best of cc.com [TR] Bear Mountain - North Buttress: Beckey Route 07/15/2018

[mountainsloth]

Trip: Bear Mountain - North Buttress: Beckey Route

Trip Date: 07/15/2018

Trip Report:

 

Bear Mountain: Two new dads trying to keep a 10 year dream alive

For me, mountains can become obsessions, sometimes to the point of irrationality. In my life, no mountain, or route has been more indicative of this than the North Buttress of Bear.

I stumbled upon Bear in 2007 in my early days of climbing WA by devouring each page of the Beckey guides like they were some gripping novel.  Trip reports from this site only further set the dream of someday ascending this monster objective. Being nothing but a budding sport climber at the time, this peak seemed out of my grasp.

As the years went on, I honed my mountain skills. I learned to trad lead, sent my first few alpine rock routes, got on my first glaciers, and began developing the mind for the rigors of schwacking in the cascades.

By 2011,  I began thinking this dream could possibly become a reality for me. I even found a climbing partner, Andrew, who shared my dream. Each year we'd talk about making our dream a reality but each Summer would come and go without an attempt. For 5 years in a row we'd try to make plans only to see them fall through. Timing, schedules, obligations, weather, forest fires, and work all conspired against us. Fast forward to 2016, and each of us became fathers of our first children. Yet another reason to push Bear farther from our grasps. During the first year of fatherhood I discovered, although not surprised, that being a father does not easily co-exist with committing alpine objectives. My fit physique, lead head, and drive for summits began to recede like the glaciers surrounding the peaks I had grown to love so much. Over trail runs, occasional crag days, and family outings, Andrew and I still spoke of our mutual dream contrasted with our diminished abilities. One thing was clear from these conversations: the dream, and our stoke was still alive for our beloved Bear.

Spring of 2018 came around. It had been a dismal Winter of training. Trips to the crags confirmed, family obligations and our lack of training over the Fall and Winter had left both of us less than prepared to crush in the coming Summer, but we began to discuss plans for Bear as we did every year. We settled on the dates of July 13-15 and began attempting to play catch up with our training.

As the dates drew closer, one thing became certain, neither of us felt strong. But the week of July 4th came and still nothing looked to foil our set plans. So early July 13th we made the early morning drive to the end of the Chilliwack road along Chilliwack Lake in British Columbia.

The bushwhack across the border and out to bear camp lived up to its dreaded hype. Six hours of magical, rarely touched old-growth forest contrasted with the torturous efforts required to navigate and move through said forest left us bewildered and uncertain. This uncertainty as well as the contrast of beauty and torture would be a reoccurring theme over these 3 days.

From bear camp to the bivy on the western shoulder of bear is 4000 vertical feet up. A quarter of the way up, late afternoon, and we were beat. I am on liter 5 of water, schwacking in my underwear due to the heat and effort. Both of us are bonking and cursing ourselves for thinking we could pull this objective off. We were not fit. We had not trained enough. Doubt began to dominate our thoughts. It has already been 8 hours of this shit and we still had 3,000 feet of trail-less hell ahead of us. Who were we kidding? There was no way we were going to make it to camp before dark. We sat, uncomfortably, on a steep slope, in the middle of nowhere and began talking of retreat.

"Squamish isn't too far away, is it?"

"I guess we could always just crag at Mt. Erie on our way back to Seattle."

Inside, a voice screams at my exhausted brain, "MT. ERIE!!!!???? Are you fucking serious!!?? I am never coming back into this valley again. It is now or never for Bear. The dream either lives or dies on this shitty, viewless, insignificant slope."

My senses kicked back in. Remember, anything too big to fathom all at once needs to be broken into digestible chunks. The decision to push on grew from this and we decided to at least try to make it to the lake for the night and we would make the next decision from there.

 

Two hours later, after 1,000 feet of extremely steep blueberry bush pulling, we broke out into the alpine and our spirits began to soar like a vulture in a thermal updraft. It’s amazing how something as simple as alpine views can change the mindset and determination of a climber. I began to feel rejuvenated. Maybe we could make the bivy site before dark.

A heather-strewn meadow on a gentle shoulder gave us the first real physical break of the day. Panoramic views of remote North Cascade summits rose all around us. A mother Ptarmigan and her brood of chicks sprinted out of the bushes, snapping me from my alpine daze.

