[TR] Canadian Border Peak (CBP) - NW Route 10/15/2022

[geosean]

Trip: Canadian Border Peak (CBP) - NW Route

Trip Date: 10/15/2022

Trip Report:

Me and the boys, @Albuquerque Fred and Mike G, were at it again, this time we headed to the Great White North to climb Canadian Border Peak, on a record hot October day.

We took Tamihi Creek Road to the drive able end at 2760' and began the hike up the road in the unseasonable heat and thick smoke from fires over in the upper Chilliwack valley. We hiked the road past 8 switchbacks to the distinct and at 5250', then plunged into the brush straight up to the ridge crest at 5700'. 

The brush wasn't as bad as we expected, but I could see if the blueberries and fireweed were wet it could be unpleasant; about half of it is brushy and the other half is reasonable forest.

From the ridge crest we followed the ridge on a heather walk with a short scramble over a knob to the distinct NW shoulder of the peak. From this point the only beta we could find, Beckey, is pretty confusing. Even now rereading it I can't make any sense of his direction. 

Nonetheless, the route finding is actually very straightforward; go up gullies, trending right into different gullies when necessary, until there is a major buttress to your right and your looking up an intimidatingly steep gully with slabs and a huge dihedral making the left side. We scrambled up this on 3rd and 4th class terrain with loose rubble on top of everything, the rock is mostly sound, just covered in debris.

Just below a flat spot in the NW shoulder (your left) you enter a boulder field with precarious rocks, we continued up this where the NW buttress basically merges into the rest of the mountain.

Here is the crux pitch, a slab with wandering shallow cracks left of a bulgey off width layback/dihedral. It has been reported at 5.6. We scrambled (soloed) up broken ground about 50' to the right on blocks and good cracks. I call it 5.4 but with lots of holds and variations. Go up about 60', then work left on a slabby ledge into the gully where the crux pitch tops out at another buttress shoulder.

From here it's up another gully with a step out to the right. This looked way more intimidating than it was and we weren't sure it would go, but there are ample holds to keep it fourth class. Up from there is an easy boulder field to the summit.

We hung out on the summit watching the smoke gradually envelop the nearby peaks until we decided it was better to get down.

From the base of the summit boulder field we made one 30m rap to the shoulder at the top of the crux pitch, then another ~20m rap to the boulder field below the crux.

From here it was all careful down climbing and staying out of each other's fall line back to the easy heather ridge.

On the way out we met lots of friendly dirt bikers that were clearing the brush from the sides of the old road, by now it's probably even more chill than the way up.

All in all it wasn't nearly as bad as advertised, glad to have done it, probably won't go back. Incidentally, this climb was way better than American Border Peak. (This is not editorializing on politics or society).

8 hours car to car.

9 miles, about 4500' gain.

 

Fred on approach, it's the one on the left:

 

Mike scrambling slabs with debris:

 

The crux is the dihedral just left of center, we soloed through the light rock to below the crack at center:

 

The major gulley with huge dihedral on climber's left:

Gear Notes:
2 30m ropes. Helmets!

Approach Notes:
The road is all brushed out and easy.

[JasonG]

Cool! I've always wondered about that one.  I sort of liked ABP, so this sounds great!

[geosean]

15 hours ago, JasonG said:

I sort of liked ABP

Are you insane! I mean I like challenging blue collar climbing, but wow. The approach/deproach to ABP was brutal.

[JasonG]

6 hours ago, geosean said:

The approach/deproach to ABP was brutal.

Oh, I just thought that was because the scree/talus was covered in verglas when we did it one fall.  Otherwise, I liked it!  But nobody ever accused me of being normal.

[JasonG]

Maybe it was that I loved the drama of a dusting of snow

Sorry, hijacking your TR!

[tanstaafl]

Is the brush less atrocious late in the fall?  Or is that something you like?

[JasonG]

29 minutes ago, tanstaafl said:

Or is that something you like?

Believe it or not, I don't like brush.  But I do love good fall colors and a bite in the air.  And my thinking was that the steep snow of summer would be more annoying than the talus/scree of fall.  I could be wrong!

[seano-]

On 10/17/2022 at 1:25 PM, geosean said:

Are you insane! I mean I like challenging blue collar climbing, but wow. The approach/deproach to ABP was brutal.

I'm with my fellow Sean -- what's wrong with you, man?!  I like to think I'm a decent chossineer, but even before thrashing back home through the valley to the west, I knew ABP was one for the "never again" bin.  I had hoped to do CBP on the same outing, but ABP beat me down.  Good to know that those Canadian logging roads are cruiser if I come back for it from the Great White North.

[JasonG]

3 hours ago, seano- said:

I'm with my fellow Sean -- what's wrong with you, man?!

I love this!  Choss shamed by none other than the legendary @seano-.  This is a special day for me!!!

And @seano-, that is the @runningdog in the photo above.  You ran into both of us on Forbidden last year,  or was it the year before?  It was SO GREAT to see you out there in the hills!!

[geosean]

Haha, wow, I never expected Seano to back me up on ABP! I love your mountaineering style man, very classy in an oh-my-god-i-cant-believe-he-did-that way.

[seano-]

18 hours ago, JasonG said:

I love this!  Choss shamed by none other than the legendary @seano-.  This is a special day for me!!!

And @seano-, that is the @runningdog in the photo above.  You ran into both of us on Forbidden last year,  or was it the year before?  It was SO GREAT to see you out there in the hills!!

I had to check, but that was only last year -- how time flies!  I enjoyed meeting you, a legend in your own right for your dedication to exploring interesting corners of the Cascades, whether famous or obscure.  There was no shame intended; we all like what we like, as illustrated by my unusual affection for the north ridge of Johannesburg.  Maybe I was just feeling off that day, or maybe the traverse from Larrabee wore my patience down, but... dang.  That was a whole lot of dinner plates held together with mud.

[olyclimber]

that last pic: I found Waldo!