[TR] Crown Mountain- Crater Slabs 10/22/2006

[jordop]

Climb: Crown Mountain-Crater Slabs

 

Date of Climb: 10/22/2006

 

Trip Report:

Jmace and I climbed the east face slabs of Crown Mtn yesterday in a super fun day out in the local hills. This route rocks as a moderate solo scramble and deserves to be WAY better travelled

 

We hiked the Flint & Feather to start cause we were too cheap to pay for the tram ride up and the Grind smelled like Quick Move people A rough start especially for the Mace fightin back the alckie growlies, but we got to the base of Crown pretty quick and started up the north side gully

 

 

The crater couloir is wicked fun scrambling up onto the slabs of the east face where the rock is superb and solid. Consistent and challenging 4th class the whole way. We soloed it but it would be a different story if wet.

 

 

Lottsa lounging and bsing on the summit cause we were so amped at how fast the day was going, but we had heard that the main gondola was down and there would be a lineup to download.

 

Holy sh*t! The lineup was HHUUGEE, proabbly about 3 hrs

 

 

So after some bacon loading we forced our way down the BCMC trail, passing a Chinese family at about 1/2 way as the sun was going down. They had shopping bags and a 2yr old kid had conked out and was being carried. Probably bivied

 

Good fun super close to home

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

nuttin

 

Approach Notes:

trail from tram to Hanes valley.

[Ponzini]

Would it be any faster/easier to approach by walking up the Lynn Creek trail (assuming you weren't going to pay for the ride up the tram)?

[G-spotter]

It'd be hella faster/easier to approach by chopper, but not cheaper.

 

That line up is insane! Were they feeding small children to the grizzly bears or anything for the entertainment of those too weak to hike downhill?

[jordop]

What's funny is hearing all these stories about people hiking down the trails in suits after having a meeting up there, or families coming down in the dark after dinner figuring it can't be that bad. They got a guy handing out rave-job GLOW STICKS to people who choose to hike down That family we saw was in for a world of hurt

 

Yeah mibbie it's faster coming up Hanes Valley but then you're shuttling cars and that's all a bit much Never having done that route I can only say it looked like a lots of slide and boulder walking when you could be chatting with 80yr old legends with wooden piolets hiking around Goat Mtn

[jordop]

One further note. In the 1975 CAJ there is a report of a 10 pitch 5.9 A2 route somewhere around here in the vicintiy of the Widowmaker Arete. Long lost and likely never reapeated. By our judgments some serious drugks would be needed to envision a 10 pitch *wall* on this peak . . .

[G-spotter]

It goes up the most prominent buttress between WA and the gully... not really a wall and has some sections avoidable by walking left onto slabs I think.

[jordop]

Yeah well you know something aint cricket when a trip report refers to the talus going down into Hanes valley as "a 50 degree scree slope"

[G-spotter]

Ok see here, you got Crater Couloir in red, Widdermaker in green, and more or less claimed line of "The Barrier" in blue... it does kinda skirt along that steep shadowed face low down but I wonder where the 30 foot roof near the top is???

 

[jordop]

Ok see here, you got Crater Couloir in red, Widdermaker in green, and more or less claimed line of "The Barrier" in blue... it does kinda skirt along that steep shadowed face low down but I wonder where the 30 foot roof near the top is???

 

 

Yeah, but you've got red to the left of the actual Crater Couloir, maybe for clarity though. Blue (Barrier) basically climbs the central wall in this photo:

 

which I can see providing a few pitches of real climbing . . . but the supposed top half of blue is basically the slabs Jesse and I climbed; it's all the same angle and no way any harder than fourth/low fifth class. Maybe the roof is on the summit block of the true summit of Crown - I can see that, it's pretty steep for 1/2 a pitch there.

[Don_Serl]

Interesting stuff on Crown. But I'm not sure the blue routeline is correctly placed for the 1972 Gordon/Rodway "Barrier" route reported in CAJ'75. Their article mentions scanning the prospective route from Goat ridge during their approach, and you cannot see the east face of the peak from that viewpoint. Consensus at the time (none of it based on direct conversation) was that the route had to lie on one of the butresses left of the crater, i.e., the yellow or purple circled areas.

 

 

Do you have some first-hand info Dru?

 

Also, I said "consensus" advisedly. At the time there was a strong undercurrent of suspicion that the entire thing was a hoax. In the pretty small, tight climbing community of the time no one seemed to know Mssrs Rodway or Gordon. Mysterious...

 

(Btw, there is just one Lorne Rodway listed in the lower mainland these days, and he's not the guy - I phoned to check...)

 

Turning to a related subject, the "Crown Crater" route gets good coverage in Kathryn Bridge's fine new book about the the Munday's lives and adventures outside the Waddington Range (a very good read). Sounds like the 'old' route veered rightward from the red line shown in its top half. Credit for the FA goes to Don Munday, Fred Smith [FA of Welch Pk in 1924], and Billy Gray in October 1911. There was way more climbing going on up there back in the early days than now - it's interesting to rediscver some of the history, and to recognize the abilities and boldness of some of the oldtimers. No Skyride for them!

 

Cheers, Don

Edited October 27, 2006 by Don_Serl

[Dru]

Yeah but the topo in CAJ '75 shows the route finishing at the same point as the Widowmaker, IE directly at the Camel's tail. Which it would not nearly do if it went up the circled buttresses (horribly bushy).

 

I wouldn't doubt that the whole thing could be a hoax but it would be interesting to climb the blue line as directly as possible just to see.

 

And doesn't CAJ 75 say that they first saw the route with binoculars from Goat Ridge (I assume, east of Goat Peak somewhere) and that they then went back the next day, or week, or something to climb it? In which case the fact that you can't see it from the approach to Goat is less relevant.

[Dru]

There should be at least 3 lines of various colours drawn in right of Widowmaker too, BTW.

[jordop]

 

The "purple" wall seems a more likely location of a climb of any sustained difficulty. It is very compact and quite steep and although most of the time I've walked past it it has been wet, it seems comparatively clean.

 

Yellow wall may have been used as a location shoot for "Jurassic Park" Gully right of Widowmaker looks like an excellent ski descent

[jmace]

Nice Don

 

yup we took the climb to the right of the red one, thats awesome that it was first climbed almost a hundred years ago!!

 

is that book you mention available at chapters?

 

J

[Don_Serl]

drew,

the topo can be interpreted a cpl ways, 1. as you suggest, and 2. with the horizontal line across the base of the camel and the pyramid as an intervening ridge, as seen from Goat ridge west of crown pass (i.e., SW). that'd make it the ridge running leftward from the summit in your photo (from E), towards the buttresses I circled. I can't imagine them being on the E ridge of Goat - they went up there to climb, and got 4 pitches done first day, then came back the next day cuz they didn't have bivvy gear to stay on the route. but they weren't out scoping, they knew where they they were going.

 

i suspect we'll never know. unless someone can track down the elusive Rodway and/or Gordon...

 

two more points of confusion:

a. I've heard the western summit on the Crown amssif referred to as the Pyramid too, and

b. the topo puts the route on the "west ridge of the Pyramid, Hanes valley". wherever it lies, it can't be on the WEST ridge of anything!

 

Jesse, not sure where u can get Bridge's book, but Chapters would be a good bet. the remaining Duthie's on 4th is still good for Canadiana too.

 

cheers, don

Edited October 28, 2006 by Don_Serl