sparverius

Good to hear those guys made it up and down. Nice work on cruising to the top from lower curtis ridge in a day. Must have been a long day.

thanks for the TR Steph. It was a fun climb. The conditions were perfect and a heavy spring/early summer snowpack made for a quick and easy ascent. I've been told that it's rare that the last final steep pitch above the bergschrund was mostly snow this late in the season and that most of the route was a stairway to the stars. Now I'm wondering about the canadians that bivied with us at thumb rock. Did you guys make it up and down without a bivy? Stop by at longmire for a beer if you're still in the area.

I used that site to get forecasts while down in Patagonia and found them to be reliable to about two days out. Haven't had much luck with it up here this spring and early summer. But the weather has been squirrely. Bless them, they're tying to predict the future.

very nice you guys

yes, this weekend is a perfectly good time to watch the yanks get their asses handed to them in S. Africa

I am looking for someone to climb with at Tieton tomorrow, monday the 31st. I have all the necessary gear and live in Mount Rainier NP (Longmire). I can drive as well or meet someone from the east side there.

1. Date: Monday 5/31 2. Destination: Tieton 3. Origination: Longmire 4. number in party: 1 5. if you can drive or not (and the mpg of your car if so): Yes, 20 mpg, and can fit 2 more people and lots of gear. Am also looking for someone to climb with on this day.

Marblemount diner. Their fish and chips are a great post suffer-fest feast.

I am going to be in the Bariloche area the last two weeks in February and would like to climb at Cerro Catedral as a warm up for more committing climbs south. I'll then head south to the Chalten area the first three weeks in March. On my radar are the Aiguilles Mermoz, Guillamet, and De La S, the Franco-Argentine route, or anything up to and including TD.

I'm going to be in Patagonia Feb 17 - March 23 and am looking for alpine partners. I will be based out of Bariloche in Northern Patagonia and am interested in climbing at Valle Cochamo as well as some of the climbs out of Bariloche. I am also considering a trip to either Torres del Paine or the Fitz Roy range, but have yet to get my hands on a guidebook or map for the area.

Having bacon in a crevasse is a little extravagant. But there was that guy that pulled out two whoppers on Liberty Ridge a few years ago.

way to slay the beast

Here's to hoping they find TJ soon, or he finds them. At least there is good weather forecasted through the weekend.

I concur with Gene. Don't have any exposed skin. I got minor frostbite on my face in the whites years ago. It's also the only place I've climbed where the wind has physically moved me. Be prepared. It looks like you've been given some good advice thus far.

This is great news. Now pray for ice in the gullies

count me in for one Steph

Josh, your "climbing heart" prevailed, as did your lower intestines. Well done.

the last pitch on pilgrimage adds the adventure climbing flavor to the route. I agree that those headwall pitches are among the top for their grade, though I was too hosed to enjoy the last pitch. I skipped the gendarme pitches on stuart, unfortunately, so I can't compare.

no wasps in Cathedral Fork, though we camped near a snag at Cathedral Lake that had a big hive. I'm curious if you've exited both ways from Cathedral lakes and have a preference?

