texplorer Posted August 27, 2002 Posted August 27, 2002 A few Q's about Slesse: About how long does it take to get from summit back to the road. How long in distance is it from the road back to the car (start of climb). Is the road traveled that often? In other words, could I catch a ride back to the car or am I going to be walking for miles. Quote
Cpt.Caveman Posted August 27, 2002 Posted August 27, 2002 It's like a 26kilometer bike ride half up half downhill. I could not hichhike but you may have better luck. The road is dirt into slesse creek and then paved out towards chilliwack lake (best spot for hitchiking) direction, then dirt again back up to Nesakwatch Creek. Quote
forrest_m Posted August 27, 2002 Posted August 27, 2002 assuming that you're talkin' about the west side descent... from the summit, maybe 2-3 hours to get through the technical part of the descent. it's pretty straight forward but has some exposure. we only had to do 2 single rope raps. another 2-3 hours down the trail. depending on how tired you are. that side of the mountain is very dry! fill your water bottles with snow on the summit if you can (there's often a remnant cornice you can quarry), 'cause there ain't a drop until you get down to the road. once on your bike, it's maybe an hour (under normal circumstances, see below) to the highway, another hour back up the road and 45 minutes or so back up the dirt road to your car. the dirt road portions do not get much traffic, at least not as far up as you are leaving your bike. down lower, maybe, but i wouldn't rely on it, you might be waiting a long time. funny story, we came down on a very very hot afternoon, so we stripped down to our underwear for the bike ride out. in addition, we were wearing our climbing helmets, with the rope, rack, etc. tied clumsily to the bike racks. looking like a couple of freaks, we came around the corner to find a canadian army truck blocking the road. two female soldiers in camoflauge are leaning up against the truck, smoking. they were blocking the road to traffic while the army did artillery practice. they obviously thought we were a few cans short of a six pack and wouldn't even talk to us. so we sat there in our underwear (while they decided whether or not to shoot us?) for almost an hour before they opened up the road and let us go on... Quote
jesse Posted August 31, 2002 Posted August 31, 2002 I think we arrived at the parking area about seven hours after leaving the summit. You then have to get back to your car, and the previous posts describe that well. We didn't have a shuttle, and car traffic is pretty minimal on the dirt portions. Be prepared to feel harshly punished by the time you get done(probably from dehydration more than anything, as Forest says, VERY dry on the west side). I slept on the little wooden frame at the parking area. Quote
Necronomicon Posted September 5, 2002 Posted September 5, 2002 For south(west) side descent... DRY!! DRY!! BEWARE!!! You will be suffering by the time you reach the car. As you pound down millions of steep switchbacks, you can hear a roaring creek the entire time, but NONE FOR YOU!!! Even when you reach the base of the trail, the river is still a thousand feet below you, so don't look forward to that. I ended up sucking water off of a slime coated cliff, rich in yummy SULFUR. I did find a good creek about 2km from the car, and sucked at that for awhile. As much as it may blow, hoard some water for the descent, if you can. Also, what self-loathing fool would APPROACH from this side. We figured, if we met anyone coming up, that we'd kill them out of mercy, and take their water. -J Quote
daylward Posted September 11, 2002 Posted September 11, 2002 quote: Originally posted by forrest_m: assuming that you're talkin' about the west side descent... from the summit, maybe 2-3 hours to get through the technical part of the descent. it's pretty straight forward but has some exposure. we only had to do 2 single rope raps. another 2-3 hours down the trail. depending on how tired you are. that side of the mountain is very dry! fill your water bottles with snow on the summit if you can (there's often a remnant cornice you can quarry), 'cause there ain't a drop until you get down to the road. once on your bike, it's maybe an hour (under normal circumstances, see below) to the highway, another hour back up the road and 45 minutes or so back up the dirt road to your car. the dirt road portions do not get much traffic, at least not as far up as you are leaving your bike. down lower, maybe, but i wouldn't rely on it, you might be waiting a long time. So, by your timeframe, it took 2.5 + 2.5 hours to get down to the road, + 1 hour to the paved road (+ 1 hour waiting for the artillery chicks), + 1 hour up the paved road to the other dirt road + 45 minutes up the other dirt road = almost 9 hours from summit to car. Since we got going from the summit at about 7:30, that would put us at the car at 5:30? I seem to remember driving back through Bellingham at about 2:00 pm, thinking about how nice it was to have a good portion of a day left after doing a climb like that; I think we actually got back to the car at about 12:30. So go ahead and chop Forrest's times in half for a more accurate schedule. The 2 single-rope raps can be done in half an hour, but there's still some scrambly 4-th class diagonal (rightward) downclimbing before you get to the beaten trail. After that, 1.5 - 2 hours down the long & steep, dry & dusty trail will get you to the bikes. Then it's only about 14 miles of mostly decent road between the descent trail and the car, so it really doesn't take super long on a bike; probably 1.5 hours at a leisurely pace (10 mph). Quote
Cpt.Caveman Posted September 11, 2002 Posted September 11, 2002 You guys must eat performance enhanced horsecock. Human beings would never be back at their car by noon unless they bivied. Quote
Bronco Posted September 11, 2002 Posted September 11, 2002 quote: Originally posted by forrest_m: funny story, we came down on a very very hot afternoon, so we stripped down to our underwear for the bike ride out. in addition, we were wearing our climbing helmets, with the rope, rack, etc. tied clumsily to the bike racks. looking like a couple of freaks, we came around the corner to find a canadian army truck blocking the road. two female soldiers in camoflauge are leaning up against the truck, smoking. they were blocking the road to traffic while the army did artillery practice. they obviously thought we were a few cans short of a six pack and wouldn't even talk to us. so we sat there in our underwear (while they decided whether or not to shoot us?) for almost an hour before they opened up the road and let us go on... Sounds kinda like the start to a porno. Que the corny porno music. Quote
allthumbs Posted September 11, 2002 Posted September 11, 2002 Forrest, I wonder if the Bimbo's were doin' the thunder thigh shake 'n bake? bwahahaha Quote
Dru Posted September 11, 2002 Posted September 11, 2002 im gonna fly past the west face of slesse tomorrow in a helicopter paid for by the government maybe I can persuade them to stop on top for 15 minutes to look for Ray's ost camera and other booty Quote
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