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Winter Alpine Climbs


Highlander

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Boy does that man get outside or what?!!

 

Well Don, or anyone, how are they? Beckey doesn't really mention how steep the individual couloirs are, etc. I looked up the Mt.Payne climbs in the CAJ and I think I'll pass on those. I'm sure Maxim would have lots o' fun posting here, we should get him to spray too.

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The Northwest Face Couloir on Mt. Stuart is supposed to be some kind of old skool classic. Apparentley in the eighties this was a testpiece climb... Considered far more difficult than Triple Couloirs and the like.

 

Anybody done it in the last couple years?

has it been done many times? I think it is rarely in shape.

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good thread, especially at this time of year. dreary rain, gotta dream!

 

1st thought: a mentor in my early days, john howard, was a VERY keen winter climber, and used to say that if you tried REALLY hard, you could get in two winter routes 'round here in a winter. and he was right: the weather, the conditions, and your time all have to co-incide. very tough...

 

2nd thought: despite the "calendar winter" thing of dec 21-mar 22, alpine winter climbing season starts when the peaks snow up solidly (early november) and lasts till spring arrives (about end march on low peaks, end april higher up).

 

3rd thought: my top dozen:

 

hidden couloir, dragontail, apr'76, w john knight. very exciting and very exacting on the central face.

 

S ridge of welch, feb'78, solo. perfect snow, cramponning way below treeline, 6000ft from the valley in 6 hrs, racing a storm to get off, sketchy weaving down the SW face.

 

N face of the west lion, jan'79, w kevin mclane. superb bivy on lower snow-ledge, then abt 6p of intricate snowed-up rockclimbing.

 

N face slesse, jan'80, w perry beckham and john wittmayer. 21 rope-lengths, maybe 9 or 10 belays, bits of 70 degrees, scratchy sections, a 25-foot tunnel thru the cornice to finish. why aren't people climbing this route and arctic wing (1989; de jong, gibbs, macgregor) to the right every winter?

 

S ridge atwell, jan'81, w beckham, ted davis, and rob mitchell. 1600 ft of superb neve, 80m of rimed up fright on the summit with only terrain runners/belays.

 

N couloir rideout, jan'83, w joe bajan and joe buszowski. what a powerful line! 2700ft in the gully, 45d-50d with 2p mixed/rock/ice low down.

 

judge's route, arrowsmith, feb'86, w peter croft and greg foweraker. 3000 ft of superb crisp cramponning from way below treeline, weaving amongst buttresses, the lower world immersed in a cloud-sea, waddington distant to the north.

 

NW face on knight, apr'87, w bruce kay. the best of them all. 6p or 7p of 60d-80d runnels, then a scratchy exit right, then a scary warm snowfield to the cornice.

 

tantalus traverse, feb'89, w beckham and foweraker. effing cold; tantalus, serratus, alpha, and out in 4 perfect days. better than foley, welch, stewart, knight in 3 days w dave jones in nov'79.

 

the thousand metre gully on the N face of cdn border peak, mar'90, w tom gilchrist, craig hollinger, and bill noble. superb cramponning from the valley, a cpl short hard snowy rock pitches up top.

 

E face payne, mar'92, w helen habgood, bob koen, and rob nugent. 1400ft of 45d-55d, with 3 short WI3 steps; safer than the beckey/landreville to the left.

 

SW ridge skihist, feb'93, w darren melnychuk. 2 days approach dragging sleds up logging roads, another day to antimony lake, a final day to the highest summit in SW BC.

 

final thought: some of the failures left better memories than the successes.

 

coda: winter climbing is a young man's game - too fucking cold, too fucking hard, too fucking physical - not much in the book over the last 10 years - maybe this january...

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Winter climbing was popular when the gear to climb water ice wasnt very good? the last few years everyone has been locked into going to Lillooet every weekend even the 3 weekends when alpine conditions were perfect (solid snow and no avalanche hazard)

 

I mean, this was in perfect shape last year and no one climbed it!

 

-

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quote:

N face slesse, jan'80, w perry beckham and john wittmayer. 21 rope-lengths, maybe 9 or 10 belays, bits of 70 degrees, scratchy sections, a 25-foot tunnel thru the cornice to finish. why aren't people climbing this route and arctic wing (1989; de jong, gibbs, macgregor) to the right every winter?


It's on the damn list, Don! Give me a break (sob)!! It's on the list. [Frown]

 

That 2 route a winter thing is pretty much dead on right! [Wazzup]

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It snowed to 4500 foot level in Chilliwack overnight.

 

Colin, what the hell big face north of Hope?????

Do you mean N face of Cheam, WEST of Hope?

 

You cant see the N face of Robie Reid unless you have a helicopter support [big Grin] or a kayak.

 

[ 11-20-2002, 09:15 AM: Message edited by: Dru ]

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quote:

Originally posted by Dru:

It snowed to 4500 foot level in Chilliwack overnight.

 

Colin, what the hell big face north of Hope?????

Do you mean N face of Cheam, WEST of Hope?

 

You cant see the N face of Robie Reid unless you have a helicopter support
[big Grin]
or a kayak.

Just show the little man the way and I'm sure he'll do fine. [Wink]

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Dru,

 

Driving North of Hope on Highway 1, it is on your right after the Highway crosses to the East side of the river (a West face). I can't remember if it is before or after Boston Bar. In any event, you can barely see the top of it without sticking your head out of the car window - It starts really low, but it is massive.

 

I've always wondered what it is - Anyone know?

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quote:

Originally posted by Colin:

Driving North of Hope on Highway 1, it is on your right after the Highway crosses to the East side of the river (a West face). I can't remember if it is before or after Boston Bar. In any event, you can barely see the top of it without sticking your head out of the car window - It starts really low, but it is massive.


1. #1 is on E side of the Fraser before Hope, then W side after.

2. There aren't really any big faces e of the fraser visible from the Hwy between Hope and BB along the olgilvie-spider divide up towards lytton.

 

Maybe you're thinking of that huge slide area on the e side of the Fraser around Yale, Mt Allord I think? Lottsa scree {note: this name taken from dubious Musio Mapbook and does not exist in CDn place name database]

 

However, in the interchange surrounding Hope, a number of interesting faces come into view, maybe one of these is your mystery mtn:

1. Mt Hatfield looking e towards Manning is pretty impressive

2. looking s into the N faces of the cheam range

3. mts grant, isolillock and hope are also visible and are interesting, but by no means huge

dunno?

 

[ 11-20-2002, 08:36 PM: Message edited by: jordop ]

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