Johannesburg Mtn

[Dru]

good but needs mention of snafflehound and horsecock

[fleblebleb]

Maybe if you could actually put the snafflehound and horsecock gremlin in there?

 

Let me guess, teacher thinks you're being entirely creative. Ehrm, pulling the whole thing out of your ass, as it were. Fess up kid, you went to a big rave party for new years and took three days to recover, right? The truth will out

[Toast]

Colin said:

Always trying to incorporate climbing into my schoolwork, I finally wrote up a full-lenth TR of this J'Berg climb for my Creative Writing class. I thought that some of you might find it interesting, and I also wouldn't mind some feedback on the writing. The writing is currently pretty dry, particularly because this is the first draft. The difficutly, of course, is in making the reading at all interesting to a non-climber. Anyways, lemme know what you guys think:

 

Fuck the non-climbers... A+

[Mike]

Great trip report and great writing! If this trip report is meant to be read by non-climbers, you might need to make the text a little more descriptive - rope-length instead of pitch or something. Also, "fuck" is a very useful word for climbing especially on lead but not all english teachers support it's use in class assignments.

[skyclimb]

i like fuck-ing with english.. and teachers

pretty tricky oh

[chucK]

Colin,

Great read!

 

I fear it would be pretty difficult to understand for a non-climber. Unfortunately, if you try to explain enough for a non-climber it's going to be very tough to keep your story from getting too bogged down. You really have no choice though but to think of your audience. Tough assignment!

 

A description of the mountain early on would help to set the scene.

[Toast]

So, my $0.02... Set the expectation with your teacher that the audience you are writing to are alpine mountaineers. If you take this seriously, you could very well publish this.

 

Regarding the F word, keep it. Used sparingly, it conveys the absolute seriousness of your situation.

[robertm]

Jesse and I did the NE Butt this past weekend. Met 2 Japanese climbers on the route that had made a destination out of it. A real bushwack to reach the ridge crest with much cursing and pack sticking. Several times I was using devils club and moss equalized for holds. Once we broke out of the oppressive brush the going was good on the heather slopes up to the rock ridge. The Japanese guys were setting up a bivy just above the heather. We kept going and tackled the rock section. We got to the rappel (a single Ti KB left by PMS no doubt) and the gully looked like shit. So we pulled out the rope and did the rock variation climbing to the left. The rock is fairly good here and not as rotten as mentioned. I would say it is harder than 5.3 (maybe 5.7?). The crux is getting over a small rib and up into a larger gully system above which is easy climbing once you are in it. From there you top out on the ridge crest and do 2 pitches of awesome rock on a knife edge ridge with outstanding position. 4 50m pitches from the Rappel on the rock ridge there is a outstanding bivy for 2 with running water -- maybe the best I have had in the cascades. We drank much whiskey and had a great meal. (elapsed time 9 hours from start of climbing to bivy). Next day we did the awesome snow arete up to the glacier and hit the summit (took 2 hours from bivy). Lounged on the summit for a hour or more. Found a plastic tiger perched on a ledge.. recognized many familiar names in the summit register. We descended staying right on the ridge crest (we started off to the right of the crest but this proved loose and unsavory). From there we took the path of least resistance. We made three double rope rappels replacing all the webbing and putting in new rap rings. I had a scare when I bounce tested one of the rap anchors and the webbing snapped. I decided to leave my new cordellete and a biner. Once at the Col (4 hours from Summit) we descended to the south to do the Gunsight notch traverse. Beta for this is as follows: Drop just below the rib on Cascade peak at 6200 ft. You will need to stay between 6100 - 5900 feet to make it through the ribs on Mixup peak. This is pretty much a straight traverse across the alp slopes until you get to the horizon. This is where the routefinding comes into play. If you keep an eye out you will see animal paths between 6000 - 6200 feet picking their way across the gullys (around 6 of them). taking the path of least resistance. The last one is the hardest and involved a 40 foot rappel off of new slings that were pre-existing. This puts you under a largish wall of Mixup and into a SW slanting gully that takes you down about 200 feet before you can cross 2 smallish streams and scramble up a steep dirt gully at 5900 feet to reach the wide slope that leads up to gunsight notch (which is left -- you can't see it till you scramble up about 500 - 600 feet). I wouldn't want to do this descent with high water because you crossing drainages -- there was hardly any water when we crossed them.

 

From Gunsight notch we descended the moat to the left of the snow finger (3 hours to car from here). It was easy going and mellow getting onto the cache glacier. Head north around some rock buttresses and you will see the trail ascending Mixup Arm. We headed back to Cascade Pass and descended the many seemingly horizontal switchbacks back to the car.

 

I thought the lower part of the climb wasn't too good but the upper 2/3 rds of the route was great. No at the bivy.

 

I have some pictures that I will post to the gallery.

 

[Marko]

Congratulations Robert. That thing is one bigass chunk of geology.

 

Cheers!

[mattp]

I'm starting to get the impression that the "off route" variation that I did many years ago may be just as good as that being currently recommended in "Select Climbs." I believe I used the same approach ramp/gullies heading up toward the crest of the ridge at the bottom, and then I took a gully system that was left of the main crest for something like a thousand feet. It had some extreme heather climbing leading up to two or three ropelengths of rock climbing that eased off to a scramble that gained the buttress crest just below the snow arete. I didn't have to do any rappel, and I may have done less screwing around than what Robert describes though it was over 20 years ago and my memory of it is dim.

[Dru]

i have to wonder why "extreme heather climbing" should be a "selected alpine" climb unless you are a snaffle

[robertm]

The heather is overhyped on this climb. It doesn't last that long and it was mellow. It was in bloom though -- real perty.

