[TR] Slesse/Yak- NEB/Yak Check 7/25/2004

[jshamster]

Climb: Slesse/Yak-NEB/Yak Check

 

Date of Climb: 7/25/2004

 

Trip Report:

This is a bit late, but I been outside.

frostythetradman & I drove to the Chilliwack River Valley Tuesday afternoon to climb the NEB on Slesse Wednesday. We brought mtn. bikes for the ride back to the car after decent & locked them to a tree near where they are repairing the bridge on the Slesse Creek rd. We then proceeded as far as the Subaru could take us, about 2km from the trailhead. That evening we carried all climbing gear up the trail about 2hrs in order to have an easy hike in the morning. Got a few hours sleep & left the car at 2:15am. Wore short sleeves & knickers from 2:30am on. We reached the gear stash at about 4:15am and roasted the 420. On up to the propeller cairn, over the notch, across the slabs (no glacier), and on route at 7:30. We saw some Albertan hardmen on the East Face about five pitches up & a couple of days to go.

 

Overall the route is pretty straightforward. We did the entire climb in 14 pitch/block type things. Lots of rope stretchers. The top 4 or 5 pitches really make up for the rock quality in general. This route is really all about "the line."

 

So, about halfway up the route we have a kinda funny realization. We have locked our mtn. bikes to a tree and each other, but we left the key to the lock at the car. Fuck!!! Guess we get an extra 15 mile hike after the decent. Oh well, we can deal...right?

 

Route went great, decent went fine. Down to the road/bikes by 8:30pm. Stash all climbing gear with the bikes and it's time to slog the FS roads.

About 1.5 miles into the hike, there's a truck! Yes! Chilliwack samaritans agree to take to the blacktop. There's a few miles off the hike. 1/4 mile later another Chillawacker is coming down the road and ends up taking us all the way back to the car! 9:45pm, still light out, and we've climbed Slesse in a day. Great fun.

 

Next day we rolled the Subaru with the dead battery down 4 miles of dirt road & water bars & got a jump from another Chilliwack samaritan. People are awesome up there.

Time to head for Yak Peak.

 

Got to the Coquahalla summit area the evening of 7/27, and bivied across the highway from the rest area.

After an alpine start of 7am or so we found the trail and headed up Yak Check.

This is a very fun route with its fair share of chossy oatmeal & kitty litter, and splitter, easy cracks.

The only real downer about Yak Check is that the crux .10a pitches are really 5.8 & 5.7 respectively. Still, a really fun climb.

Back to car about 2pm, and home to B'ham.

 

Gear Notes:

8.6mm double ropes. one single rope would be fine.

medium rack

approch shoes

light rain jacket & wind shirt (never used)

gu & water & salami samwiches

 

Approach Notes:

easy, but time consuming

initial slabs after notch are very dirty & slippery

river crossing at trailhead is an easy log crossing