best of cc.com [TR] Back of Beyond Buttress 2nd Ascent- Original Route 8/19/2005

[layton]

Climb: Back of Beyond Buttress 2nd Ascent-Original Route

 

Date of Climb: 8/19/2005

 

Trip Report:

Longpause and I did the much coveted 2nd ascent of Back of Beyond Buttress last friday. She said she'd write the TR, if I posted the photos and wrote a little, so here i go. I'll be boring so she'll have to fill in the details with lies and hyperbole.

 

After 3 years of multiple failed attempts by other parties on Jordan Peters and my route which we wholeheartedly attest to be one of the best alpine rock climbs anywhere (forest fires, road issues, lost, broken bones, as has been reported to us) Longpause and I serendipitously strolled in and out and had a wonderful time. Better than I remember actually.

 

Here is the original TR

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/61928/page/0/fpart/all/vc/1

 

have fun cutting and pasting that link

 

Anyway...what can i say. Longpause was SOLID. She fucking soared up her pitches, and ran it out a little to boot. Made me feel like a total pussy.

 

I'd belay at the end of the 5.8 section just above the fun overlap move on the 1st pitch. 2nd pitch is long and steep with a spicy traverse. Go straight up from the belay on p.1, go up for a long time until you are bear hugging a detached flake and traverse left into the next crack on face holds. go up a few feet (10 feet?) and do an even scarier traverse left into the 3rd crack system. you'll see a white cleaned out crack that takes a blind #1 camalot. this is your belay too. save two #1's and a .75 for this belay.

go straight up again on pitch 3 until a thin sharp ledge is reached just below the top of the enduracne slab. good place for a belay. the rock is whitish yellow here. there's a tree to the right (don't go there to belay, bad rock) and above are bottoming grooves you need to pinch. the 4th pitch is short.

 

after the slab you'll see a bunch of dead snags. go left past the one directly above the slab, and into a corner system with the next dead snag. amazingly fun and steep cracks and jugs. a 5.9 pitch (finally!)

 

6th pitch goes up and right into a hopefully obvious thin 10b corner that is super pumpy and technical. after that it's a 5.8-4th class ridge for a while on great rock and fun exposure and cracks.

 

walk off...go down and right hugging the edge. avoid the 1st gully, it blanks out into a cliff, go down to the 2nd in a grove of trees and you should easily see the ground. walk out. no raps. stash your crap at the base of this so you don't have to go back to he base of the climb.

take a compass bearing on the hike out b/c the valley bottom gets confusing in the dark if you left the car at noon and screwed around on the summit.

 

 

The Playa's

 

Longpause on the 1st pitch. Purrrfect!

 

Looking down atop pitch 2 on the only rest i could find.

 

Longpause follows the most amazing of pitches

 

Longpause 1/2 way through the traverse

 

yup, she hogged the camera time... Longpause on top, scopin' routes.

 

And, rounding out the exerience with some mellow squamish craggin!

 

so any camera tilt was unintentional, i was busy belaying or climbing at the same time. i did rotate the photos as best i could, but had to crop some after doing so. it's way steeper than it looks from a distance or the base especially so before you go screaming "camera tilt" go climb it 1st. you'll never complain about tilt or soft grades or crappy rock on any inch of this climb.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

tripple set of camalots .5 to 1, double set of cams yellow alien or metolius tcu and #2 camalot. single set blue alien, green alien, red alien (or grey tcu, blue and orange tcu), and a #3 and #3.5 camalot. small selection of nuts, 10-14 slings and draws. one rope cuz bailing isn't much of an option until the top of the slab (one rope rap off to climbs left atop the slab to bail into gully)...it's straight in hand for most of the route with few constrictions...pumpy! water year round in the talus if you want to camp, great bivy spots, lots of bouldering proj's too. lake at top of cirque. many many 1-3 pitch climbs everywhere. amazing bivy opps on summit! lots of mountains to climb everywhere. B.O.B. is about 9 pitches III 10b..should take a solid party 6-7 hours up from base. the slab is ultra sustained jamming on pure granite joy. the upper ridge is super fun.