Discussions of a potential closer bivy site gave us a closer goal. Running on fumes, past the lower bivy spot, and we still have light. Must, keep, moving. At last, 12 hours after leaving our car, we collapsed at the col. We had made it. I promptly gave the double middle finger to the valley below, clearly showing the shit-show we just wallowed through.

We promised ourselves we would not make a decision about what to do about the next day until after we ate. Dinner went quick. As we crawled into our bags, we listened to the cacophony of a thousand tiny flying vampires trying desperately to find a way through our netting and into our skin. Twilight lit the sky with a rainbow of color. We both agreed that since we had overcome the uncertainty and brutality of what many, including us, consider the hardest approach in the Cascades, we felt obligated to throw ourselves at the North face the next morning even as our bodies screamed in opposition.

 

We awoke with the sunrise. I shook the heaviness of last nights sleep from my head and felt somewhat shocked that yesterday wasn't some dream/nightmare. I was here. We were about to start our summit day. A day we have both been dreaming of for at least 10 years. With each sip of coffee, my stoke began to rise.

We strapped on our crampons and make a quick and pleasant descent onto the north side of the mountain. We turned a corner to catch our first glimpse of Bear's north buttress. Ominous, glorious, stunning, perfection on ice. Words cannot really describe the feelings I had, but these are close.

Upon seeing both the direct north buttress and the north buttress couloir, we checked in. The direct looked safer as the couloir looked broken up near the top, but our energy levels and dismal cumulative rock pitches for the year had us thinking that the extra rock pitches might not be reasonable. We settled on following the couloir and Beckey's footsteps.

 

In hindsight, this might this might have been a bad idea, but I am pretty sure I would have said the same thing if we had taken the other option. Either way we felt the collective weight of our dreams, the debilitating approach that we vowed never to do again, and the sheer power of what we were trying to accomplish. I felt as if every step upwards tightened the grip of the vice we were in. Committed, for better or worse, to move upwards.

We switched back and forth from approach shoes to crampons a few times and quickly found ourselves in irreversible territory. There is terror and clarity in realizing the only way out of a predicament is forward.

We broke out the rope to lead our first pitch out of the couloir. A shit show of snow, poor pro behind detached blocks, and slopey ledges littered with rocks of all shapes and sizes. My rope skirted across a ledge and sent a microwave down towards Andrew. Our years of work together in the mountains gave us the foresight to expect such events and was glad Andrew had set himself out of harm’s way before I led.

We had reached the 4th class ledge system that would get us up to the North buttress proper. Kitty litter, slopey ledges, and the exposure below made for careful, calculated movements while simuling, often without adequate gear between us. Trust in each other became paramount and again I found myself thinking that I was thankful to be climbing with such a trusted partner.

At last, we reached the first real quality pitch of the route. Beckey's glorious left facing 5.8 corner. Andrew led and we both laughed at the idea of "5.8" at the top. It felt like index 5.9+ but would be an instant classic if situated at the lower town wall. We were finally finding some type 1 fun.

I linked the next two pitches of fun and deposited us at the base of the infamous 10a offwidth.

DE8DD876-06ED-4585-BEE2-4CF80B5ED29B.MOV

It was at this point that we began to feel the efforts of the pat 36 hours.

Dehydrated, low on energy, and stoke, Andrew reluctantly agreed to lead the next pitch and quickly made the decision to take the 5.8 bypass pitch. We ended up breaking this pitch into two because the lower portion of the offwidth took most of our small cams and the upper 5.8 portion looked to take nothing bigger than a .75 BD. Crap. We swapped leads under the only stance Andrew could find conveniently under a car sized detached block. I was tasked with leading over it and him without touching it. Yikes.

I led to a nice ledge and brought up my partner. Both of us feeling both physically, mentally, and emotionally drained, we began to flounder. Neither felt the desire to lead the next pitch. Bonking hard, I finally took the sharp end. Staying on the crest I mantled to the base of a steep featured, but unprotect-able face. I began to lose my cool. 15 feet above a ledge and my last piece and seeing committing climbing and no cracks above me, I retreated. Reversing the mantle had me nearly hyperventilating but I, somehow, safely made my way back to the anchor. We discussed our predicament, spied a horn with rap slings 30 feet down to our right and consulted our beta. We both thought that this was the Beckey rappel that would take us to a 4th class gully exit but our position would not allow us to confirm it. Below us, the gullies looked vertical, smooth, and crack-free. Committing to the rappel felt serious. Andrew rappelled at a diagonal across ribs, at times placing gear as directionals to reach the farthest gully.

