JaapSuter

I've been a Biviouac member for a year and a half now. It's my biggest distraction at work, trying to find new stuff to fall off. Yeah, I noticed Bruce's is quite outdated. I had all Urquhart material on Bivouac (topos, GPS coordinates, etc.) printed out and with me as well. From now on, I'll always make sure I have Matt Gunns book in my car as well, should I have the need for a quick and easy backup scramble. Thanks for the tip!

Also known as; "going scrambling for a day and never actually leaving the car..." For the past year or so, I had been eying Mount Urquhart as a potential BASE jump spot. This Sunday we finally planned to take a look at it... Around 6:00 AM, Paul and I leave from his house (in Burnaby) and drive down the number 1 in the direction of Chilliwack. Around 7:45ish we hit the Harrison East FSR and start the 24km loggin-road trip to the Cogburn Creek FSR turnoff. I had called the logging company on Thursday and they had assured me that the Cogburn gate was open. The directions for the Cogburn turnoff were a little vague, so first Paul and I descended 10km down a strictly 4wd road (in our shity 2wd car) until my GPS device finally confirmed that we were indeed on the wrong road. So we slog 10km back (after turning the car around in what can only be called a 20-point-turn) and keep looking. Several kilometers further we find the Cogburn Creek road and start driving... Optimistic how 2wdable the road is we plow ahead. Until 3km in - we hit the gate. No problem I figure, we'll just open it. Wrong.... the gate is locked. Fortunately the logging company (Bear creek camp) is only 4km back, so we drive back to there to pick a key. Our yelling wakes up two aggressive dogs and minutes later a very suspicious man named Fred. He was very skeptical (probably from his experience with the beer and drug using kids that park their hundreds of cars along the Harrison FSR a few kilometers back, it's crazy there) until he saw that we carried topographical maps for Urquhart. Fred became excited now and quickly ran back inside and traded his key for my driver's license. Now optimistic again, we drive the 4km back to the gate. Only to find that the key doesn't fit. F*ck! So we drive back to Fred (4km) and explain him the story. He apologizes and runs back inside to give us his entire keychain with all the keys for the area. So we drive back to the gate again (4km) and try all his keys. No luck... So we drive 4km back again. Awesome! By this point it's just funny... Fred was very friendly and apologized profusely. He also told us we were shit out of luck. He would replace the lock soon and he encouraged us to give him a call soon and come back to climb Urquhart and Old Settler. By now it was about 11:00am, five hours after we left from home. We drove to the gate three times and back three times. We're running out of time... Fortunately I had brought the Bruce Fairley Guide book I picked up yesterday. In the past I had flown over Cheam Peak while skydiving and would swear I remembered a well-traveled road almost up to the top, making it a quick and easy hike. We figured we'd climb up that, take a gander over the edge (potentially jumpable too) and then drive home. The Bruce book mentions several approaches, some from the north and some from the south. Since we came from the north, we figured we try that first. Unfortunately, the only road we found was a shitty overgrown 4wd that we could never go up. We asked four people at the gasstation, none of which could help us (you live there, and don't know how to get up Cheam Peak? Geez...). So we figured we'd try the southern approach instead (we were determined to get some hiking done). Unfortunately this involved going around a bit of a ridge system so driving back to Cultus Lake area and then back again, all in all about 70 kilometers around the mountain. Getting there, we find the road that Bruce talks about, only to discover that it is discontinued and only accessible to high clearance 4wd. Well f*ck. When we finally rolled back into Vancouver around 3:45pm we had been in the fucking car for almost 10 hours and hadn't done any mountaineering. The sushi tasted pretty good though... I still don't know if Urquhart is jumpable. I'll have to go back soon, as soon as Fred has the proper key. The moral of the story; make sure you double check and triple confirm that you have a way to get past any gates. Jaap Suter

Thanks. Just gave him a call and he was very helpful. I'll post an update on the road here and on Bivouac when I get one soon. Thanks again!

Hello, does anybody know the latest status of access to Urquhart? I have a two-wheel-drive and I'm more than happy to walk a fair bit on logging roads. The latest update on Cogburn on Bivouac mentions an impassible slide near the 7km mark, but it's dated from July 2005. Anybody been up there recently? Thanks, Jaap Suter

Do you mean fined for illegal or reckless behavior, or do you mean getting a (partial) bill for the rescue cost? In BASE both have happened on occasion. This particular jump was entirely legal, and reckless behavior is really hard to prove in court. Is an experienced and well-trained BASE jumper more reckless than a hiker who gets lost in the woods because he can't use a compass? The line between stupidity and calculated risk-management is hard to define. The jumper talked to the RCMP afterwards who didn't mention anything about potential repercussions. I do know that the jumper will be making a significant donation to a Canadian search and rescue fund, as well as to a local Golden charity. He's also making sure the rescue personnel involved is rewarded for its heroic actions.