[mattp]

Admittedly, it is not all THAT bad, but the thing that bothers people about the steep grass and heather on climbs like J'Berg is that one has the definite sense that there is no safe anchor in the event of a slip. And they are right. If you are roped up on this terrain, "the leader must not fall" (to quote the old standard rule long forgotten) and they better find a good belay anchor before they bring their buddies up. It is probably about equivalent to climbing grade III ice that is rotten and won't take screws.

[Dru]

pffft

 

ice tool gets bomber sticks in heather! ditto crampooons or even approach shoes! self arrest with fingers!

[Cpt.Caveman]

Dru said:

i have to wonder why "extreme heather climbing" should be a "selected alpine" climb unless you are a snaffle

 

To climb some of the other peaks in the area and then ignore this one is why to some I would suspect. It's an imposing looking piece or work.

 

All the other peaks in the vicinity don't have anything quite like the relief and the short approach..

 

If you see it yourself some day say- on your way to Forbidden for instance it helps.

 

[mattp]

Dru said:

pffft

 

ice tool gets bomber sticks in heather! ditto crampooons or even approach shoes! self arrest with fingers!

 

Exactly. Its not that bad but the lack of pro can be an issue. I don't know about trying to get a good "stick" with approach shoes, though.

[Dru]

Cpt.Caveman said:

Dru said:

i have to wonder why "extreme heather climbing" should be a "selected alpine" climb unless you are a snaffle

 

To climb some of the other peaks in the area and then ignore this one is why to some I would suspect. It's an imposing looking piece or work.

 

All the other peaks in the vicinity don't have anything quite like the relief and the short approach..

 

If you see it yourself some day say- on your way to Forbidden for instance it helps.

 

 

i have no quibble with the mountain but i wondered why mattp was saying a thousand foot moss gully was better route choice than a ridge crest. like, don't take the NE buttress crest of slesse, take the Beckey ramps - SOO Much more herbivorous!!!!

[mattp]

Dru-

Robert described "a real bushwack" to reach the ridge crest, then heather slopes to a rock ridge, then a rappel, a gully that looked like shit so they climbed some 5.7 rock that "wasn't as rotten as described..." etc. As I said, my memory is rather dim but I don't think the way I went was any worse than that. Go climb it both ways and give us the full report.

[Dru]

if i wanted to climb a route of that description i wouldnt have to drive down to washington to find it! we have plenty of vertical 5.7 heather and bushwacking in the fraser valley

[Cpt.Caveman]

Dru said:

Cpt.Caveman said:

Dru said:

i have to wonder why "extreme heather climbing" should be a "selected alpine" climb unless you are a snaffle

 

To climb some of the other peaks in the area and then ignore this one is why to some I would suspect. It's an imposing looking piece or work.

 

All the other peaks in the vicinity don't have anything quite like the relief and the short approach..

 

If you see it yourself some day say- on your way to Forbidden for instance it helps.

 

 

i have no quibble with the mountain but i wondered why mattp was saying a thousand foot moss gully was better route choice than a ridge crest. like, don't take the NE buttress crest of slesse, take the Beckey ramps - SOO Much more herbivorous!!!!

 

Because-

1: You have to see for yourself. Go look at it time and time again after climbing nearby peaks for several seasons and then it might "interest" you.

2: My main point was not what route was best but that the mountain is hard to ignore for some.

 

My personal feelings are that the NE Buttress is the route I want to do. If you want to climb the other ways that's fine.

[mattp]

Cavey: the route I did is very definitely on the NE Arete and, for the portion where I deviated from that described in "Select Climbs," I believe I followed more closely to the crest of the NE Arete itself than the variation described in the book (I could be wrong about this - like I said my memory is dim, OK?). You are right, though, that the point is not which way is better and I don't think anybody here is really trying to debate that issue -- the point is that J'Berg rules! The reason it is in "Select Climbs" has as much (or maybe more) to do with where it is and how it looks from accross the valley as it does with the actual climbing on the route.

 

The reason I bring up my "alternate" route is that I would encourage folks not to bail if they get "off route" on the lower part of the climb. Several variations are possible, and many have been climbed.

[iain]

it would be good for this site to have a keyword search for trip reports, like the photo gallery. As is, to get a good search on johannesburg you have to try every possible mispelling of johannesburg, along with j-burg, j-berg, jay-berg, jayberg, j'burg, j'berg, j'ürg, etc.

[Dru]

iain said:

it would be good for this site to have a keyword search for trip reports, like the photo gallery. As is, to get a good search on johannesburg you have to try every possible mispelling of johannesburg, along with j-burg, j-berg, jay-berg, jayberg, j'burg, j'berg, j'ürg, etc.

 

jimmy crack corn ?!

[Cpt.Caveman]

It's a nice mountain. I think the original climb by Tom Miller was a great achievement. Cheers to him

[Cpt.Caveman]

mattp said:

Cavey: the route I did is very definitely on the NE Arete and, for the portion where I deviated from that described in "Select Climbs," I believe I followed more closely to the crest of the NE Arete itself than the variation described in the book (I could be wrong about this - like I said my memory is dim, OK?). You are right, though, that the point is not which way is better and I don't think anybody here is really trying to debate that issue -- the point is that J'Berg rules! The reason it is in "Select Climbs" has as much (or maybe more) to do with where it is and how it looks from accross the valley as it does with the actual climbing on the route.

 

The reason I bring up my "alternate" route is that I would encourage folks not to bail if they get "off route" on the lower part of the climb. Several variations are possible, and many have been climbed.

 

Any time my partner falls down a ways and is a little hurt (many interpretations of hurt) I might just think it could be time to go away.

 

Cheers to all the climbs it sees this summer. If you dont like bush crawling or scrambling then just don't do it.