HHinkkala

Looks like a fun time! Did you use the number #4 on pitch 1 at the start of the steep crack/corner?

Looks like a great trip and great photos! I've been pondering a trip in the pickets for sometime now... Regarding the late return / emergency response, I would highly recommend the Delorme InReach Explorer...allows you to send and receive text or emails via satellite and it is also a PLB and GPS in a single unit... I've used one this summer and it is exceptional.

Looks like a great outing!

That was a really fun route, a must do for people who are in the area!

Hey Jason, i'm glad if this TR could help others heading onto this route, I appreciated the info i was able to find from other peoples contributions. You could certainly simul the black towers and weave through all the bolted anchors if that gave more comfort going over this terrain, there did appear to be spots for decent protection/cracks but it seemed very spaced out between the anchors. The climbing is easy but since there is much loose rock we thought it would be safer to climb close to each other to minimize the hazard that loose/falling rocks/pebbles would cause to the follower, and we did release rubble as we ascended... My recommendation for people less comfortable on the terrain in the black towers would be to free solo near your partner wearing your rock shoes, rather then wearing boots like we did...you will likely climb faster and more safely with shoes.

Thanks, this was definitely a fun climb. I think the key to getting this route done in a reasonable time is free soloing everything except the big step (and little step)...There is just so much rock to climb over so if you have to pitch anything else out it will eat up lots of time, which may be necessary if it starts to rain... I believe I recall the book saying the average time for this route was 14-16hrs??

