are friendly with and pass through the property of a German expatriate to access our cabin, and I know he has done some guiding of German tourist groups. His experience lies more with the Chilcotin than the Bella Coola valley, but he might be of use to you. PM me and I'll pass along his contact information. Good Luck, cheers, don

Climb: The Rambles-Upper Cirque: Column and P-S Dihedral Date of Climb: 1/22/2006 Trip Report: I had an ACC ice weekend scheduled, and with the lousy weather I just about cancelled it outright. However, most of those who phoned were newbies, and it seemed reasonable to get out for a day, cuz whatever we found (so long as it was frozen) would be fine for them. In the end, Graham R and I plus Mario L, Dan L, Greg U, and Jenny H went to the Rambles and spent the day in the Upper Right Cirque. There was lots of ice, and it was pretty dry, 'cept for the Dihedral late in the day. Also had fun drytooling the rock dihedral left of the Column. We met Adrian B and Krystal at the parking spot. They headed up Rambles Centre, and left a glowing description etched into the mud on the back of my Land Cruiser. They had been to Marble Canyon Saturday, and had good things to say about the amount of ice (plus a few digi photos to prove the point). Icy BC is not formed, but the rest is fat and climbable. Not much, but at least there's a BIT of Wet Coast ice around... cheers, don Gear Notes: usual... Approach Notes: deep fresh snow, but easy going.

if it's of help, i installed a DIY loft in my Gemini. used light, open-mesh pocket material, rolled and reinforced around the perimeter with bias tape. attachment was simple: plastic snaps. punch 'em right thru the tent fabric, with the cap on the outside (socket inside that) - stud/post goes on loft - properly installed, they're totally waterproof. (you'll need to find someone with a factory or a repair shop with the proper dies to do the job.) despite the seeming attractiveness of having out-of-the-way storage space in a tiny tent, in the end i now never use the loft in winter - gets too frosted up. anyone else have a loft and suffer the same problem? maybe my fabric choice could have been improved, but i'm not sure what would be superior... cheers, don

i spoke to oldgoat on the phone to get more details. on the duffey, the top and bottom of synchronicity are gone, the lower pitches of loose lady are just running water (no ice at all), the tube (usually very dependable) was totally gone, there is no ice visible at cinnamon ck, and the bottom 2/3 of carlsberg is gone. they did not walk up to the rambles, but via binocs they cld see ice, which appeared kinda anemic. yikes... as mentioned, there IS the rockies... cheers, don