SethAdams

Trip: Joffre Peak - Flavelle-Lane Date: 8/15/2010 Trip Report: I don't usually bother to post trip reports as I mostly climb well-traveled routes, but this route received an utter shellacking in one of the other two TRs on here, so I thought I'd post with our different experience. The Flavelle-Lane is on a small rib immediately right of the Central Couloir of Joffre. My friend Nick Elson had heard through the grapevine that local hardman Bruce Kay said it was the best route in the Joffre group, so we checked it out. The route description in Kevin McLane's Alpine Select is accurate. Crampons were necessary on the approach. After scrambling some very unpleasant choss, we got to the business, a splitter 5.9 corner on excellent rock that has one strenuous move at the end. The next pitch was hard - on top-rope I thought it to be a sandbag at 5.9. The climbing is intimidating, steep face-climbing on very good rock with good holds and protection, but both the pro and holds are impossible to see more than a move or two ahead which makes for a challenging onsight. Nick is a very good rock climber and thought it was the scariest 5.9 he'd ever led. After that pitch I ran together two pitches of moderate but extremely-runout rock. With careful route-finding I thought it was about 5.2 whereas Nick thought the topo description of 5.7 was accurate. He probably just climbed more straight up whereas on lead I wandered around a lot. The next pitch was up a shallow depression. The climbing probably would have been easier in the corner itself (right of where Nick went in this photo), albeit a bit chossier. The next pitch was a really good corner. The Nick put on boots and kicked across a snowpatch and up a short step to the ridge above the Central Pillar of Joffre. I walked under it in my rock shoes on top rope, then ran a few more pitches of 4th class (some loose rock) to the summit. After a pleasant but short walk down the Southwest Buttress we went skiers left into some snow slopes, which were tedious and unpleasant (no photos). We easily day-tripped the route from Squamish. Perhaps my impression of the route is skewed by the low expectations I had going into it, but I thought it was among the better rock climbs I've done on the coast (by the same logic, I'm frequently disappointed by the mega-classic climbs). I thought the rock was excellent and the climbing interesting. Go do it! Gear Notes: Crampons, ice ax. We had a couple of knife blades and used them in one anchor, but we were taking a hammer (my ice ax) anyway. If you weren't taking a hammer, you could live without the pins. Approach Notes: Summer trail to Keith's Hut, up vague trails toward the mountain, then traverse right under the N. Face on heather slopes to the glacier. Be careful on the glacier, the serac on the left was quite active and spewed embedded rocks all day.

I thought I'd dredge this thread up since my friend Neale Postma and I used it for beta when we climbed the route about a month ago (thanks for the TR). We had a hard time finding the route, and as a result did a lot of exploring. Since no one has answered robertm's question: "What is the right way? Is it to not traverse as far over and head up? It looked pretty steep all along the way. Or were we at the wrong traverse? I guess I will need to climb it again to figure it out." I thought I'd post up with what we found out. If you find the Red Dihedral, you're on the wrong traverse. That traverse starts two short (probably better as one long) pitches above the top of the crux dihedral, and is obvious from the belay. We went that way first and I led around the corner to see the dihedral, where you enter a patch of increasingly bad rock (I actually don't know how you even managed to get in the dihedral since the rock was too bad for me to even fathom getting over there). We had the benefit of knowing that that pitch is off-route, and so we went back. INSTEAD of doing the first, obvious traverse (which robertm posted a picture of in this TR), continue up the slightly grassy corner with sparse pro. At the top of the corner a short section of thin 5.9 goes right (I got some lousy nuts as my only pro for these moves) and mantles over to a belay. Now the correct traverse is obvious, and has an awkward 5.9 move. At some point it opens up and becomes obviously 4th/low 5th for a few rope lengths up to the snow patch on the big ledge. Our experience on the route was somewhat marred by a lot of route finding trouble and a huge number of loose blocks. When I came back my assessment of the route is that I wouldn't recommend it, but, as usual, now I've forgotten about all that and wistfully think that I should do it again. One other note: on the hike in we followed the remnants of the "trail", but on the way out we took advantage of the hot days and the low water in the Chilliwack River and just walked in the river, linking up the gravel bars. We rarely waded more than knee deep and only dipped in the Family Jewels once or twice. This was clearly the way to go, and might be easier on the way in, as well.

Climbed it last week. Paved pullout, per what Drew says. Then walk back up the highway about 10 seconds to a cairn sitting on the concrete barrier. Vague, loose trail going down. Trend left, and follow an obvious trail and cairns. A fixed rope will get you to the base of the arete, which is obvious. ...it can't possibly be less hassle to rap in, since the walk is a breeze. Great route - good clean fun.

You wouldn't want to downclimb the rappel itself - its steep and the rock is really loose. You might be able to scramble down a bit further to the west (towards Slesse Creek) or do the "exposed heather traverse" (described in Jer Frimer's topo) which would probably be casual with snow on it wearing crampons. I've also heard the heather traverse isn't as bad as Jeremy says, but I heard that from a 5.14 heather climber. Jer's topo: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/839067/Slesse_Crossover_Pass_Descent_

As I wrote here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/877927/Chilliwack_Lake_Road_Blocked#Post877927 The Chilliwack Lake Road is blocked 1.5 kilometers past the end of the pavement near the head (north end) of Chilliwack Lake. This road is in BC, but accesses trails that cross back into the States.

Yesterday our trip to Mt. Spickard was turned around by a gigantic boulder perfectly blocking the Chilliwack Lake Road about 1.5km past the end of the pavement. It appeared to be pretty recent. I'm not sure how much hiking this would add to an approach, but probably at least 10k. A bike could be carried over, but I'm not sure about the road past that. I have no idea if there are plans to re-open the road. This affects access to Spickard, Redoubt, the Moxes, Bear and the others in the neighborhood.