Mt. Matier Northeast Face

[eriknusanet]

Last week I met up with a guy from Bellingham and we went up to BC to climb Mt. Matier. Took basically all day to go from Seattle to the parking lot (though we did stop at MEC). You go past Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton on 99.

We woke up at 3am and were hiking by 4am. At 6am we were crossing the threaded streams below the glacier. We scrambled up fun slabs, boulders and loose rock in this gully beside the glacier. Terrific views of ice falls right next to us but no danger. At 8am we started onto the glacier. It was all old snow and the crevasses were obvious so we didn't rope up.

At 10am we started onto the Northeast Face. We decided to not rope up as the conditions looked good. This was my first time climbing snow this steep for this long, so it was pretty exciting. There were sections that were 45 to 50 degrees and also short icy sections. Eventually we got our second tools out which helped a lot -- amazing how much better an ice tool works in ice than a regular old self-arrest ice axe!

There was a short rock ridge at the top. We were on the summit at noon. The mountains and glaciers are very impressive... bring a camera if you go! We downclimbed the route to get off. The face was in the sun and the snow was much softer at 1pm than when we started at 10am.

It took the same amount of time, 8 hours, to get back down to the car. So we just made it back by dark. We did one 25m rappel in the gully over the steepest section. The toughest part was actually the last 3 miles or so on the trail -- its pretty steep, lots of boulders and tree roots, you don't ever get to walk, its more like going down a gulley than a nice trail.

Highly recommended! You can camp by a lake at the end of the trail (before the gully) if you don't want to do a 16 hour day.

The Northwest Face looked awesome. It's steeper and longer than what we did, and had more ice on it. Looks like its in good shape now.

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erik@MyPhysicsLab.com

[This message has been edited by erikn (edited 09-19-2001).]

[Dru]

its faster going in via Cerise Cr./Anniversary Gl., but shh dont tell anyone

[verticalswamp]

the NW face on Matier has a 'schrund big enough to park several buses in right now. It was enough to turn back several moderately rigid members of the Vancouver chapter of the Chippendale Nightmares Sambuca review. Remember Mugs.

 

[Dru]

quote:

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Originally posted by verticalswamp:

the NW face on Matier has a 'schrund big enough to park several buses in right now. It was enough to turn back several moderately rigid members of the Vancouver chapter of the Chippendale Nightmares Sambuca review. Remember Mugs.

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Mugs and Jugs?

I thought they kicked you out of that team of strippers after the incident with thecucumber, Charles?

 

[verticalswamp]

You show your youth, Drew. And that was no cucumber.

C

[eriknusanet]

It looked to us that there was a snow bridge across the bergschrund on the NW face.