[TR] Mt Slesse- North East Buttress 8/26/2005

[ivan]

Climb: Mt Slesse-North East Buttress

 

Date of Climb: 8/26/2005

 

Trip Report:

my first trip to canuck-land was a hoot. sky and i drove up thursday, narrowly getting across the border on account of sky's rough n' rowdy past (his rugged good looks sufficing to talk the most sexcellent border guard chick into waving us through despite her best principles). we walked up the trail in the cool of the evenign and bivied by a coursing stream just before the slabs.

 

friday we wanted to climb the entire buttress from the toe. sky led the first pitch, a difficult one on smooth granite. the second pitch was beyond us both - we were either off route or some folks must dig climbing super-steep slabs w/ no hands and no gear. fukdat. we traversed back over onto the regular approach slabs (the complete butt route feels a bit contrived anyhow ). the rest of the climb went smoothly and with great fun. my only stupid moment came after sky lead the 5.10ish pitch. we'd actually put the belay too high, just below the large overhang clearly shown in kearney's topo. sky climbed up, placed gear, then eventually backed down, climbed below the belay, went aroudn the corner and fount he easier ground. seconding, i pulled the piece above me, but couldn't downclimb to get aroudn the corner. facing 30 degrees or so of penduluming, i gave it a shot and failed, swinging way across the face and slamming into a corner - yeah! all was well and we zoomed up the uber-fun textured pitches, catchign this awesome shot on the way.

 

the entire buttress is clearly laid out below me and off to the right, to where it rises out of the great slabs at the base

 

we reached the summit a few minutes before the sun dipped below the horizon. a pleasant bivy followed, though mine was somewhat coffin like (a coffin for a man 8 inches shorter than me though). i hauled 3 liters of water, which was enough to last the climb and the descent saturday. hardman-sky, a highpowered mutant if ever there was one ("ex-rude-boy-nuclear-physicist" is the best handle i've yet to be able to devise for him), got by w/ just 2 liters in fine style.

 

saturday we made the easiest descent off the mountain proper i've had yet on a grade 5 this summer. 2 raps, a gully downclimb till it gets steep, traverse past 2 gullies following cairns, then 1 more rap into the last gully in front of a huge sub-peak led to an easy scree descent and the well stamped alpine trail. unfortunatly, the bastard track led us astray shorlty thereafter and we found ourselves betrayed and above tall grassy cliffs - some cursing and 'swacking later we traversed back onto the "wooded ridgeline" and down to a saddle w/ a trial leading down to the slesse creek. this trail was also confusing and nebolous at first, requiring blind swacking for awhile before we stumbled back onto the well marked, somewhat maintained and heinously steep trail. sky flew down the path like olive oil through a choleric goose while i whined and bitched about my dying toenails that suffered due to a lack of ski-poles or ice-axe to slow the descent. finally we reached the old road at the base of the trail (actually, sky beat me down w/ enough time to take a nice nap by the first water source we'd encountered in a day - a mossy, shadowy dripping cliff) and followed it to the parking lot. my spirits suffered due to the lack of medicine (damn international borders!) to numb the certain pain of 9 miles of stupid road hiking back to the car - a little "gin n' juice" on the mp3 helped somewhat - but then most wonderful serendipity provided a father n' son from chilliwack complete w/ big ass truck willing to give us a lift, sparing us hours of tedium.

 

subway in chilliwack is packed on saturday. bought a sandwhich and got monopoly money back in change - spent it on fat beer which was mostly gone by the time we hit the us border, where we got sweated again. then the long burn back to seattle to the screeching horror-show of my dying brake-pads.

 

fat times - i might just have to come bakc to maple-leaf land again someday...

[layton]

ivan, i too have sucked on that drippy cliff. thank you drippy cliff.

nice work!

[OlegV]

Congrats to you and Sky! I am really envy of you, Eric. You are a sick crazy grade V- climbing machine. I wish I haven’t been wasting all my time in the office this summer. We should do Cassin next summer.

[skykilo]

Damn that was a fun climb.

