[TR] Ashlu- S Face 8/14/2005

[Ade]

Climb: Ashlu-S Face

 

Date of Climb: 8/14/2005

 

Trip Report:

Robert and I climbed this at the weekend. A few notes for future wouldbe ascentionists.

 

The McLane guidebook description of the drive is a bit vague and several of the maps are also out of date. From the bridge turn off on the Squamish River Road drive the road, crossing a couple of bridges. This puts you on the wrong side of the river, keep going. After a few miles the road crosses back onto the right side of the river. From there keep on the lower main road. There are a couple of places where the road forks. In most cases the wrong fork is pretty obviously a worse road, in one case a good road goes up hill but deadends after about a mile.

 

The best place to quit driving is just after the 39km sign. You can go right to the bridge washout at Shortcut Creek but the road gets a lot worse and it doesn't really save you a lot of time. There is a flagged trail up the S side of the creek which continues all the way to the upper valley below the glacier.

 

The river doesn't have many easy options for crossing so we continued past where the McLane guide suggests that you head up to Rugged Lake. We went to the end of the valley and headed up the slabs and then N to the basin below the S face where we camped by a small glacial lake at 6400', directly below the bottom of the W Ridge. Good campsite but buggy.

 

While this approach may be slightly longer it only took us three hours and seems to involve less crappy terrain than heading up to Rugged Lake (no trail) and then traversing into the basin (lots of side hilling, no trail).

 

The following morning we climbed up the slope on the W side of the basin and then traversed E to the glacier below the S face. The 'schrund is easily passable at the moment. I had Al crampons and running shoes and was fine.

 

We did the route in six or seven pitches with some simulclimbing and moving together. The steeper 5.8 sections are fairly short, two half rope lengths at most, but quite loose and need to be treated with care. The 10a crux is a single move just below the summit with OK gear. Excellent summit, fantastic views!

 

Instead of descending the W Ridge we opted for the E Ridge as there were a couple of guys on the summit who'd just hiked up it. This is very straightforward. We made the mistake of traversing back W below the S face and then descending the very lower part of the W Ridge. This involves a lot more walking on bad ground and doesn't save any time (we'd hoped to cut down one of the gullies below the S face but they all have a lot of water in them). It would in fact be easier to descend the W Ridge all the way the basin at 6400' and walk back to the bivi site there.

 

Gear Notes:

Pins (when will I learn)

 

Approach Notes:

See main description.

[peas]

Nice.

 

I did this route last summer with a bit of a different approach, so here's what I did for comparison. We parked at the Shortcut creek bridge, then crossed the bridge on foot. There were small game trails on the other side and the bush was pretty open, so there wasn't much schwacking. The terrain up to Rugged Lake isn't too bad, and the lake itself makes it worth while to get up there. The approach from Rugged Lake to the base of the route didn't involve much side hilling, but it was a lot longer than the time given in McLane's guide. Thankfully the route itself is much shorter than given in the guide.

 

So I'd say it's debatable which approach is more worthwhile.

 

I found the description of the climbing to be about the same as you found it.

[jmace]

I found going up the Mclane way and desecnding ades way to be the best