Jordans topo isn't that great. The 10b pitch on the ridge is on the crest as is the rest of the climb, not to the left.

p1 5.8 1/2 rope legnth

p2 sustained and long 10b, most of the rope. best single pitch in the alpine i've ever come across

p3 same

p4 1/2 rope 10b

p5 full rope 5.9-10a var

p6. 10b corner full rope

p7. 5.8 steep but ledgy cracks on ridge crest full rope

p8-9 sections of short steep cracks on mostly easy ridge. simul or solo if you got this far without freaking out.

the summit is a ways from here, but well worth the hike. great bouldering proj's on white sierra granite.

 

 

BRING BIKES JUST IN CASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hint hint hint hint hint

 

 

Approach Notes:

1.5 no more to base. 45 min schwack, 45 min talus.

 

Boston Bar on Hwy 1, left to North Bend. Cross Fraser River. Go N, left on Nahatlich (sp?) FSR for a while, Left on Kooapi creek FSR just after crossing the creek, drive a bit, right off spur road after 10-15min that crosses river and has a yellow gate, cross bridge with yellow gate and turn right (head north) road wraps around into the valley, you'll see a double summit mountain. park car. walk road across massive cross ditch (impassible) for 1/2 mile, BOB should become clear within minutes from car. Go directly across from mtn.

 

Sorry again for the boring TR. I wanted to spray more, but it's your turn damnit!

 

 

Found jordan's original TR from Bivouac.com...a bit less harrowing than the story goes...

 

 

 

"With the summer drawing to a close I was still itching to get out and do some nice rock routes. I had some nice trips here and there but had mostly wasted my time wandering around looking for elusive stone, becoming quite proficient at bushwacking and "terrain finding" but also not doing very much climbing. I was also wearing thin the patience of my partners and my typical "bushwacks to nowhere" were beginning to earn me a bit of a reputation among my friends!

So it was that I called on Mike in the hope that his ability and energy would get us up something. We had originally planned to head into a corner of the Chehalis for a poke around but weren't all that blown away with the bushwacking involved. After stopping way up a spur off the Harrison West FSR, Mike noticed that his water bladder had exploded during the rough drive and had completely drenched all his belongings in his duffel bag, clothes, guidebooks, everything. So we resigned ourselves to driving around looking at possible routes to do, one by one finding something wrong with each of them until I was starting to wonder if the trip wasn't destined to turn into one of those drinking tours of far flung southwest BC rec sites. We then decided to find some rec site for the night, check out one last area in the morning, and then likely head into the Anderson Range in the afternoon, hike up to a bivy below Springbok Arete in the evening, and then flail up it as fast as we could the next day, and since the daylight was down to about 13 hours, probably end up bivying on the summit to avoid doing the notoriously bad descent off of Les Cornes in the dark.

Well when we awoke at 5:30 near the Nahatlatch River the next day, we decided that it was getting a bit cold to try to bivy without gear on the summit of Les Cornes. So without any real plan, we headed up the Kookipi Creek FSR to have a look at a modest peak which Drew had needled me about previously. It looked okay, but not spectacular. The cracks looked dirty, but since we were out of ideas, we thought we would go for it anyway. Well then we rounded the corner of the road and saw this sweeping buttress of beautiful proportions.

 

We were blown away at the beauty of the line. We stopped short though at the blank and hard-looking slab at the base of the ridge. It looked hard, but through binoculars from the road it looked as if there might be cracks somewhere on it. We quickly packed up food and bivy gear in case we ended up spending the night and headed off down to the end of Kookipi West, passing a old guy working on the tree harvesting equipment who seemed humbly non-plussed at our plans but offered to "send some boys in" if we weren't out by the next night.