I don't understand the rumours (note Canadian-influenced spelling, eh?) about better rock on Bear than Slesse. The upper North Buttress may have superior rock, but nothing on Slesse ever felt as nasty to me as parts of the lower DNB route.

 

Hey Eric,

Newfangled Digitalis camera is like poison to my already-retarded brain. I accidentally deleted all those pics. Tried to PM you but you're full. I really need some of those shots of me in tights for all the blood-thirsty females harassing me. E-MAIL 'EM TO ME, if you don't mind...

 

skykilo AT g mail DOT come on, pretty baby, let yourself go!

[ashw_justin]

oh no, they let that guy back in the country?

[JoshK]

Man, I gave you the medicinal beta!!

[ivan]

josh, did you ever stop to think maybe nancy reagan was just right? jesus!

 

getting sweated at the border on the way back in was way more fun - shit, whattarathye gon' do? they gotta let us back in... sucked a bunch more in canada customs, as we sat on the Group W bench and feverishly tried to figure out some back up plans.

 

once again, sky's so-big leads cut the # of pitches way down from the topo. nelson showed 25 i think but we did it in something like 10.

[bigwallpete]

I drank there too on Friday. After climbing the route thursday in similiar style except we sleeped in the heather/krumholtz just south of the wooded knoll after loosing the trail in the fading light.

 

Word of advise, the shower you get at the drip on the wall can be avoided by walking another five minutes tops to a nice clean looking stream.

 

Nice work guys. I also carried 3liters and my partner carried 2 and was fine.

But my body still tells me that it felt like 10l of water for that 27hrs instead of the five it got.

 

Edited August 29, 2005 by bigwallpete

[JoshK]

Damn, I didn't realize you started that close to the mountian...

[ivan]

I drank there too on Friday.

 

 

nice, perhaps your's was the chalk trail we occasionally saw? the evidence of human passage up there is wild, most especially the super deep steps that have been kicked into the moss and heather over the years.

 

nice photo - u look totally gangsta, yo! we drank murphys (after my monster drink exploded on the way in, soaking my pack in taurine-powered goodness) - what were you swilling?

[Buckaroo]

""the second pitch was beyond us both - we were either off route or some folks must dig climbing super-steep slabs w/ no hands and no gear""

 

Common mistake, both partners I've done this with did the same thing, you went one dihedral too far right and belayed in a bush with slings (bail slings), am I correct? Above that is 5.12 no gear. The route goes up the dihedral to the left of that, and the belay is actually another 15ft higher. The first pitch is the hardest and best of the lower buttress, the 2nd is 5.5, so you didn't miss much.

 

""we'd actually put the belay too high, just below the large overhang clearly shown in kearney's topo.""

 

What a trip, one of my partners wanted to make the same mistake here also. Was there slings up and left under the roof at the spot where you belayed from? The route crosses over right about 50 ft before that, those are bail slings again.

 

If you ever want to make this route a degree more difficult, try the crossover descent and get the full alpine effect.

 

Congrats for a quick climb in spite of difficulties.

 

Looks like a dry year. This is Aug 2, 2000

 

 

[Buckaroo]

""sucked a bunch more in canada customs, as we sat on the Group W bench and feverishly tried to figure out some back up plans.""

 

Man same here, last time I went to Canada, I'd gone 2 weeks before also. They asked we when I'd last been to Canada and I said "two weeks ago" WRONG ANSWER.

 

The immediate response to this answer was "park over there and come inside" (to the group W bench). What's your itinerary while you're in Canada? Do you have any evidence of that? What are all the places that you've lived during your entire life in the US? How do you have weekday's off, are you on vacation, do you have a job, how much money do you have in the bank?

 

They wrote down all the states I'd lived in and presumably did a criminal records check, it took about 20 minutes. Luckily I guess they didn't find the public intoxication back in '79, either that or it wasn't a felony like a DUI. Super Dave doesn't go to Canada anymore because he got turned back for a DUI.

 

It was a nice blonde babe and I showed her all my maps and topos and we chatted about the planned cable car at Squamish which we both agreed was wrong. They finally let me go, next time I'll say, "last year". Getting a passport before the next Canada trip, maybe make the process a little smoother.

