Don_Serl

Monmouth is the highest, kinda square-topped summit on the left. From this angle, Fluted looks like a rightward extension of Monmouth. Chapman has the distinct snow-couloir which falls directly towards the camera. The big snowy summit in right-centre is Winstone. The steep-looking rock tower to its right is The Beast. The lighter rock further rigth is good granite around Beehive. All these summits lie at the head of the Tchaikazan and/or Falls river valleys, and all are approachable via long drives to the Chilcotin and pretty easy hike-ins. Plus the weather is somewhat drier than in more coastal areas, so you can get away with climbs here when other stuff is 'out'. I've made 5 trips into the Tchak, and a couple up the Falls... great places...

as Drew says, Manatee group left (Wahoo Tower in profile); that's Athelstan on the right - I always wondered why no one ever went in the climb the N Face... altho it's a longish approach... maybe the buttress in the centre? wld be spectacular with hanging glacier seracs on both sides! or the right-hand ice face, if you cld get thru the hanging glacier below... top looks dried out now... bloody near killed myself up there one time, trying to get far enough out onto the slope from the summit to see down into that face, which then avalanched under my feet, luckily only about 4" deep with fresh powder... yet another fine Thanksgiving trip...

that makes my best trundles look minor, but do you think using a helicopter to trundle is aid?

lelf, as dru said, conditions can vary a lot, depending on the year. in general, the big snow and ice faces are getting sketchier as they melt out, compared to the '70 or '80s. avvy conditions are usual stable in summer, but you can get huge slab fractures when the firn snow on a steep slope peels off underlying ice. this is very rare, but it's worth thinking about if there's a lot of melting going on when you're considering a route. look around to see what's happening on neighbouring similar slopes. and rockfall is more likely if the temps are high too, especially in couloirs (Fissile, Joffre). nobody i have ever heard of wears an avalanche beacon on a summer route - if the face comes apart and you're on it, you're dead! this is not winter powder... nor is the 'landing' multiple metres of pillowness in the valley... have a good trip, wherever, whenever.

Nice TR, and well humoured Jesse! Remarkable forebearance in the hostel - maybe a video camera next time? As for Polar Circus, a VERY bad choice when avvy conditions are high - witness John Lauchlan, RIP... you guys did well going elsewhere...

Dan, I'd be honoured... PM sent, Cheers,

it's great to see a guy like this still 'getting at it' well into his golden years, but (at the risk of spoiling the party), his technique in the vid worried me quite frequently. there was a LOT of moving on shaky sticks, and that is never healthy. i suppose surviving to 76 while still climbing may offer proof that he's doing it 'right', but for my money, I'da been taking another swing on 50% of his placements (or better yet, using better placing tools than the Aztars...)

nicely done! if there was less snow, places like Arrowsmith really COULD be as good as the Ben - as it is, you've done well to steal the opportunity when it came!

tough climbing, full-on effort, good show! scariest spot for me was seeing the way the whole bulge was plated low on the route, maybe a minute in - would be easy to hit the ground if the surface came away...

nice work. was it wet at all? cheers,

hey Dane, would an excerpt from the guide do? The McNerthney Pillar ED1/2 5.10 mixed 980m to Northwest Peak Pat and Dan McNerthney; July 24, 1986 [AAJ’87 p185; CAJ’87 p82] This tremendous 700m rock pillar soars directly from the flat snow of the Col to the Terrace. Despite providing far and away the most powerful climbing line on this face of Waddington, it remains unrepeated. Cross the schrund (can be vertical) [~3100m] and gain the lowest rocks on their right flank. Angle up and left to the first prominent, snowy ledge on the pillar. Head directly up past another major ledge to the lower angled section at half height. Move left to attack the wall above, then drift slowly right as altitude is gained. A bivy can be made on the snow crest above the main body of the pillar [~3650m], then a final groove is climbed to gain the upper snows. 16 pitches, much of it on sound flakes, lead to the bivy site; 5 more pitches lead to the Terrace [~3800m]. The Northwest Peak lies just above, or the route can be finished to the Main Summit, as on the first ascent. Enjoy...