We struck down to the river through open forest, crossed the river and plunged into some pretty physical bush, emerging at a boulder field

 

after about an hour to discover blueberries and wild raspberries growing all over the place. Fearful of the "berry runs", we had to stop ourselves from gorging and promised to feast on the way back. We headed up easy boulder fields towards the base, trying not to look up because we feared we would vomit instantly if we looked directly at what we could feel in our peripheral senses to be breathtaking. Strange, guttural sounds (mountain orgasms?) soon came from our mouths as we looked up and drooled. Here was a slab, 400 feet high, that if transported to Squamish would be the centre stage. Brilliant finger and tip cracks darted out here and there, but none appeared to be continuous or go the full height of the slab to gain the buttress crest. Blank roofs blocked passage at the right end of the slab. After half an hour of sussing and "what ifing", we found the line. A perfect crack at the left end of the slab went straight up and just when it died out a second opened up to its left. The second crack died out in ten feet and a third continued for a rope length where it looked as if we would be forced right to the edge of the roofs to gain the crest. Getting across the crack systems was my greatest fear, so I quickly offered to do the first pitch to leave Mike with the traverse!

I started up the Yosemite quality hand and fist crack which led out left where a small roof is passed on bomber jugs to gain the "real crack". It had been some time since I had climbed hard, probably two months since I had been on a crack this imposing, so I set off jamming as hard as I could, Mike below me yelling encouragement as I "shit" and "fuck"ed my way up, throwing cams in everywhere, just wanting to get to the belay before I died. I got to the end of the first crack, threw a cam in, yelled "take" and spent a good fifteen minutes gasping and shaking my arms out. One of the finest pitches I have ever done or seen. Seeing that the crack was the same size for the entire slab, I knew that we would need to be creative with the belays to save the gear for the leads. I banged and bent two shallow knifeblades into a seam, equalized them with the cam, tied off, and belayed Mike up.

Belays on steep slabs with no ledges are always cozy affairs with elbows in teeth, farts in the face; sorta like two cats with their tails tied together strung over a clothes line! Now the crux began. Mike heads off left on a blank undercling to try the next crack over -- no gear and I'm watching my knifeblades bounce, lookin down at the air and thinking, "man, please don't fall!" The second crack bottoms and has no gear, so Mike gingerly reverses back to the belay and sets off up the main one for another twenty feet, more 10b grunting at the limit, stuffs in a cam, rests on edges, and then begins one of the hairiest looking traverses I've witnessed in the mountains. Ten feet to the second crack, shit, it's still thin and discontinuous. Ten more feet to the third crack and it's good. Mike gets fifteen feet up it, runs out of gear and dies. A short pitch, but you'd need lots of gear, long slings (falls!) and cojones grandes to go much further. I follow, crapping myself on the traverse -- good feet but no hands so you're leaning into the wall, milkin it -- to another "cat fight" belay. We feel like we're on a miniature Lotus Flower headwall but without the chickenheads to save you from jamming!

By taking the first pitch, I was hoping to leave the brunt of the hard stuff for Mike, but with the short second pitch I was once again contemplating the battle ahead.

 

 

I set off and my mind starts trying to shut me down, corrupting me into yelling at Mike, "shit, man, this crack's gonna end, we're screwed," and him yelling back words that were less encouragement than threats! I felt like I was some fourteen-year-old Eastern Bloc gymnast training for the Olympics, the coach constantly reminding me of the consequences if I failed! At least if I were a gymnast then I would be able to get some shady performance-enhancing drugs! I'm hanging there from slipping jams on stuff that would be my crux at a road-side crag, with nary a belt of Scotch or a pull of "special" to ease the mind. I can only go about twenty-five metres and I'm done. Arms and gear give out. Luckily the crack has eased off a bit and I can get some nuts into the belay.

