marc_leclerc

They just found a better way. There was a fair bit of speculation on where the logical free climb would go between us. Good on tony for making so many trips up there to price it together, and great that Jacob was stoked to go up there. Both those guys are great. Somehow I think our Chinese Puzzle wall line, while harder, is a bit more plaisir

Based on the lack of comments, people are clearly way more psyched on the 20,000th ascent of the NEB... Hats off to Tony and Jacob !

It is quite a bit busier than it used to be. The energy of the place is good though and you don't have to look to far outside the box to find quiet. Parking can be horrendous. Parking in town, or near the North Walls and riding a bike is often a nice option.

From air this April. Zoom in real close to see the missing chunk of glacier, lower right side of pocket cirque, and the angling serac wall left behind. Unfortunately a shitty photo but at least it's something. I went up there within a couple days of the slide, and saw it all cleaned right down to rock, but didn't think to take pics.

As of May I was driving to the TH in a stock sidekick without problems. There was one washout about 2-3 kms with some boulders, but easily negotiable in a jeep type vehicle. Could be better by now though. Go get it while there is still snow on crossover. Seems like an unusually sweet year for NEB! Glacier gone early and still plenty of snow on the descent to boot ski. Makes for a helluva nice ride compared to talus hopping all the way out searching for water in the hot sun. As for 2wd vs 4wd. It's nice to drive all the way to the TH, of course, but the approach is easy by alpine climbing standards and a 5km road walk add on shouldn't really be a big deal. I've walked from Chilliwack lake Rd to the mountain easily more than 20 times. Probably 15 times on skis even...

Brette and I just did this again a couple weeks ago, and were surprised by how chill it was even with some snowmelt in the gully (easy water!) It's mostly 4th class with little 5.6 sections. Took us about a hour from the third peak to the propellor cairn. That being said it requires a certain degree of 'self assuredness' with route finding on wet/loose/slippery rock. It's a lot more technical and the route finding is much less obvious than the standard descent. I liked that bugaboos shot in the original post, I was trying to figure out how in earth I missed that bit all those times!

We got lost in the fog on the way from Lower Statlu to Upper Statly and missed the lake altogether. Then we traversed Recourse, thinking we were climbing Vienesse in nearly zero visibility. It ended up being a day trip carrying bivy gear... I hope you get better weather! I would think that from the alpine bench above upper Statlu, that it would be possible to make the traverse in a day and to leave the bivy gear behind for the actual climb, light packs are always good for morale! So three days isn't a bad itinerary - one mellow paced day finding your way to a high bivy above upper Statlu, a day to do the traverse and descend to the bivy, hike out the following morning. But if you only have two days, perhaps cutting the traverse off short after recourse and hiking out the same evening would be an option if that is a suitable pace for your party. I am not usually too concerned if I have to pick my way down off a mountain by headlamp, but in the Chehalis the terrain seemed complex to the degree that I felt such an endevour would quickly become an epic... Something to keep in mind.

We watched the glacier slide three days ago from chinese puzzle wall. It was pretty f---ing awesome! NE butt should be fairly accessible now.

Good shot steph! I was there yesterday, still there. Looks passable to me but likely not a great idea, best to wait till a bit more falls off. Brette and I skirted the left side on slab and under the upper blocks in similar condish a couple years back. But it required some shoulder stands to get from one slab to another, which was actually a lot of fun. E pillar and Navigator wall are good to go!