Trip: Mount Temple - Rockies - East Ridge Date: 8/12/2014 Trip Report: Hunter and I had planned a weeklong trip into the interior of BC/Rockies to try and climb some routes that had been on our radar for a few years. We had intended on South Ridge of Gimli, East Ridge of Temple and if weather held perhaps a line or two in the Bugs or Mount Louise but weather turned us home after Temple. After having a great time on Gimli (Aug 10) Hunter and I drove to Lake Louise to check into the hostel (which was super nice!) and scope out the approach for the following day (Aug 12). We noted that the weather was forecasted to deteriorate starting Tuesday evening so we hoped that we would at least have reasonable weather on the ascent. Hunter and I spent a fair amount of time going over trip reports and info to try and minimize the difficulties with route finding. For the most part we didn’t have any major issues during the climb but there are certainly many variations on this route, especially on the lower part of the ridge. From the information we gathered the most critical routefinding portion of the East ridge is knowing where exactly to enter into the black towers and up to the summit ridge, I read several stories on epics and rescues from people heading up the wrong gully(s). At 4:15am the next day Hunter and I started from the pullout located about 100m north from the main slide path at the base of the East ridge as mentioned in the 11,000ers book (seen easily from Google earth and in the photo of Hunter below). There was another party that started shortly before us and we followed them up the slide path, which takes you up into a broad gully. In the dark we scrambled up this gully until a few carrions led us out of the gully to the right and onto more face climbing. At this point we passed the other party and we juggled our way through various ledges going left, then right at times until we popped out onto the prominent beginning of the East Ridge with good views all around as the morning light started to fade in. I noted that the other party came up a different way, more to the climber’s right, and caught up with us as we were beginning the ridge. So the correct way from this location, it seemed to us anyways, was to travel approx 60m horizontally to the right into a large, loose, gully. Hunter and I started upwards a little to early and wound up scrambling vertical terrain until we realized it was best to traverse into that gully. This gully went up for a few rope lengths until you got to another broad ledge below the steep ridge. At this location we again followed a carrion rightward on a ledge for around 50m and then we climbed up, angling left back toward the ridge proper. This brought us to the ridge top where we carried on scrambling easy terrain to the base of what we understood was the little step. Hunter coming up the lower ridge Me heading up the little step as morning sunlight catches us on the ridge There are a few short vertical moves that get you over this section. We roped up for this pitch and noticed from below that someone had placed a bolt at the crux move (In fact all belays on the big step and the black towers had bolted belays). After quickly climbing over the little step we were greeted with our first views of the big step and the rest of the upper mountain. Here we briefly walked along the ridge, up a short gully between the next bump, and in no time we we standing under the big step, at around 7:30am. First views of the big step and the upper mountain Our line up the big step with belay locations in yellow From below the line didn't seem obvious until we started climbing it. It looks steep, and it is, but there are jugs everywhere. The summit post description for the next 4 pitches turned out to be very accurate and was very helpful. The climbing never seemed harder then 5.7 and the protection was quite reasonable with a few run outs. Hunter took the first pitch (25m) which started just left of the ridge crest and ended at a belay station on nice ledge on top of a large block. The other party started the 1st pitch after us but we never saw them after that and we weren’t sure what happened, if they bailed or continued?? Hunter on the 1st pitch of the big step On the 2nd pitch (50m) I climbed up and left of the belay for about 3m then continued left of the ridge crest until near the end I went around right of the crest to another large ledge and the belay. Unfortunately a yellow metolious cam I placed walked far into a crack and is now fixed for future parties. Heading up the 2nd pitch The 3rd pitch was short (20m) and Hunter went up and then right to a large broad ledge where he brought me up. Thereafter, as the route description says, we headed left on a ledge to a long easy gully that we simul climbed for one rope legth up to the last technical part of this section. The last pitch was 25m and went up the obvious steep and dark chimney which had two short cruxes, one on the far right corner and one topping out. Hunter heading up the steep and dark chimney on the 4rth pitch After this chimney we went left and quickly walked up easy terrain to the crest where we could now see the final portion of the route heading up to the black towers. Time was now 10:00am. View of our route to the black towers, final gully obscured by a buttress. Here we changed back to our boots, put the rope away, and scrambled the rest of the easy terrain up to the top of the ridge where it ended at a headwall with the traverse toward the black towers appearing obvious to our left, at spots on this last ridge section we went right of the ridge crest, then back on top. Heading now on this scree ledge toward the black towers there was a visible track in the scree where other parties had begun the traverse prior. We headed along this track along the ledges to a location where there was a good size creek originating from the snow melt above, which we used to fill our bottles and rehydrate. At the creek we scrambled to the upper ledge which still had snow. We walked about 80m in the moat leftward where we came across the large and distinct flake which signals the proper way up the black towers. There is a bolted anchor at the top of the flake. The actual gully in the black towers that we ascended was fairly obscured on the approach by a buttress so it wasn’t completely evident where we would exactly be climbing until we were standing underneath. The critical flake/chimney that has a bolted anchor at the top, providing the proper access up the black towers. We thought the most difficult moves in the black towers was the short dark corner seen directly above this flake, easy low 5th. We opted to continue free soloing unless we encountered terrain warranting a rope. I think the most difficult part of the black towers was probably the first pitch, with a steep corner. The rest of the 4-5 pitches were fairly mellow (4rth-low 5th) but I would add a little disconcerting. The topo accurately describes this section of the mountain when it says to climb the gully on downward sloping holds covered in gravel. This part of the route is easy but very loose with pea gravel on every hold. Nevertheless we worked our way up into the main gully (shown best on the MCR photo outline http://informalex.org/mharc/html/MCR/2011-08/jpgeea8MYP0Q9.jpg) and followed it to the end and topped out on the summit ridge at 12:00pm. Final pitches up the black tower are on loose gravely edges On the summit ridge we put on crampons and with ice axes we strolled over varied ice, snow and cornices to the summit with minimal difficulty arriving at 1:30pm, roughly 9hrs from the car. The skies were becoming overcast quickly and fearing rain we took some photos and then began our descent down the hikers trail and down the road back to our car. With several breaks and chit chats with other hikers we got back to our car around 4hrs from the top. Final walk up to the summit via the snow/ice ridge Overall the East Ridge is a beautiful line but like everyone knows is very loose in places. It is also fairly long and committing such that retreat off the route higher up would be troublesome. We brought a single set of cams (plus x2 red and yellow link cams), half set nuts, x8 runners, x2 pitons (didn’t need) and x2 screws for upper glacier (didn’t need), rock shoes for the big step and a single rope. Cheers, Henrik

Great TR, was thinking about heading up price next spring but with skies to make the descent more enjoyable...surprised it was still in condition this late into the summer. Nooksack Tower is also on my hit list...glad to see you were able to tie them both into one trip!

Appreciate all the positive feedback. It was great day on a fun route. Stolz could comment more on the system, nevertheless this was my first time utilizing it and i have to say it worked incredibly well. I would also argue much safer then standard simul-climbing since it protects the leader. The tibloc doesn't generate any considerable drag, but you still want that piece to be centered with your chosen line, if at all possible. Regarding placing a tibloc near a hard move, this doesn't really matter since you always have a tibloc above the follower so the leader is protected from a fall by the second regardless of where the second is climbing. Regarding the system, the key with the tibloc placement is to have minimal movement at the tibloc to prevent possibility of shock load or weight transferred onto the leader, never use long slings, the closer the tibloc is to the rock placement the better, e.g. biner is clipped to the hard plastic loop of the cam. Again the tiblocs are there to protect the leader from a fall by the seconder. For the second, they are anchored only to the rope with a gri-gri, with 20ish meters of rope below which provides weight to help the gri-gri move better along the rope. This allows them the ability to adjust the rope as needed to always maintain minimal slack in the system, and pay out more if required, say if 2ndr arrives at tibloc and the leader hasn't installed another. We had x3 tiblocs with us so it allowed each person to essentially lead 4+ pitches of climbing in one consistent motion before we switched leaders (hindsight we should have brought one more). Be advised with any system there is inherent risk, this is merely one method that allows a team to move very quickly through moderate terrain as long as you are comfortable at the grade. Cheers!