Mike pulls out the guns to finish the crack and is forced to head right on a nice traverse over to meet the left edge of the roof that cuts across the slab, finishing up rough and licheny flakes to belay from a boulder on the crest. Seconding from a hanging belay is always stirring: I pulled the gear and had to go straight into the jams, zero-to-sixty! Up I go, thankful that this was Mike's lead cause it's just as hard as everything before. We flop down in the sun, heads spinning and thankful to get off what we could only call "The Endurance Slab". It would look possible to retreat from this point down the shrubby east face, but you won't want to. We agreed that if the rest of the route was fourth class crap, it would still be a classic. Well, it wasn't. Crap, that is.

 

I take what is now the fifth pitch and head up fun corners, grooves, and flakes, pulling on stuff that should by all means be death blocks, but here in candy land are completely solid. Features everywhere, I just chose the most direct and appealing line, aiming for the crest of the buttress. I set up a good, three piece anchor and admire the view. A full 50m, 5.7 with 5.9 near the end. Mike dislodges a block seconding and we watch it sail down in one swoop to the boulders below, emitting a large, thundering crack. We hoped the guy across the valley didn't hear that and send in some boys!

 

The sixth pitch was more fun 5.7 up to a corner (right of an off-width) so imposing that Mike just had to try it. He shook and swore but made it up about thirty feet of solid 10b, too thin to get a good foot in, and then rode the exposed arete with edges to a belay. Seconding was a challenge as the pack wedged against the right wall and kept me from getting onto the arete.

The seventh pitch relented to mid-fifth on nice features, with some loose stuff on ledges now, but was cut short by rope drag. But we had now gained the crest and knew that the battle was over. One last, almost trivial, obstacle remained. From the seventh belay ledge rose a mean, vertical hand crack, only about 12 feet high, but to be sporting we tried it anyway. Mike threw himself at it, fell once and then jumped for the rounded lip. Probably 10c, but it looks like you can avoid this on either side. The last two pitches were both fourth class with some minor fifth class steps, easy all the way. We unroped and scrambled up to the top of the buttress, placing a small cairn before we began the heather and dirt descent back down.

 

 

We gained a notch at the top of a rock gully that in 45 minutes led back to the base where we picked up our unnecessary bivy gear, pausing to admire the purity of the line and only then noticing that in nine hours we had only eaten about two energy bars with one litre of water each!

We walked back out down the boulder field, missing the berry bushes entirely and encountering some bad bush, but it didn't matter, we were too out of it to care! In fact, when we hit the Kookipi mainline, we were so disoriented that we had to get out of the truck to find the sun setting in the west to figure out where we were.

This was a beautiful climb, one of the finest I can remember doing. It took us eleven hours round trip from the car and could easily be done in a day from Vancouver. A great way to end the summer; I'd been swinging for a while, it was nice to finally hit one! "

Edited August 22, 2005 by michael_layton

[Off_White]

Hah, have to do your own second ascent, eh? I know how that goes. I can't believe this route doesn't get any traffic. Nice pics, let's hear Longpause jabber and gibber about the now...

[peas]

I tried to convince my climbing partner to try it on Saturday, but he wanted to do the Pup's Buttress instead. Too bad, BOB looks like a nice one.

[Squid]

Hmmm..Layton + cute girl....this can only end badly.

 

Nice TR & great photos!

 

[olyclimber]

Nice work Micheal, but I don't understand why you didn't call it "Bed Bath and Beyond Buttress".

[Squid]

"Bad Breath and Behind Buttress"?

[Alpinfox]

 

That climb looks great.

 

Hey Michael, wanna make the third ascent of this thing with me?

 

[olyclimber]

That FA TR was great. Thanks Jordan.

[Dru]

How much will you pay me to climb it?

[Dru]

PS:

[layton]

 

how much will you pay me to climb it, Dru?

longpause not only paid with her soul, but her dignity as well. she must be in therapy after climbing with me, so you gotta wait for her TR.

[Squid]

That climb looks great.

 

Hey Michael, wanna make the third ascent of this thing with me?

 

 

I'll go witcha. But you get to pose as the girl.

[ivan]

Hmmm..Layton + cute girl....this can only end badly.

 

nice read and pics man - i'm thinking pdx is going to ravage your soul when you return...