As noted by the author, the pendulum fall is not on 'Cerberus' at all, but on Catharsis Crack, which is the first pitch of 'Labyrinth', a mostly independent and still unrepeated free route that crisis crosses over the final pitches of the aid line Wrist Twister. It is a shame that it remains unrepeated as we intentially bolted the line safely to encourage repeats, although the it is more reminiscent of the Verdon in terms of bolt spacing vs say Chek. The direct start that takes the thin crack of Wrist Twister is still a project, likely 5.14- and a bit run at times. The reason for the name Catharsis Crack is that I had initially suggested doing a 'new route' to a girl I was after, you know like an arts and crafts date for big kids who climb. She was stoked on the idea and even put in the first bolt, but a few days later told me things weren't gonna work between us. I was pretty gutted, and knowing that she really wanted to FA the route as badly as I did I went to finish the job alone as a sort of 'getting even'. The thing was that that afternoon it was raining cats and dogs, and being an undercling traverse beneath an overlap the route was quite the running waterfall! As I self belayed out the arch, laden in gore tex, ice climbing boots, ski goggles and a drill on my harness I struggled to hold my breath each time I stuck my face into the torrent to eye up the next cam placement. Eventually one of those cams ripped from the flaring fissure sending me on a pendulum fall that I can assure was quite a lot more exciting than the one in the film, it was large enough to draw a decent quantity of blood from my hands and face. After this I added some extra bolts to prevent such things from happening again, and so that people might actually climb the route as I had clearly demonstrated that the gear was 'insufficient'. Needless to say I went home that evening with much less anger in my heart, and a day or two later the girl let me know that our status had shifted from 'not happening' back to 'maybe'. I asked her if I could finish putting in the bolts, so that we could free the route together the next weekend... She agreed. Being a young impressionable climber who had missed out on the stone master era, I decided that the route ought to be bolted in proper style. And so some funny paper accompanied me on the final push to equip the line. What followed is a bit fuzzy in my memory although I remember getting into A3 terrain before remembering that I was supposed to be placing bolts, and had to back aid to get the bolts where I needed. Later I found myself unable to judge whether the edges I was trying to hook were sloping or incut, no matter how hard I concentrated the damn things kept changing shape! I passed this crux by throwing a sideways dyno out of my etriers to a small tree, which I am sure is a key hold for those who repeat the line still. This was the last time the paper ever came out on a bolting mission, I don't know how Bridwell made that all work back in the day. Anyways, the lovely lady and I freed the route a few days later finishing on Cerberus. The route was such a success that she only dumped me once more before finally deciding I was alright. Labyrinth came a couple weeks later, when my housemate Luke and I spied the dyke leading from Cerberus over to the Wrist Twister proj where the difficulties end on that line. Hopefully someone repeats that soon. It would be fun to write a condensed TR of the things we got up to around Squamish back then. But I have to wait till I'm at least 40 so I don't get fired by my sponsors for being a bad example. Anyways.... Some background on the video at least!

I'd have to disagree about the Daily Planet in Squamish. That is a typical first 12a on sight for a lot of people. Easier than the 11c pitches on Astroman I'd say. But 'Boogie Till You Puke' is a hard onsight. Lots of inobvious 180' spins off of chicken wings to get around awkward bulges and constrictions. It spat me out few times on my first go which is not normal for me on 5.10c! The Stern Farmer in index really strikes me as a nails onsight. It boggled my mind on the onsight attempt, then felt effortless once I knew how to enter the flare.

I knew the equinox was the 23rd. I have no doubt that if I tried to claim the 1st solo winter ascent of any of the Torres on the 22nd, plenty of people would be more than happy to rip into it and discredit it. Early spring it is. The climb was so fun. Just classic aesthetic climbing, never particularly hard. Just really good times in a really great place.

Hey JMS, how's it going?! I'd recommend the E ridge of Alpha in mixed conditions. Done it twice, both times great! Try to nail conditions when the trail to lake lovelywater is still dry and you can hike up with your boots in the pack. I've always stashed my shoes at the lake, and hit snow line just above. There is a short pitch of M5, usually 5.7 or 5.8 in summer. Then another slightly easier pitch above, then just really aesthetic 4th class mixed interspersed with tricky moves. Also, in similar conditions, when the peaks are icy but the road/trail is dry, the Nesakwatch spires have great mixed climbing. Good rock and protection, lots of options both easy or hard. Well worth a look!

Thanks again! I will be in touch, but it seems I may have found another pair in the correct size out here. Cheers!

Hey Einer! Sweet offer and thanks for the fast reply. Do you think they might take a Batura size 45? Or would that be too large? Cheers