[TR] Crossover - SE Ridge of East Summit 5/21/2006

[Ponzini]

Climb: Crossover - SE Ridge of East Summit

 

Date of Climb: 5/21/2006

 

Trip Report:

We were looking for a close yet obscure summit, and decided on Crossover. We decided to make a direct attack from Nesakwatch Creek instead of hike the lengthy Pierce Lake trail. As we forgot the camera, I stole some pictures to illustrate our route.

 

This shot, by Greg Jones, shows the true summit of Crossover on the right and the slightly lower eastern summit on the left.

 

We walked the road to the Slesse memorial, and then headed up the righthand side of the great slide track off the NE side of Slesse, giving the pocket glaciers a wide berth. About 30% of the bypass glacier has broken off and gone over the edge, but everything else is in place (albeit precariously!)

 

We climbed steeply through open forest and then snow to Crossover's east ridge. From there, the main peak looked like a tottering shitpile, while the east peak seemed like a sporting climb. We decided to give the SE ridge of the east peak a try.

 

East face of east peak of Crossover from Nesakwatch Creek, photo by Jordop:

 

 

Our route was the left skyline. We climbed five 30m pitches with some simul-climbing, it was windy and hard to hear so we kept the pitches short. The climbing was mostly 4th class but with lots of small 5th class steps, and the rock was surprisingly clean and firm. The route is similar to the N Ridge of the N Nesakwatch spire, a bit shorter but harder and with more sustained climbing. There is less greenery, the crest is much sharper and the exposure is better. Plus the views across to the north side of Slesse are intense!

All in all, I'd do this climb again before the N Spire, and I was surprised to not see it written up anywhere. Certainly a recommended route for a group looking for a moderade climb in a neat area, I'd say it was a PD+ (Derrick suggested AD-).

 

The summit register had only one entry, Roy Mason and party from 1994, but there was no indication of the route they climbed, nor could we see any rap slings anywhere on the mountian. We downclimbed to the col between the east and west peak and made one short rappel to the snow (look for a blue cord), and the rains hit just as we were packing the rope. It was a fast but wet trip out to the truck.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Rope, slings, set of hexes

Edited May 22, 2006 by Ponzini

[jordop]

Cool

It obviously looked easier to you to come in from the memorial than bashing straight up from the road? Was there any snow left on the route?

 

[G-spotter]

Todd, who was the "we"? If this route was a first ascent the guidebook author and AAJ route report complier, among other people, would eventually like to know such things

[Ponzini]

Straight up from the road looks real bushy for at least the first 1000 feet, and further than that after the snow leaves, and there looks to be some greasy slabs to boot.

 

There's still lots of snow from 4000 ft upwards but only minor patches on the ridge, the east face is still fairly snowy.

 

The other climber was Mr. Derrick Johnstone. I'll bet that that the companion NE ridge is waiting for a first ascent, one could reach it from the road (bushy), Pierce Lake (long) or by rapping from the col between the two Crossover peaks to the small glacier to the N and hiking down to the ridge toe, which looked fairly easy.

[G-spotter]

There is some pretty steep rock at the bottom of the NE ridge that you see looking across from MacFarlane.

[Ponzini]

We looked down from the top, it looked clean and firm. Would be a nice 2 day trip if one camped at upper Pierce Lake....

[Don_Serl]

hey todd, good going. i think you've likely done a new route there, altho i climbed Crossover (main summit) with John Wittmayer and Greg Yavorski in March 1978 by some sort of route in this general area. we angled up right immediately from the bridge across the Nesakwatch. there was some bush low down, but lotsa snow, so going was pretty easy. i have 3 photos from close to the toe of what you're calling the NE ridge (centre in jordop's photo), then my slides jump to the one belayed pitch we climbed. i know we were on the S side, cuz we were in the sun and Slesse was BIG in the background, but i think we crossed the col at the base of your ridge and traversed west to the base of the SE or S side of the main summit. i also don't think we passed over the E summit; i just recall a fairly direct ascent to the main peak.

our intended day-trip, btw, turned into a bit of an epic. for some reason we decided to traverse N, then descend, but at the notch N of the summit we had to downclimb on the W side because of super-soft cornicey snow on the crest - we intended to traverse a ways below the crest, then re-ascend - but the snow was SO soft we couldn't get back up! so down we went, headed for Slesse Creek. luckily the various ridges and spurs we followed linked up and didn't cliff out, but i can assure you that the nite we spent sitting under a tree down in the valley was not the most comfortable of our lives.

once we'd walked back to the main Chwk R road and hitched to Nesakwatch Ck, it was somehow decided that since it was my vehicle I'd have to be the one to walk the 5 or 6km to retrieve it. somewhere along the way i simply lay down on a log in the sun beside the road and fell asleep for a while. but it all ended well. fun!

cheers, don

[Ponzini]

Hi Don, you certainly took the long way out!

 

Your description makes sense for a climb of the western peak, since from the base of our ridge an ascending traverse across some snowslopes would lead right to the S side of the main peak. That was our plan to begin with, but our ridge looked so nice we couldn't resist. The ridge between the peaks is quite serrated, might be a fun traverse but could be a bit loose.