Trip: Cathedral Provincial Park and Pasayten Wilderness - MMG Traverse, Cathedral (SEB), Pilgrimage to Mecca Date: 8/23/2009 Trip Report: Donn and I headed up to the Cathedral Provincial Park and Pasayten Wilderness for my last major trip of the summer before heading back to the honkey tonks. The approaches and general travel were a welcomed change from some of the N. cascades sufferfests we’d been through this summer. Our main objective was the SE Buttress of Cathedral, which was put up in 1973 by Pete Doorish and Glen Wilson. Glen was Donn’s buddy from high school and boy scouts and first introduced him to climbing in 1970. We approached via the Ashnola River Road and parked at the 39 K sign, just next to the foot bridge. The hike into wall creek took us about 4 hours and was a moderate uphill on a good trail through lodgepole tinderbox. We took the first fork on the centennial trail @ 1.5 hours after leaving the car and were soon at our campsite at the base of grimface. We’d heard conflicting reports of how long the Matriarch Macabre Grimface traverse took, so we decided to give it a go our first afternoon. We climbed scree fields to the ridge just southeast of Matriarch’s summit and roped up. The climbing was easy and fun and the setting was superb. The traverse begins with an exposed 5.4 (short) section leading up to the bolt ladder and webbing ladder. Just beyond the ladder we arrived at the summit block of Matriarch. It presents several options, and we chose the tight 5.3 chimney that Donn led elegantly. Most of the traverse was class 3 and 4 scrambling along the ridge. photo by Donn There was an exciting, but easy chimney that lead up to Grimface's summit and was a good way to cap off the traverse. Deluxe bivy sites abounded on this route, and I was especially fond of this one near grimface’s summit. The entire traverse took us about 3 hours, or 4.5 hours tent to tent. The rock was solid and the late evening sun turned the fine granite a glowing yellow. It was a short scramble from Grimface's summit to an enjoyable scree surf back down to camp. The traverse is a good way to spend a half day if you’re up wall creek. Better descriptions of the traverse can be found on MVS’s TR: http://www.mountainwerks.org/cma/2005/grimface.htm as well as this one: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/581962 The next day was a travel day, as we left wall creek, scrambling climbers right of the Deacon onto a nice heather plateau that gave us great views, espcecially of the MMG traverse We descended into the Cathedral Fork Valley and had relatively easy climbing to upper cathedral lake. It took us less than a half day to travel from our camp near grimface to cathedral lake. We rested and gazed at the many butrresses of Amphitheatre mountain and even looked for a path that would lead us away from lower cathedral lake at the end of our trip. Wednesday morning dawned clear and cold and we made a leisurely start towards the SE buttress of Cathedral. The first pitch was a wake up call for me, as it was more strenous than expected. photo by Donn The second pitch was a chimney that required passing behind and then over a chockstone. photo by Donn The rock was pretty solid and enjoyable. I think we climbed it in 12 pitches, two of them being very short. There were nice ledges at nearly every belay. Fighting off hand cramps, we tackled the final headwall pitches, with Donn leading the first fun pitch, while I scratched and clawed my way up the 5.10a finger crack. photo by Donn photo by Donn The summit was spacious and gave us a good view down to upper Cathedral Lake. photo by Donn The hike off was a bit of a scramble, exposed in one or two places, followed by more knee-preserving scree surfing. The next day we decided to climb Pilgrimage to Mecca on the Ka’aba buttress of Amphitheatre mountain, first climbed by Darrin and Owen 5 years ago. The climb follows the cracks on the left side of the buttress. The approach was about 20 minutes and the climb starts on a block at the base of the buttress. photo by Donn We climbed it in four pitches, and all but the last pitch were outstanding. I got apparently off route on the last pitch and had to downclimb 60 feet to avoid a loose block. photo by Donn We took a variation on the second pitch that Darrin recommended, but hadn’t tried himself. It was capped by a sweet 5.8 lieback. Unfortunately, the lower half of this pitch was guarded by a six foot tall loose flake that I had to dance around. Donn tried to kick it off as he seconded, but was unable to get it from above. It could likely be dislodged from the side by the second, but presents a real danger to anyone trying to climb that variation again. The third pitch was another fun one, a sweet 5.8+ dihedral. We didn’t linger on the summit for too long since we had some work ahead of us on the hike out. We opted for the ill-advised Cathedral Fork route instead of the scenic highland stroll up and then down to Wall Creek. There was fierce blowdown en route, and morale reached its nadir for the trip. But there were clean stretches along game trails and we managed to get back to the car just over 6 hours after leaving the lake. We saw one couple at Cathedral Lake, and otherwise did not encounter a soul for four days. It was a great trip in a remote setting with a ton of options for climbing on solid granite. Gear Notes: Medium alpine rack, 60m 9.4 rope, makers mark, pringles Approach Notes: left america and parked on the Ashnola river road. approached wall creek and grimface via the centennial trail and wall creek trail. Deproached via Cathedral Fork Creek

Thanks for the great TR and trip Steph. The highlights for me were our ridge bivy and seeing a pair of peregrines and a golden eagle near the crest on the first day.

I was up there last week and did the crossover descent. There is a sketchy rappel at the second critical routfinding point indicated on the topo. The block seems solid, but there are a lot of large, loose blocks on the rappel route. Be careful. We camped at the crossover pass and found water downhill of the pass (west). It was a stream coming off of a snowfield, draining into a pond. It was a good, clean source, as we were dehydrated at that point. We took a forested/slabby rib down instead of traversing under stumpy hill to the easier gully and ended up doing 4 rappels and some 3rd class to get down to the snow. Once in the trees, we found flagging and a faint trail, which led us left (to avoid the cliffs) and down to the stream. We lost the trail at the stream, but the bushwacking was short to find the trail up near the memorial plaque.

for those interested, the new west kootenays guidebook calls that first pitch a 5.10a, noting that it's new rating is consistent with other 5.10a climbs in the region. Hard to believe that a pitch could jump from 5.7 to 5.10a, but it does seem closer to the latter. And the tricky move around the roof higher up is 5.9, although I thought it was harder than anything else on the route.

Ian, you should do Backbone Ridge next time. It's much more enjoyable than serpentine.

well done. Wonderful photos. Thanks for getting Steve's gear. That means that Steph, Donn, and I are off the hook.