[Alpinfox]

That climb looks great.

 

Hey Michael, wanna make the third ascent of this thing with me?

 

 

I'll go witcha. But you get to pose as the girl.

 

Do you climb? I thought you just did triathlons these days? Let's get after it!

 

Will they let you into Canada after that "goat misunderstanding"?

[layton]

Glad you guys are all enjoying the

 

SPRAY!!!

[bwrts]

Kat, the first pic of you leading is nice. But seriously, what is with the use of "slow draws?" Where are those nice "quick draws" someone gave you?

Anyrate, way to go mike and kat!!

[jordop]

In case anyone cares, I still haven't climbed a better route anywhere. I think Mike agrees. Utterly bizarre experience to meet Mike for the first time, check out some middle-of-nowhere hint of granite on a whim, and then make the first ascent of the cleanest and most consistent crack climbing we have ever done, all within 90 minutes from a 2wd road. Good times dude

 

The name comes from the Moab bookstore, a pretty cool place as well

[olyclimber]

The name comes from the Moab bookstore,

I thought that sounded familiar. That place and Mondo Coffee are instuitions for me there.

[L0ngpause]

So, I guess I haven't been on this thing for awhile, but do to a bum foot I am forced to spend hours on the online. Mike wanted me to write a TR:

I am not going to tell you all the grades and shit b/c it's obvious, but Jordan and Mike graded them well.

I met Mike in B-hamm on thursday, he said we would do a really fun climb, so I obviously wasn't expecting this nice of a climb. We drove aroud 4 hours to this plush camp spot and crashed. It took awhile to find the right road the next day. . .

We got a good start at around noontime headed out of the car, great approach, you see the mt. the whole time, you go down a clear cut , through a meadow, then up a hill. nice little one&half hour jaunt and then you are at the base of the crack system.

It was the most beautiful line! I had to get on it as soon as I saw it. It was so much fun!! I was laughing and singing the whole way up.I had Lou Reed's "such a perfect day" stuck in my head all day. I could not believe how perfect the cracks were, they were all really clean, extremely steep, and the spicy traverse was pretty obvious as well. The "endurance slab" was appropriately named. It was so much fun.

After that we got on the ridge, there are many options but we both decided to take the funnest ways up. Suprisingly, the rock was incredibly solid the whole way up the ridge too! And then the scree surfin' walk off, (heed Mike's advice and don't take the first gully), couldn't have been easier.

Coming down the hill in the evening proved more difficult, loggers had been falling trees all day and in the dark we got caught up in a mess of limbs, branches, jumping to trucks; we came out with many scratches and pitch all over. Back at the truck there was a nice note from the loggers, who had closed the road for the evening, so we watched a little of the classic "Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter", I highly reccommend this movie for any alpine cragging outing! So, the logger boys opened up the gate for us at 5:45 the next morning, they thought we had been in a tangle with the griz they had been seeing up there, they even sent one of the younger boys up the hill to find us!! Boy, Canadians are nice. We ended the last couple days at squamish, the "playas" picture would be the actual dump that we camped in. Good weekend, Fucking Amazing Route!

[Ziff]

Agreed, great name, great book store and it looks like a stellar route. The name of the book store in moab was lifted (probably with permission) from Ed Abbey who used it in one of his books - can't recall which one, but it may have been "Desert Solitaire".

[jordop]

The road is currently gated, likely only on weekends, but this only adds ~30mins if you got a bike. Likely still snowfree right now if you wanted to nab it before things shut down.

 

A frontal view of the peak, which I called "Mt. Ichor" in the CAJ. RED is "Back of Beyond", BLUE is "Brambles, Buttress, Sky" which Mike and I added last year.

[wayne]

We nabbed the 2nd non-redundant ascent and the 3rd overall saturday.

[bobbyperu]

and...

[Dru]

How much did he pay you?

[jordop]

More importantly, with the increasing rate of tilt recorded in the photos is the thing now overhanging?