Sol

Trip: Les Cornes - Springbok Arete Date: 8/1/2007 Trip Report: Last week we climbed the celebrated Sprinbok Arete in the Anderson River Valley of BC. What a route! It was my second attempt after adventureboy and I failed to even find the river valley last year. We left bham in the early afternoon on wednesday figuring to have plenty of time to make the approach and bivy near the base. Unfortunatly it was like a waking re-occuring nightmare, and we spent many hours wandering around on the wrong logging roads, lost, trying to make sense of it all. Luckily it all came together, and we made it to the roadside, bug-infested bivy around sunset, intent on now climbing car to car. A 5 am start saw us alder-ing our way up to the base which wasn't nearly as bad as others have made it sound. A little schwacky but its short, there is a path to follow, and you gain very little elevation. The Arete from the base: I started us off on the first block. Four mediocre pitches and a bit of simul-climbing brought us to the base of the fierce fingercrack of pitch 7 (McLane), where we swapped blocks. Scenic: Tyree lead on up the hard 5.9 fingercrack and the off-width, but whoops, ended up on the wrong wide crack. We climbed a clean long off-width to the right of where we were supposed to be. After fucking around for a little bit we rapped off a nut back to the route. Ty smoked the orange head wall pitch hooting and hollering, having a good ol' time. Awesome and steep. Flakes, fists, and hands: The quality of the rock kept on improving as we continued on via a fun flake traverse. I took over for the 10c fingercrack, and the immaculate 5.9 layback and elegant slab above. Quality: Ty took us to the summit from there via never-ending finger locks. A quick pound and we moved on to the au cheval. "Gut-churning" Compared to Gato Negro the descent was casual. The worst rap was prolly the first one. And the running water was well appreciated. 4 raps and some downclimbing brought us back to the base. Overall we did the route in 10 pitches with some simulclimbing. Car to car in 15 hours. Its the best route i've climbed in BC and lies somewhere in my top 5 favorite alpine rock routes. The grades are nice and stout. Highly recommended. Because you can never get enough Steinbok: Gear Notes: Twin 60's. Rack of doubles to #2, singles through new #5. Couple RP's. Approach Notes: Dont ask me.

Sick!!!! A proud send of a proud line.

Classic route, fast time. You can easily walk off with climbing shoes; soft sand skiing back to the base.

Some b'ham mounties almost killed my wife and I when we were coming off of the Torment-Forbidden Traverse in the exact same spot a few years ago. I'd have been pissed if my boy took off with the rack without saying anything.

Links work now.

Rad!

Nice. Did you guys free it? If so, what did it go at? I did NW Buttress descent about this time last summer. Not too bad, not too rad. Kinda grassy, kinda loose, really long. We downclimbed most of it unroped and did maybe 3 raps. You wander back and forth along each side of the ridge crest via the easiest route. Prolly better than the melted out sherpa glacier descent this time of year.

Trip: Whine Spire - Gato Negro IV 5.10b Date: 7/25/2007 Trip Report: Last week Tyree and i climbed Gato Negro on Whine Spire in the WA Pass area. Overall, we thought the route was high quality, varied, and just plain fun. The climbing surprised us at being not as steep as we had anticipated, and the grades seemed a bit inflated. Though its proabaly one of the top 5 pitches i've climbed in the area, the crux 3rd pitch, felt no harder than 10b, and overall i think most of the grades will drop a letter grade or two as the placements and the route gets cleaned up. We climbed the direct finish to the false summit at around 10- which really seemed to complete the route nicely. The descent was rowdy! One 30m rap off the summit brought us to the middle of nowhere, where we placed a 2 nut anchor which got us into the gulley. About 900ft of pretty damn loose unroped downclimbing ,with one more shady rap off of a chockstone, brought us back to our packs. A couple of pics: Looking down at the bolted 2nd pitch, a worthy improvement: Shot of 5.9 flakes and cool overhanging double cracks taken midway up P3: Fun roofs on P8: Direct finish to the false summit: On the summit: The wildest thing that happened to us all day, occured at the base of the route back at our packs. We're lying around lamping, indulging in our pleasures, when all the sudden I jumped up and looked uphill. A basketball-sized rock was catapulting towards us a couple of hundred feet away. We managed to barely dodge the rock, and a few more that it picked up. I must have been using the force 'cuz you couldn't hear the rock at all. We had completely let our guard down. Be careful out there folks, it ain't over til it's over. Gear Notes: Rack of doubles to #2, single #3,#4, and #5. With new rap station it can now be climbed with a single 60m rope. Approach Notes: Easiest approach in the wine spire area. Topo Link Cleaner topo w/out new 2nd Pitch

