Alpinfox

Cute girls climbing in the mountains? OMG!

you can't see the NR of Stewie from dragontail.

Saturday: Drove from Revelstoke to Seattle. Rub and tug. Sunday: Wrote TR, drank beer, and watched climbing videos.

Climb: Wiwaxy Peak-Grassi Ridge Date of Climb: 7/15/2005 Trip Report: As hard as this may be to believe, there are still a few classic routes in North America that Fred Beckey has not yet climbed. One such route that Fred has recently hoped to check off the unclimbed list was Grassi Ridge on Wiwaxy Peak located in Yoho National Park in far eastern British Columbia. This ~350m route which ascends the exposed SW prow of Wiwaxy peak often shows up in lists titled something like, “classic easy alpine rock climbs in the Canadian Rockies”. Wiwaxy Peak, located above Lake O’Hara in a stunningly beautiful corner of the world, is composed of quartzite and the rock quality is “pretty good… for the Rockies”. Fred contemplating the route: So last October, Fred, Colin Haley, and I saddled up the Subaru and galloped out to the Canadian hinterlands. We got as far as Revelstoke where Fred consulted his address book (stacks of fedex envelope cardboard rubberbanded together) and, after a few phone calls, found a place for us to crash on the floor of a heli-ski guide friend of his. This guy convinced us that our route was going to be covered in two feet of snow, so we turned the Sooobie around and galloped back to Seattle. 836 miles driven; no peaks climbed, but I knew we’d be back. On Tuesday I got a call from Colin, “IT’S ON!”. Well shit. I’d just recently started a new job, and didn’t really have any vacation time saved up yet, but what the hell. “Yup. I’m in.” We left Seattle on Wednesday evening only a couple of hours behind schedule and with far less wrangling with Fred about what rack to take than is usual, so I felt optimistic. Four McDonald’s and a couple of Tim Hortons stops later, we were in the Lake O’Hara parking lot where we ran into Barry Blanchard who had just returned from guiding some retired NY stock broker up in the O’Hara area. Lake O’Hara epitomizes everything lame about National Parks. One must make a reservation ($12 non-refundable reservation fee) very far in advance for the privilege of staying in one of the 30 densely clustered tent sites paying $8/person/night and trying to sleep through the the din of yowling children, bear locker doors slamming, and water pump squeaking. The backcountry wilderness experience: One must also pay $15 to ride the old school bus up the 13km dirt road from the parking lot while trying to ignore the in flight instructions and “important backcountry travel information” from the stewardess, I mean ranger. The bus runs a few times a day and the rich folks who stay in the cabins right on the lake ($600/couple/night if you are interested) get first dibs and the unsavory proles in the campground can just wait their turn thank you very much. The upshot of the whole deal is that the area is pretty damn scenic. Apparently, even the Cree Indians appreciated the splendor of the area; “yoho” means “awesome dude!” Looking straight on at Grassi Ridge on Wiwaxy: We woke up at 5:15 on Friday morning and were hiking toward the base of the route around 6:15. Approaching: About an hour later we were roped up and I led up the first pitch, a blocky steep (for 5.4) corner with tons of great holds and a few suspicious looking blocks that turned out to be firmly affixed to the mountain. Fred was tied into a butterfly about 10m from Colin’s end, so they climbed up together. After reaching the belay, Fred said he wasn’t feelin’ the groove and wanted to bail off. This was pretty disappointing, but he said that Colin and I should keep heading up and he’d walk across the valley and take pictures of the route. As Fred rapped off, I looked at Colin, “Simul?”. “Yup”. We finished the route off in two leads, mine ending about halfway up. Colin starting his block of the simulclimbing: The crux pitch has some of the worst rock on the route and is surprisingly steep for 5.7 – I pulled around a roof at one point! – but huge holds abound and the climbing, while intimidating looking, is never very difficult. Crux pitch: The best climbing on the route consisted of two short, clean faces above the crux pitch. Here is one of them. Colin sewing it up: The views we had from high on the route were outstanding! View: Colin led us to the summit where we hung around for a half hour or so and then descended. Colin on the summit: There are a couple of places where one can rappel, but by downclimbing a couple of ~10m low 5th class steps the raps can be avoided. The rest of the walkoff involved descending a somewhat loose dirt/scree gully that reminded me of the Cascadian Couloir on Stuart. Annoying, but simple. We made it back to tent just before noon and fed mosquitoes for a while waiting for Fred to show up. Gloomy black clouds rolled in and it started to rain lightly. I started to worry about Fred, so Colin and I went searching for him with no luck. Fred finally showed up and said he’d been hanging out in the day lodge (supposedly for cabin guests only) hitting on cute tourist ladies and downing the complimentary coffee (again, for cabin guests only). It's too bad that Fred wasn't feeling up to climbing that day, but he got a good taste of the route and enjoyed himself thouroughly. It's such an honor to climb with him and his strength, endurance, and humor never cease to amaze me. It was also great to hang out with Colin - a funny and talented climber who is now off to Pakistan to climb things that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He'll be turning 21 in a country where alcohol is illegal. Here's to him: Thanks guys! VIVA LA FRED!!! [hint] Colin wrote up a really good description of the route and perhaps he will post it here. [/hint] Gear Notes: Single rope Set O' nutz TCUs and cams to BD #1. Sugar, salt, pepper, and, most importantly, napkins from McDonalds. "Way better than toilet paper!" Approach Notes: Take the bus.