Upon reaching the first gully, Andrew looked up. There is no way that is 4th class.

Second gully. Sweet baby jesus! It goes! Relief washed over us like a warm caribbean breeze. I rappelled down and we quickly began to lead. We both just wanted to be done with this endeavor. How quickly a dream becomes dread. My mind screamed, "Get me the fuck off this mountain!"

After two rope stretching pitches and some mid fifth climbing (another sandbag) the Sun hit our darkened spirits and the tomb I'd climbed myself out of was no more. A few hundred feet of 3rd class was all that separated us from the summit.

Elated, exhausted, and emotional, we hugged. I looked over the edge, down the north face and wept. Tears of joy, relief, and sadness fell hundreds of feet down the alpine face of my dreams. I always pictured myself feeling triumphant at this moment, but instead all I felt was relief and the intense desire to hug my wife and two year old son. We had done it. We had fought through constant moments of fear and uncertainty to obtain our dreams, but I felt far from dreamy. As we began the descent, I turned around and gave one last look at the summit of my dreams and gave it the double middle finger. I was done. I could close this chapter of my climbing pursuits.

Fatherhood has changed my drive, my dreams, and my abilities. I am unsure if I will ever climb anything like this again, but much like any overwhelming obstacle, I will take it one decision at a time. Who knows how I will feel about such commitment and risk taking in the future.

We hit a mellow snow slope and just like any decision we made that day, we assessed the terrain and made the best choice for moving forward. The joy in the glissade took me by surprise and I burst out into a giggle fit. Type 1 fun!!!! What a wild ride of emotions.

We reached our bivy a half an hour before sunset. We smiled and laughed as we recapped the day. Feeling thankful and shocked to have pulled the ascent off, we crawled into our bags, passed a joint back and forth and fell into philosophical ramblings about life and reality. What a life we live.

 

The next morning we made the long march back down to bear camp and through what felt like endless old growth shenanigans pushed by the thought of a dip in Chilliwack lake and the beer stashed there.

Upon reaching the lake we found the beer gone, hoards of people on what I thought would be a secluded beach, and leash-less dogs aggressively charging us while the owner continued to flirt with some bikini-clad girl. WTF.

I thought that was the shit-cream on top of a long and miserable day, but oh no.

Upon reaching the trailhead I saw my car in the distance but somehow it did not look like my car. The back window was missing! Someone had broken into my car! Son-of-a-bitch!

As we got closer, the horrific reality set in. My car had not only been broken into, it had been set on fire.

The tires, the windows, the interior. Everything that could have burned did. My car was a hunk of metal and nothing more! I was in disbelief. How was this possible!?? How are we going to get out of here? Is this a nightmare? Am I still in the mountain sleeping in my bag and this is some horrid hallucination fueled by the joint and exhaustion?

Nope. This was reality. Whoever did this also nearly set the entire forest on fire based on the completely burnt cedar behind my car. Jesus Fucking Christ! We could have been trapped in that valley if they had succeeded in doing so!

As my mind swirled with the gravity of our situation, the last car in the parking lot approached us and gave us a ride into town dropping us off at the Chilliwack police. After reporting what had happened, expecting surprise, they just smiled and said, "Yep, this has been happened a lot this Summer and there was little they could do about it. They gave us our police report number and directed us to a local bar and motel. I called the border to confirm they would let me back into the states without my passport (burnt in the car) and made arrangements for a friend to come pick us up.

”the urban mountaineer”

 

This trip will live in my mind till the day I die and will hopefully entertain many.

Journeys like this are great reminders for what is important in your life and just how lucky I am to be apart of this amazing planet.

Get after what fuels your soul people!

 

Gear Notes:
60 m rope Double rack tops to fist. Single 4 and a set of stoppers. Lots of alpine slings

Approach Notes:
Follow the tape till you can’t then turn on your zen and be one with the forest.

[dberdinka]

So.....that’s a great fucking trip report......Jesus.....tell us more about the car!   Insurance going to cover it?   A now permanent fixture?  Or are you in the hook to get it removed?

glad you made it home safely, that gully approach is NOT daddy terrain.