HOLY SHIT. way to keep it together out there boys. congrats on the climb and the self-rescue! that #2 looks like fricking play-doh.

yo, i want to go climb springbok arete. last summer adventure boy (issac) and i tried to climb it, but every spur we took off of the main logging road and the main logging road itself ended with a logging operation smack dab in the middle of it, and was therefore impassable. i know the road to the anderson river valley peaks is not accessible to the parking area it once was, that's ok, we are more than willing to bike out there, but what is the beta with the roads: washouts, logging ops, maps, etc. i don't want to go out there and wander around for 5 hours like last time. we got a key, we just need the beta. while were on the subject of the anderson river valley, anybody have any info on the NE butt of steinbok? i know the edwards-spagnut was repeated a few years ago by a party who added bolts (lame), im more interested in the flavelle-howe. what i really want to know is if that shit is really worth climbing, or is it as compact and dirty as McLane makes it sound in SWBC select? any insight would be appreciated, thanks much. sol

ive been unable to download photos into the gallery for a couple of months now. I'm using the JPEG format with a MacBook, size 495X660 for vertical shots and 494X371 for horizontal shots. i have successfully downloaded photos with this computer before. now it says i have a problem with filesize. i usually export my photos from iphoto onto the desktop with the above mentioned size constraints and then download them, but its just not working. any thoughts or advice?

2 for the descent.

you can borrow mine for beer, im in bham, PM me.

sweet, i'm ready to go climb it for the 3rd time.

we all owe you some beers!!!!!!!!

you guys. Gunsight fever. We had originally used the hanging belay on top of pitch 3 to re-direct the ropes away from some serious belay-slayers that we later trundled. Seems like folks are linking p3 and 1/2 of p4 to a belay at the base of the slab. Nice. Cool to meet you just before your adventure with d-dog, matt. Again, nice job you guys.

Frickin rad you guys! Thanks for the congrats blake, it was the most amazing day of my life. About the east face, sounds like you guys didn't free the crux, can you confirm the grades on any of the other pitches? Now, if i could only get ginnie jo to spend our honeymoon out there.

too early

too early

Back in the day, i heard Jason Henrie retro'd the predominantly trad, headwall route without permission, heard the same about frogs in space. Karnage is a good 11 on the orange wall if that's what your looking for. come end of september i'd work the headwall with you avitripp if your looking for a partner.

I heard there was some major rockfall from orc tower that has littered the country with lots or rocks, boulders, and dust. don't know of any bolt/route damage yet, but people should use this thread to post any observations or concerns. Sol

As long as nobody retro's the Black Power arete, i could give a rat's ass if they rap bolt the next 32 ft obscure lump of granite. Blake: go climb Timson's face or the Wilson McNerthney on Givlers. Classic ground-up face climbs by the hardmen of yester-year.

short-fix yo!

All those ratings will work-out as long as you stay at index. Be wary that unlike the free climing ratings at index, the aid ratings are actually pretty soft. Be prepared for much harder C2 in the valley or at squamish. You guys should try P1 of narrow arrow direct, some good strenuous top-stepping. P3 of NAD can be aided with standard aid rack up to a BD 3.5. You guys are totally ready to give the Green Dragon a go, rest assured you can bail from anywhere on the route and there's nothing harder than you'll find on the first Narrow arrow pitches.

Sick... maybe I do want to climb in the black after all. Thanks for the TR, nice to see real rock climbing in this forum.