I'm wondering is anyone has any info about a possible 2nd ascent of the McNerthney Pillar on Waddington. Kevin McLane thought Colin Haley might have done it, or at least knew something about it, but (a) he hasn't and (b) he thought he'd heard that from ME! Most curious... (p.s. This posting is duplicated from the BC section, cuz not everyone visits there, if that's OK with you mods...) (p.p.s. there's a photo in the other posting: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/997115#Post997115) Cheers,

I'm wondering if anyone has any info about a possible 2nd ascent of the McNerthney Pillar on Waddington. Kevin McLane thought Colin Haley might have done it, or at least knew something about it, but (a) he hasn't and (b) he thought he'd heard that from ME! Most curious... (p.s. I'll duplicate this posting in the Climber Board, cuz not everyone visits the BC section, if that's OK with you mods...) Cheers, p.p.s. As a reward for reading this posting, here's a photo to stoke you thru the rest of the winter. The route takes the obvious 3-stepped rock pillar..

yup. as telemarker says, that's Gap Falls. it was listed in the 1st ed of WCI, but dropped from the 2nd. Garry Brace, John Rance, and Rick Cox all had a hand in the FA, sometime late in the '70s. I called it grade 5 in the guide (based on 2nd hand advice), but I climbed it later and I reckon 4+ is fairer. the big problem is that it is not that cold around Revelstoke, plus the climb faces south, so it's hard to find it in good condition when it's solidly below freezing - and when the sun is not threatening to cut the upper gully loose... it's more dangerous than difficult...

Good effort, Brice and Jeff. Back in the days when I was young enuf, tough enuf, and foolish enuf (?) to climb this sort of stuff, I used to think it would take 2 - 2 1/2 hrs to lead a summer-5.7 pitch, so you're right, longer days in later season would make this more feasible. Plus you might find more/better ice here and there. Fyi, re: pro, snowstakes won't really take much load, but the guys in the Rockies (where the snow is fluffier and less dense) bury them sideways and sling 'em like a deadman. And I'd double the number of pegs, esp thin stuff like blades and thinner LAs... Good luck next time!

current conditions and reports: http://www.westcoastice.com/ good luck!

I'll tip my hat to Rob Wood. The Terrordactyl arrived in Canada in 1972 via British expats, of which there was a hard crew climbing out of Calgary at the time. Rob was in on the first ascent of Bow Falls (3) and Borgeau Right (4) in early 1973. The thought of climbing the latter with the tools and (especially) pro of the day makes me shiver all over! But far more was to come the next season, starting with Lower Weeping Wall Left (4) in Dec'73, then Takakkaw Falls (5) in the stone-cold conditions of Jan'74, just about simultaneously with Jeff Lowe and Mike Weis's more-publicized ascent of Bridalveil Falls. This was topped with Borgeau Left (5) later the same month. Rob moved to Vancouver in 1975 and (as in Calgary) 'fell in with' a group of hard-climbing, hard-drinking Brits, some of whom I climbed (and drank - copiously, I must admit) with. He brought with him a burning enthusiasm for waterfall climbing - you had to see the fire in his eyes to believe it! Maybe more importantly, he brought (and shared) direct experience with gear and technique which was previously altogether absent on the west coast. The immediate result was the first ascent of Entropy at Soo Bluffs, north of Whistler, (at WI3, far easier than the leading Rockies climbs of the day) early in the 75/76 season. The true impact of his influence made itself felt in mid-February, when Garry Brace, John Knight, and I climbed Icy BC (5), armed with woollens, crappy tools, desperate-to-place screws, little experience, and the confidence of naivity. What really got us up the climb was the knowledge, thru Rob, that such things COULD be climbed! Rob moved off the Maurelle Island with Laurie Manson soon thereafter and his ice climbing career came to an end, but he continued to influence young mountaineers for many years thereafter thru his association with Strathcona Lodge. A "hall-of-famer" for sure... Here's to you, lad! Long may you run...