SHUT UP BISH!!! THIS IS A CLIMBING WEBSITE!

Makin' us CascadeCouchpotatos proud.

I've ridden that Bianchi bike and it's faster than Chad Kellogg on a meth bender. VRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! It's got all kinds of titanium and carbon fiber whatnots too. Real fancy like.

Although my experience with Squamish is pretty limited, I did not find the ratings exceptionally soft there. Perhaps folks with this perception are just very familiar with the climbing at Squish? I felt the grades of the stuff I did were pretty right on (Rock On = 10a, Calculus = 5.8, etc). I dunno, I've heard several people say Squish is soft, so I guess it probably is. I guess I'm just a softie. Anyway, we should probably take the "Great Grade Debate" to another thread.

The crux of the whole trip will be keeping the local hoodlum kids from burning down your tent, trashing your car, and beating you half to death. If you manage to survive all of that, make sure you don't leave any valuables visible in your car or the bastards will rob you. If you manage to avoid that, Diedre and Banana Peel are good 5.7 and under climbs, but they will be crowded. Diedre is the most crowded route I've ever seen, anywhere; even more so than 5-gallon buckets at Smiffay. That said, it IS a fun route, albeit a little greasy and polished from traffic, so get on it if you have the chance. Banana Peel is a good backup since it is in the same neighborhood. I'm sure our Canadian comrades (Dru, murraysoveriegn, Fern, Jordop, snoboy, etc) will have more, and better, suggestions on climbs. You'll have a great time and the forecast looks good. And remember to water your cactuses before you go. Cheers!

That is EXACTLY what it was. Psychobabble.

Love? Justice? A great tasting less filling beer?

EMPTY YO PM BOX HOSS!!!

Yeah medical insurance doesn't cover that. I just checked my medical insurance benefits and they cover 80% of ambulance expenses (air and ground). They also cover 100% of chemical dependency treatment after the $200 bar tab... er... I mean copay.

OH OH! I thought of a good one. The on Lib Bell.

NF of Concord and South Gully (aka "arete") of SEWS are crap. Beckey route is crowded as hell. SW rib/buttress of SEWS is Bring a #4 camalot. You should do Petit Cheval too. I haven't done it yet.

When you gonna go out there Olympia climber? I'll go with ya and show you all the sweet shizzle that no one knows about like the south arete of SEWS. SHhhhhh!!!!!

Yer momma.

Wow, what are you planning to do on Mt. Baker for 17 days? RE: your question, I think the amount of use of the camera (# of pictures taken, amount flash is used, time spent reviewing pictures) is more relevant to battery life than total time. I've got a Canon s500 and if I were spending 17 days on Baker () I would take all three of my batteries and try not to use the flash much or do much reviewing of pictures.

No one who goes to Pub Clubs actually climbs.

"Trotsky's Brain" will be the name of my next ice FA. ... and don't you try to scoop me Dru or I'll Trotskize you.