Trip: Chehalis Range - BC - South Face - Viennese Peak Date: 7/2/2014 Trip Report: After some back and forth on prospective routes for the long weekend, coupled with the poor weather forecasted for Sat-Sun, the South Face of Viennese in the Chehalis became the objective for Mon-Wed. Early Monday morning Hunter and I began the drive up the Harrison Forest Service road on route to the Statlu lake trail that would give access to the area. I was not successful in finding an available trip report for this route so hopefully what I have put together might offer future parties some assistance. I get the impression that this area has been seldom visited in recent few years, which seems surprising given quality of the routes found in here. For the approach hike we utilized the following club tread link as a resource on how to get to upper Statlu Lake, as well as the drive in, and found it to be very useful for someone completely new to the area http://www.clubtread.com/routes/Route.aspx?Route=68. Log Bridge on approach to Statlu Lake Statlu Lake We started hiking around 9am and made our way to the upper Statlu lake, this is where I would say the official “trail” disappears and climbers are left to find their own way into the alpine, although a few lonely carrions can be seen along the way. McLane’s SW BC Alpine Select has info on which drainage to hike toward, I have marked this on one of the photos taken when you gain decent views of the upper basin. Views of the upper basin of Viennese Peak, gully to ascend follows red arrow. Once we got to the end of the trail at the upper lake we turned right and followed a 1-2m wide rocky outcrop upstream for about 100m, then at a nondescript location turned left through 30m of heavy brush to cross over an initial creek. This put us into the main rocky drainage which was clear of bush, I placed a carrion on a log here to mark where to turn back into the bush. As mentioned in McLane’s Alpine Select we followed this rocky drainage upward for about 150m until we took the first left fork that turned us into the direction we needed to go. This fork followed a rocky creek that brought us to a good size waterfall, approximately 30-40m tall. This rocky creek was also free of bush up to the waterfall. We walked/scrambled along the creek boulders/rock on the left hand side below the falls until we got cliffed out, then we turned left into the bush. In here there is a very faint trail where after around 30m there is a short section that has a few body lengths of vertical tree/bush climbing to gain the top of the cliff. There is also another smaller waterfall about 20m to your left to help gauge that you are in the right location. After this short treed climb we were above the cliff where the waterfalls run over. Once you pop out of the vertical bush a faint trail takes you right for about 15m and you will see a carrion at the bottom of a small creek, with a small clearing, this carrion is important to remember on the return. From this carrion you head straight up the small creek uphill which takes you onto the slabs that ultimately provide access to the main basin below the South Face. Carrions are located periodically as you ascend. Hunter and I reached the snow above the slabs and looked for a flat and dry bivy spot but in the end we had to back track and head down descenders right into a treed area where we found x2 downward sloping bivy swales in the slabs, as could be best described... actually turned out to be quite comfortable. It took us around 6-7hrs to reach the bivy from the vehicle. View of our bivy site on the slabs The following morning, after a quick breakfast and gear sort, we left camp at 5:30am. Upon gaining the snow above the slabs we immediately realized that with the warm temperatures crampons were not going to be required, we ditched them here. We then walked up the rest of the soft snow to the berg at the base of the route. It took us around 1/2 hr to get to base of the climb from our bivy. There are certainly a lot of options on this face for route finding. We tried our best to start near the plumb line below the main dihedral with the intention on the first 2 pitches to weave left and back right into it like it was shown in the topo from McLane’s Alpine Select, but we didn’t follow this exactly but it worked out in the end. Red is the approx line we took, blue is my interpretation of the topo... Hunter starting the first pitch off the berg Hunter took the first pitch which took him left of the dihedral (55m). The next pitch I opted not to climb upward but went horizontally right for about 10m to get back into the groove below the dihedral. Then I went straight up for a bit until I found no more pro in the main corner. I then went right, over a roof, then back left into the main groove and built a reasonable belay with 2 cams and a nut (40m and serious rope drag). This put us at the beginning of the large main dihedral seen in the middle of the South face. Hunter coming up the 2nd pitch From here the topo describes the route heading rightward onto a rib. Hunter continued up the dihedral for a short ways then headed right and up onto the center of the rib (55m). Hunter heading toward the dihedral on the 3rd pitch before traversing right onto the rib After this I came up to his belay, transferred gear, and started looking up at where the next pitch went. From where our belay was positioned it seemed the only good route upward was directly above our belay station over a series of vertically piled boulders that gave me the sense they could slide down onto us, and the belay, at any moment. After some serious hesitation, and tapping on these blocks to confirm they resonated (giving me the sense they were in fact loose) I simply couldn’t bring myself to climb up this vertical section since the results from