[ashw_justin]

What are all the places that you've lived during your entire life in the US? How do you have weekday's off, are you on vacation, do you have a job, how much money do you have in the bank?

 

Jesus, how about "none of your (fucking) business?"

[Dru]

next time I'll say, "last year".

 

they record all the plates and know the last time your car was across, so if it was really 2 weeks before in the same car you're best to tell the truth or they will REALLY dig out the thumbscrews.

[Winter]

We started the crux pitch from an obvious slung horn and then led straight up and slightly right through a notch in between two small roofs. Then further right on small holds to a grassy ledge. Not sure if we were on route ... prolly not, but it worked.

[Dru]

Well didn't you follow the blue taped holds?

[Buckaroo]

"they record all the plates"

 

Yeah you're right, there's cameras 5 ways from sunday.

[Buckaroo]

""Jesus, how about "none of your (fucking) business?"""

 

When they have the authority to make you turn back from a 150 mile plus drive, it's "yes mam, no mam, how far should I jump mam?"

[ivan]

Common mistake, both partners I've done this with did the same thing, you went one dihedral too far right and belayed in a bush with slings (bail slings), am I correct?

no, actually we were pretty far to the left - the first belay was at a large horizontal crack, it was pretty easy to go left from there and escape onto the main slab up to the regular climb

 

 

Was there slings up and left under the roof at the spot where you belayed from? The route crosses over right about 50 ft before that, those are bail slings again.

 

we were actually right under the roof - sky set up a hanging belay on a relatively low angle slab above a couple of bail sling areas

 

holy shit! the glacier down and to the left shows the most dramatic difference! glad to see canada's getting as fucked by global warming as everywhere else...

[ashw_justin]

""Jesus, how about "none of your (fucking) business?"""

 

When they have the authority to make you turn back from a 150 mile plus drive, it's "yes mam, no mam, how far should I jump mam?"

 

I seriously doubt that they have the right to turn you back for not telling them every little detail of your life. I'm not suggesting not being cooperative, but it's not an interrogation, and in fact they don't have the right to interrogate you unless you are officially detained, and even then you have the right to not to tell them shit.

 

They can find out all that they have a right to know about you by looking up your identification.

 

They ask you as many questions a possible in the hope that you will fuck up, if you are not telling the truth. You are not required to play that game if the questions start to have nothing to do with crossing the border.

[Alex]

If you guys mess with customs you are stupid.

 

They have the legal right to dismantle your vehicle bolt by bolt and not reassemble it - leaving the rotting pile of scrap metal for you to deal with, they can strip search you, detain you or deny you entry from the U.S. entirely if you give then cause and you are going to worry about answering a few questions? For those of you who are US citizens with your passports in hand maybe its not so scary, perhaps you cannot imagine what its like if you are not a naturalized citizen or cannot prove your citizenship at the time of crossing.

 

Always carry your passport. Never mess with customs.

[Buckaroo]

"the first belay was at a large horizontal crack"

 

yeah, sounds like you may have been off route, the first belay is on a flat narrow ledge with a crack going diagonal up and right and the second belay is a large flat ledge at the top of a dihedral above and right of a large roof.

 

You can look at it this way, if you did a bypass starting at the toe you probably have done a new variation!!

[Dru]

There are no new variations on Slesse NEB anymore. Even if you are grunging around in overhanging hip deep moss looking for a crack or a hold you can rest assured that at least one other person has been offroute in the same place.

[skykilo]

How about pulling the roof instead of traversing right for the crux pitch? I damn near went all the way up there to pull the roof. Maybe I'll go do it again just to hit the roof; it definitely looked like it would take gear.

 

Yes, everybody, PM me for the topo of my new, 1-pitch 5.10- variation on the direct!

[bigwallpete]

the only pitch that seemed very different then the Beckey topo was the 3rd last pitch.

5.7 into an alcove then 5.6 sheraton slesse.

My advice would be to stay on the crest for that pitch staying left of the fixed pin 65ft out or so.

allowing no rope drag and 165ft pitch.

 

There was a fixed nut they way we went through the roof crux. I left it. My partner said he pulled onit so maybe someone else will too.