nicely done - a hell of a lot thinner than the couple times I've been up it - pretty challenging in early season... wow, just a bit strenuous, eh? shame the ice comes and goes (mostly 'goes') so quickly in Squam.

the crampons were brilliant (I used a pair for alpine into the '90s, then they broke, a universal problem with rigid crampons, and I lost confidence in the 2nd pair I owned), and the piolet worked better than most people would suspect (I recall climbing Weeping Wall with Laurie S in '81, with him up above swinging that great huge stick, running in WAYYYY out!), but the hammer was a travesty on steep waterfall ice. the Jensen pack was way ahead of its time - pity Don was killed cycling in Scotland. and the foamback... well, I had one of those fzckers too... perhaps the worst foul-weather gear I ever possessed... froze into medieval armour below freezing, of course... Peter Storm and Helly Hansen in Europe had the idea of putting a backer onto waterproofs far better sorted... it was hard then, it's still hard now...

...somewhat less well sorted kit, also 1975: your truly doing the FA of "The Hose" on De Pencier bluffs on Mt Seymour, the first winter that waterfall ice climbing took place out here on the coast... and my first ice FA... wool underwear, wool knickers, wool shirt, wool sweater, Dachstein mittens, leather single boots (Val d'Or Eiger Darbelley's, I think), Salewa adjustable hinged crampons, a pair of Salewa ice hammers, narrow-diameter Salewa tube screws. damn, did we ever get cold! especially the freakin hands! lucky it was not that cold - not the Rockies! as to the 'how hard' question, it no doubt took a lot of mental toughness and physical willingness to suffer in 'the old days', but I reckon guys like Dave MacLeod (etc) push it out at least as far and hard today, and they're clearly WAY stronger and better trained. but the stuff that gets climbed is SOOOO technical, and the gear is often pretty darn sketchy and hard to place. at least, that's true of the Scottish style - the bolted dry-tooling routes so common in many places these days seem to me to be just cold sport routes - they take tremendous ability and strength of course, but the chances of getting killed are minimal, so the intensity required is several levels lower than it was for the best of the old-timers. people DID fall off 'old-school' Ben Nevis routes with crap gear and shitty pro and pull the whole party to the ground...

judging from Davey's 'work' on The Hurting, I'd say, yah, it's hard now! (not what you meant, but...) nice post, tks.

Nice stokes! Dragontail is such a fine peak, isn't it. Seems to me that if this peak lay above Chamonix, there'd be about 40 routes on that one exposure! We sure live in a cool area for 'exploration"! Cheers all,

wow, serious stoke! is that a pair of the new Petzl Arbors? how you likin' 'em so far?

good work, Colin and friends. a long time ago, when I was just starting to climb, an expectation was laid on me by those that I learned from that to be a 'full' member of the climbing community one needed to spend one day each year clearing trail and one day each year teaching someone new. some years I managed to fulfil that expectation, some years I exceeded it, and some years I didn't make it, but I never forgot it. you've set a fine example when, as one of the strongest and most active climbers in the region, you've taken a potential climbing day and dedicated it to 'the community'. I hope many others follow your example... kudos!

here's a link to some news: http://www.globaltvbc.com/Video+Large+slide+near+Pemberton/3368963/story.html mighty impressive! and very lucky there were no fatalities - the hotsprings are upstream from the runout for this slide. too bad the air is so smoky from all the forest fires - you can hardly see what's going on in the photos... the reporter has debris at "a couple hundred feet" deep at the confluence of Meager Ck and the Lillooet R, running downstream perhaps 10km. it does sound like Lillooet River is NOT dammed up by the slide, but the good burghers of Pemberton will be drinking mud for months to come! more to come, I'm sure...