[Rad]

Wow! Thanks for the report. It falls into a special category of writing because it gives us a window into your minds and hearts. 

I see parts of myself in the mirror of your words and photos.

In the earliest days of my climbing I told myself I wasn't willing to die climbing. I only climbed rocks and never free soloed, so it seemed safe, but over the years I still found myself in more than a few 'if you screw up you die' moments.  In the Pacific Northwest, I learned that mountains harbor a lot more of those moments than cragging cliffs, and some are not easy to appreciate until you're in them.

My risk tolerance changed when I became a parent but not a huge amount. I've been a dad for over a decade now.  I still love alpine climbing, but there are lots of other things I love too. My partners and I recognize that every time we go into the mountains we are rolling the dice. We prepare, we stay on our toes, we talk things through, and sometimes we back off, but we recognize that you can do everything right and still die in the mountains.

I'm blown away that Fred climbed for about seventy years without a major accident. I don't expect to be that lucky, and I know my abilities and risk tolerance will continue their downward trend. 

And yet, I still have alpine dreams and try to get out into the mountains every year.  I'm guessing you will too. 

Thanks again.

Cheers, 

Rad

Edit: Ps. The part about your car is disturbing. I'm so sorry. Some humans suck. Karma will get them.

 

[num1mc]

Bunch of inbreeds live up there

[JBo6]

Good lord.  Congrats on the climb and that sucks about the car.  What a series of highs and lows.

[JasonG]

TR of the year!! 

Wow. 

Like Darin, I want to know about the aftermath of the car situation.  That is absolutely insane.

[Trent]

Thanks for the great TR; sorry the trip did not end on a good note.

[mountainsloth]

14 hours ago, dberdinka said:

So.....that’s a great fucking trip report......Jesus.....tell us more about the car!   Insurance going to cover it?   A now permanent fixture?  Or are you in the hook to get it removed?

glad you made it home safely, that gully approach is NOT daddy terrain.

 

Yea, my insurance covered it and they hauled away the heap of metal. Good hands with Allstate. In the end they paid off the vehicle and gave me enough to by roughly the same car with cash so in the end those tweekers got me out of car payments. All is well that ends well.

Those tweekers are living a horrid life while I continue to live a charmed life. 

Perspective and good insurance has helped me through the ordeal. 

Edited September 16, 2018 by mountainsloth

[seano-]

Great TR on an out-there objective... and what a twist ending!  I haven't gotten the tweaker vibe around Chilliwack Lake near as much as at countless other sketchy trailheads where I've parked.  It makes me think how lucky I have been not to have my "home" looted or burned in a decade of summers on the road.  Glad things turned out okay for you.

[sadoalpinist]

Hey Mountainsloth-

I remember you commenting on our TR from a few years back that you had been foiled for 8 years trying to get out there. Glad the dream came true, sorry it came at the cost of your ride (but damn that's a good story). Congrats on completing an epic(!) approach and thanks for the entertaining TR.

Eric

[mthorman]

Awesome report!  That climb has been on my list for awhile.  

The car incident reminds me of last winter when we came out from 3 nights backcountry skiing to an empty parking lot (truck was stolen).  Yea the RCMP said the same thing..."It happens all the time up there".....and I was like "maybe you should think about putting up some cameras or patrolling it more often".  Thankfully I got it back a couple weeks later though.  

[layton]

Quote

I've heard about this happening to US cars up in the Clarke range. Jesus dude, what a tale!!! 

 

[Lowell_Skoog]

I came back to CC.com after months away and found this great story....

Congrats on completing your dream. But yikes about the car!

Your story stirred memories of my climb of the same route in 1985 with Mark Bebie. We also climbed the couloir to access the upper buttress and we did Beckey's rappel to avoid the final difficulties. According to my journal, we replaced the original Beckey/Fielding piton with one of mine, then did a couple rappels to broken ledges. Three more pitches led to the summit ridge.

I still have the Beckey/Fielding piton (or at least, that's what we assumed it was at the time). Here's a picture of it. It has a diamond C stamped on it (but not really visible here).

Edited September 20, 2018 by Lowell_Skoog

[Bronco]

Crazy ending to a great TR!  

 

[mountainsloth]

4 hours ago, Lowell_Skoog said:

I came back to CC.com after months away and found this great story....

Congrats on completing your dream. But yikes about the car!