The entire team (SARtech, Don, Golden locals) did an incredible job rescueing this guy. The speed, skill and professionalism with which this rescue was carried out speaks to the quality of our Canadian SAR forces. We should be proud and thankful we have such incredible people available to us. As far as the incident itself goes; the jumper did not eject prematurely... 90 meters below exit is average for a BASE jump of this type. The real problem was stability problems in freefall because the snowboard hit an exposed rock at the exit point. Ultimately this caused the canopy to deploy facing the wall, rather than away from the wall. The jumper wasn't quick enough to turn the canopy around, bounced against the wall several times and ultimately got hung up on a little ledge. Last year, several successful jumps were made from the exact same exit point (video here).

Thanks for the tip Dru. I have looked at Carag Dur before but always dismissed it because I thought it was too low. Only recently did I find out it was 1800 feet. I also just found this picture (see attached) and it looks rather steep to me, especially once you get above the overhanging upside-down smiley. If it's truly 1800 feet and the top half is vertical, that might give us enough drive to track away from the talus and leverage the altitude the bottom half offers. Do you have any guesses on what angle the lower and top halfs are? Thanks, Jaap Suter

Hey, if anybody knows him, can you ask him if he can send me a message or email me at contact@jaapsuter.com? I have some questions for them about his Carag Dur climb. Edited to add: my original post mentioned John Millar too. I sincerely apologize for bringing him up. I was not aware that he has passed away. I am not a climbing community regular. Again, my apologies. Thanks, Jaap Suter

Thanks. Dru pointed me to that one as well. Judging from the topo map I'm not overly optimistic, but I've been trying to charter a helicopter to check it out next month. I got in touch with Collin Dion who, as far as I know, is the only person who has tried to tackle that wall, and he said it was a dissapointing set of staircased ledges, instead of a sheer overhanging to vertical wall. Have you seen it yourself?

Hi, my apologies if I made it seem I am doubting your word Dru. Your information has proved very valuable already. I definitely will climb both Urquhart and Medissa soon. I suppose I just let my temporary dissapointment with Steinbok and Stonerabbit show. Which is nonsense, because they were incredible summits that I would do again in an instant. Next time I would probably leave my 30 pound worth of BASE gear at home though. Bear mountain is not jumpable. Several Washington BASE jumpers have been up there and the consensus is that it's not jumpable. I don't recall the details but I could look into it if you are interested. Thanks guys, Jaap Suter

Hi, I'm looking to get some information on the BASE-jumpability of both Medissa and Urquhart. I've heard positive reports from Dru and other people, but after two dissapointments on Steinbok and Stonerabbit, despite extremely optimistic forecasts, I'm trying to get some more information. Then again, even if they're not jumpable, they're still amazing and rewarding scrambles. If you've been up Medissa or Urquhart and you have any information or photos to share, please let me know. Basically I'm looking for vertical or overhanging walls. And vertical really means vertical, i.e. 89 degrees or more. Steinbok looks vertical, but it is closer to 86 degrees. Preferably, one could drop a rock straight down (not throw, just drop from the hand) and it would not hit the wall or the ground for several seconds. Beta and advice is appreciated. I'm already aware of the information on Bivouac (and a member). Thanks, Jaap Suter

The logging camp seems to be there still. At the very least there were still some sheds, and it seemed there had been logging as recent as last year or two years ago. We got the key to the logging road. If you get in touch with the logging company you can pick it up somewhere in Chilliwack. Send me an email if you need their phone-number. Approach without a key will add about 15 kilometers of mountainbikable road and another 8 kilometers of hikable road (we 4WD'd that part, but the road was completely overgrown).

Unfortunately it is not jumpable. We scrambled in about 3.5 hours to the top of Steinbok last Saturday. We spend a lot of time rappelling down to different ledges but couldn't find anything that was vertical enough to make a jump. It took us about 3 hours to scramble down afterwards. Intense bushwacking although the abundance of blue berries everywhere made it bearable. The rockslide and granite slab above the bushwack is a breeze. Overall an incredible scramble, highly recommended. Great views from the top, and standing at the base of the wall is very intimidating. Cheers, Jaap

Hi, I'm looking to get in touch with people who have climbed or scrambled up Steinbok mountain. Can anybody tell me how steep the different faces are? Somebody assures me that one side is 90 degrees vertical to overhanging for over 300 feet and that it has BASE potential. Can anybody confirm or deny this? Feel free to reply here or email me at base@jaapsuter.com Thanks, Jaap - http://www.jaapsuter.com

Hi, I'm looking for Satellite Phone Rental in Vancouver BC. I know you can rent them online easily, but I'm looking for a store in the city that offers them. Thanks, Jaap