dislodging these blocks would have been catastrophic. Instead I decided to traverse hard right for about 20m to bring me into the dihedral that was to the right of this rib, shown as the right side 5.9 variation in McLane’s topo. I entered this variation a little higher on the face compared to how it seems to be shown on the topo, but this worked out well. Me on the 4rth pitch getting ready to traverse out right After I had traversed on a slabby section I headed up the corner system on steep and stemming terrain (55m), with reasonable gear along the way. Unfortunately near the end of the rope I found myself in location where the belay anchor was challenging to assemble and took some time to put together. This spot required some excavation of moss/dirt for a decent nut placement as well as a dubious piton & bird beak nailed into large wedged blocks that moved slightly as I banged them in, less then inspiring but it worked, there was simply nothing else available here next to pasting some copperheads. I belayed Hunter off my harness and stood in a braced position in the corner. Hunter came up and headed up the next pitch which got a little steeper but provided for better protection, good holds also presented themselves at just the right times. Hunter finished this 5th pitch and headed leftward back toward the original line over the rib and made a belay in what I would describe as the main upper rocky basin below the summit towers (60m). Hunter heading up the steep corner Here the route has two options, either left or right. We ended up going right and took a meandering line upward for two pitches, exiting onto the East ridge. My impression is that we followed the topo fairly accurately here keeping the steep vertical headwall slightly above our left shoulder the whole time. After two easy (55m) pitches we reached the East Ridge. Photo of me finding my way toward the East Ridge Once on the ridge we scrambled un-roped for a short distance to high location where you can finally view the summit. There was a short flat spot up here to rope up again before setting off on the exposed scramble, and final summit pinnacle. Hunter put me on belay and I scrambled over toward the summit to investigate the final section. The route guide mentions traversing left around the summit on 4rth class terrain for a rope length then climbing a short 5.8 section to the summit. Well I went as far over on a sloping ledge below the summit until the ledge disappeared, as did any obvious route to traverse around, so I decided that I would try out the 5.9 direct line to the top. I wasn’t sure exactly where this went but from where I stood on the small downward sloping ledge, between the summit and a small preliminary tower on the right, I climbed a crack system below the right tower up to a location where I could reach over toward the summit. After some searching I found a small hidden hand crack on the left hand side that took a perfect .75 C4 cam and after few layback moves, followed with some mantling, I reached the summit rap station (50m including the exposed scramble). I then belayed Hunter up this last pitch. Contemplating the last section of the East ridge Photo of me finishing up the last pitch of the day to the top Its hard to beat traveling in the mountains. There was some great exposure up here Summit shot After a quick scramble to the main summit we took some photos and then did 1 rappel down from the summit pinnacle. We then backtracked to our boots and descended/downclimbed the East ridge, which was an easy scramble down. Thereafter we glissaded down the main snow couloir located just below peak 6500. It took us 11.5hrs camp to camp. Hunter just after descending the East Ridge View of the line we took and where we descended We stayed that night at our bivy and had a great snooze. The following day it took around 5hrs to hike back to the truck. A few notes on the climb: We had no idea what gear to bring so we brought a bit of everything and I can say we used almost everything we brought. • Double set of cams from small #1 blue TCU up to #2 C4, plus x1-#3 C4 cam and x1-#00 TCU. (The doubles in red and yellow C4 were link cams of similar size) • Full set of nuts plus pinky and blue tricam (blue didn’t get used) • Pitons needed for almost every belay. Brought x3 knifeblades (only need x1-2), x1 lost arrow, x1 baby angle x1 large bird beak • 12-13 draws, mixture of quick draws, screamers and extendables • We carried between 2-3 liters each of water and this lasted until we were descending the snow. It was very warm in the sun on the South facing route and we were glad we brought extra water. • We used a leader follower pack such that the follower carried all the boots. This made for a heavy follower pack but on top rope it was manageable. This route is graded 5.9 and we both agreed a lot of the climbing was in the 5.8-5.9 range. Run outs and loose rock are to be expected in sections but I would say it was never uncomfortable and when the route got steep the gear and holds revealed themselves adequately. The quality of the rock was overall really good for the mountains and I would recommend the area to others, but be prepared to bushwhack in some places, which I understand is typical for the Chehalis. Cheers, Henrik

That is a fantastic TR. Solid work!

It feels like the longest part about the approach is the drive/travel up! But yes you could certainly expect to take a little longer on the hike in if there was more/deeper snow. Maybe an extra hour or so, but really depends how consolidated the snow pack is at the time.

Spectacular! looking forward to our next adventure!

Certainly was a fantastic trip, and a good trip report. My hand/thumb appears to be recovering okay, got it stitched up and hopefully after a few weeks i may be able to start climbing again...