[TR] Cathedral Park TR- New Route on Matriarch, M to G traverse and Deacon 7/2/2004

[Dru]

Climb: Cathedral Park TR-New Route on Matriarch, M to G traverse and Deacon

 

Date of Climb: 7/2/2004

 

Trip Report:

I went on a 3 day alpine rock trip to Cathedral Park with Mer.

 

Day 1: hiked in via Wall Creek. 4.5 hours to the world's nicest basecamp in a forested meadow with running water, boulders and snafflehounds.

 

Weather was a bit iffy so we went bouldering in the meadows for the rest of the afternoon and did some scoping for the next day.

 

I made dinner and burned the soup

 

Day 2 (Saturday): Hiked up to the SW face of Matriarch and climbed a new 4-pitch 5.8+ line to the left of the Lady Fanny of Omaha route. We soloed the first 25m pitch of 4th class/5.4 ish rock. Mer led a 40m pitch of 5.7 in her hiking boots (mostly easy with two 5.7 moves at the end of the pitch). I led a 35m pitch of 5.8 and Mer finished off with a 30m 5.8+ pitch which put us on the summit ridge right below Matriarch's summit block. Then we unroped and scrambled along the Matriarch to Grimface traverse. We used ropes only for the rappels, the 15 foot bolt ladder on Macabre, and for one silly section where a rap rope got stuck and I had to rap into a gloomy chasm and penji onto a chockstone and then prussik out

 

The views were cool from Yak Peak area, to Silver Star and the Wine Spires, to the Okanagan.

 

Did some more scoping of lines on the unclimbed true south face of Grimface during the descent. Bring 5.12 skills, a garden trowel and dipping sauce for granite taco chips if planning an ascent here.

 

 

Mer made dinner and we had a contest to see if either of us could finish our portions of tortellini. I think the snafflehounds won because they were fed the leftovers.

 

Day 3 (Sunday): The weather was kind of iffy. Grimface socked in in the clouds. After an 8 AM alpine start to breakfast we hid back in the tent away from clouds of mosquitoes and water. Meanwhile a snaffle finished Mer's half-eaten granola breakfast.

 

Around 10:30 it started to clear so we hiked up to the Deacon-Denture col and saw a very large and imposing goat. Then we 2nd-classed it up granite ridge to Deacon summit and examined all the granite in the vicinity including the Doorish 5.11 on the Deacon's east face. Lotsa unclimbed rock here too. Shhh don't tell ANYONE!!!

 

Hiked back down to camp - packed up - hiked out to car - swim in the river BRRR shrinkage - drove into Keremeos to eat cherries!

 

Home before midnight

 

Pics to follow.

 

 

GEAR NOTES hexes, nuts, cams, ropes, slings and trekking poles

 

APPROACH NOTES the trail is a swamp! prepare for wading through mud.

Edited July 5, 2004 by Dru

[layton]

sounds like fun, only 4.5 hours to basecamp?!?

shit in my mouth!

[Dru]

i lied, it's more like 12 or 13 hours. don't go there! aside from the crowds of people there are horrendous bug clouds, rabid grizzly bears, park rangers behind every tree asking for permits, and the rock is pure choss. probably the worst area of the cascades. stay away, stay far away!

[Mer]

What, you rob me of the glory of a 5.8+ ascent? It was me, me, me, on that astounding new 4-pitch line. Besides, I think I’d rather be associated with your internet silliness than the triple X imaginings of posters on this board.

 

I didn’t get home until one, but I did get to see the moonrise, looking all big and yellow through the smoke and smog.

[layton]

I heard it was more like 5.8-

[Dru]

Mer's secret identity is no longer a secret

 

I'm going to edit the trip report. Now this will make no sense to ANYONE

Edited July 5, 2004 by Dru

[Dru]

 

Hiking in with the Line in green.

 

 

Mer finishing up the 3rd pitch

 

 

...and leading the 4th pitch crux. 5.8+ glory

 

 

In the NE chimney of Grimface. Chockstone heaven.

 

 

On Grimface summit looking south to Deacon, Pope and Cathedral

 

 

Grimface south face from the descent.

[EWolfe]

Looks like a nice clean route! The dihedral looks really nice

 

(Not like that choss we were on last weekend )

 

[Stefan]

I have never been in there. Does the road to the lake require high clearance vehicles or can a small Honda Civic make it?

[Dru]

The road to the lake requires a PRIVATE LODGE JEEP (closed to public vehicle usage) or a 5 hour hike.

 

We were on the other side of the divide in Wall Creek which has a swampy "trail" and no crowds.

[Stefan]

Sorry. My bad on your route write up. Great pictures.

 

Private roads suck.

[Dru]

I'm OK with the private road although i'd rather see no road. it keeps the tourons conveniently located in a part of the park far away from the climbing area.