Your story stirred memories of my climb of the same route in 1985 with Mark Bebie. We also climbed the couloir to access the upper buttress and we did Beckey's rappel to avoid the final difficulties. According to my journal, we replaced the original Beckey piton with one of mine, then did a couple rappels to broken ledges. Three more pitches led to the summit ridge.

I still have the Beckey piton (or at least, that's what we assumed it was at the time). Here's a picture of it. It has a diamond C stamped on it (but not really visible here).

Hey Lowell,

Thanks.

Cool bit of Beckey memorabilia. I don’t recall wrapping off of pitons. I thought We rapped off a horn or something.

1985, eh? I wonder what the snow conditions of the gully back then. We were commenting on the obvious evidence of receding “glacier”. It certainly made for some sketchy climbing and I don’t recommend it unless you are maybe climbing it in early June.

 

[mountainsloth]

On 9/16/2018 at 12:33 AM, Rad said:

Wow! Thanks for the report. It falls into a special category of writing because it gives us a window into your minds and hearts. 

I see parts of myself in the mirror of your words and photos.

In the earliest days of my climbing I told myself I wasn't willing to die climbing. I only climbed rocks and never free soloed, so it seemed safe, but over the years I still found myself in more than a few 'if you screw up you die' moments.  In the Pacific Northwest, I learned that mountains harbor a lot more of those moments than cragging cliffs, and some are not easy to appreciate until you're in them.

My risk tolerance changed when I became a parent but not a huge amount. I've been a dad for over a decade now.  I still love alpine climbing, but there are lots of other things I love too. My partners and I recognize that every time we go into the mountains we are rolling the dice. We prepare, we stay on our toes, we talk things through, and sometimes we back off, but we recognize that you can do everything right and still die in the mountains.

I'm blown away that Fred climbed for about seventy without a major accident. I don't expect to be that lucky, and I know my abilities and risk tolerance will continue their downward trend. 

And yet, I still have alpine dreams and try to get out into the mountains every year.  I'm guessing you will too. 

Thanks again.

Cheers, 

Rad

Edit: Ps. The part about your car is disturbing. I'm so sorry. Some humans suck. Karma will get them.

 

Well said Rad. Risk used to be a lot easier to roll with these days but the lure is so enticing.

As for Fred, I think his lack of injury or death as the backbone of his legendary status. 

[olyclimber]

Holy crap!  What a story.  Thanks to who ever tagged it as a best of.

i can’t imagine the feeling of waking up to the car.  But good for you for not making that the story, but a footnote to a great trip.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Wow, I'm not sure I still want to go there, but there are plenty of other things still on the list!  What a great TR!

[sredgar]

Amazing TR!  Congratulations on a chasing your long-term dream.

[robertm]

Nice!  Bear is a lot of work...  I can only imagine how much worse the "trail" is from when we did it back 10+ years ago!

 

 

[bellows]

Wow, fantastic trip report.  I always find it interesting how quickly the "get me the f*ck off this mountain" moments seem to change a few days later at the office to "get me the f*ck on that mountain" thoughts.  

[Doink]

Great pics. 

Funny how that camp spot is a mosquito haven.  I was going to nap there after arriving in the morning,  but the mosquitoes were so bad I had to get moving to avoid them, so I went up the scramble route on Bear.

Did you guys go to the summit? If so, any pics of the elevator shaft and the one class 4 move up there? I was rationing pics when I was up there and didn't get any shots of that stuff (google "film" if you don't know why someone would have to ration pics).

Good job having comprehensive coverage on your insurance policy. It probably cost you around 70 bucks for 6 months, and it replaced your vehicle for you.  Without comprehensive, you would still have your 70 bucks, but no car. People hate on insurance, but it's a beautiful thing to have when you need it.

[JasonG]

12 minutes ago, Doink said:

any pics of the elevator shaft

That thing is crazy!!!  I'll have to go back thru my slides to see if I have any.  I have fond memories of dropping rocks thru it and watching them touch nothing for a very long time.

[num1mc]

What's the elevator shaft?

[JasonG]

12 hours ago, num1mc said:

What's the elevator shaft?

A fully enclosed (all four sides) bombay chimney in the upper summit ridge, right above one of the Doorish routes (I think)..  The final bit of the Diamond overhangs so dropping rocks down the chimney means they don't touch anything for a long way. It is totally wild, and completely unique in my Cascadian ramblings.