Viennese N.Face Beta?

[layton]

Anyone know anything about The North Face Direct, or the Derektissima Routes? Flavelle-Howe looks like a ton of scrambling (16 pitches worth of 3rd to Low 5th) to a few good pitches near the top, so unless someone says it rocks and the others blow, I don't think I'd concider that one.

 

Any good, how's the rock? Route beta? Times? Approach? Desent? Road? Anything info would be helpful.

 

Any beta on N.Ridge of Clarke or Tuning fork on bardeen would be nice too, but they don't look nearly as scary, committing, and they seem like common routes compared to the N.face routes on Vienesse.

 

Thanks,

Mike Layton

[layton]

oh yeah, for anyone who doesn't know, these peaks are mentioned in the new SW BC guide and are in the Chehalis range. Beta still wanted badly. Obviously I can go in and see for myself, which I will most certainly do one of these days coming up, but concidering I'm not doing an FA I'll take any useful info. Anyone climbed s.face of Ashulu also...see climzalot's post to reply to that one.

[Off_White]

bivouac.com

[layton]

Thanks, duh!, I should'a checked that site.

Any word on NF.Direct, or Direktissima?

[Dru]

I can see a big snowpatch on the east ridge of Viennese, looking north from my office, so I wouldnt be surprised if the slabs on the north side are damp, or downright wet, in spots.

 

The south face looks dry and toasty.

[Dru]

[Don_Serl]

re: chehalis routes, when u say new SW BC guide, i presume u mean "alpine select". the beta is good for all these routes in that guide.

i have not climbed direktissima, but it sounds very good. the crux pitch is challenging and (shall we say) NOT sport-protected, but none of the chehalis cruxes are. i always advise people to carry a piton hammer and 3 or 4 thin pegs (KBs, thin LAs) for the tight corners on the harder chehalis climbs.

i agree with your comments on flavelle-howe. a lot of moderate climbing low down, a bit turfy. that's why carl and i went the way we went on variazioni, to get better climbing and cleaner rock. btw, we varied to right at the finish cuz we couldn't figure out (or weren't ballsey enuf to climb) the headwall crux on the F-H. those guys were impressive. and our crux was pushy too... every chehalis route has its crux...

i'll respectfully disagree with the comments on N ridge of clarke. there ARE only 5-6 'technical' pitches on the toe and a cpl more at 1/3 height, but the easier stuff is superb, lots of it is 'bottom-end' 5th class butr scramble-able, and it's 25 pitches long (not that u rope it all). great rock, great feature.

as for tuning fork, i think it's the best of the lot. once u get above the bush on the lower ridge, there are maybe 15 pitches, almost all 5.7, 5.8, or 5.9. u need to pay attention to routefinding too, esp to get right into the dihedral (about p4) and to outflank the roof at its top (about p7).

and ashlu: it worked well for dave and i, day return from the road. there's a lot of flake terrain in the 1st half, and u need to be careful here and there with suspect rock, but the upper pitches are excellent, solid, steep, 5.8/9 (photo: alpine select p152). somebody has gotta go up and repeat before i'll know whether it's worthwhile or not.

ashlu has ONE bonus: i suspect it's the closest peak to vancouver from which u can see waddington...

cheers, don

[layton]

Don,

I'd like to do a N.Face route on Vienesse and then the N. Ridge of clark. You seem to be the local to ask. is this a good plan?

DAY #

1. drive and hike in to below vienesse and bivy

2. climb vienesse, descend to nursery pass, back to bivy below route and then move bivy back to clark

3. climb n.ridge of clark w/a carry over (yikes!) back to nursery pass and car and drive home and puke.

 

Seems like a cary over on clarke is less trouble than going all the way around the backside(S.side) of the whole range, down to the pass, back to the bivy, and then back out again to nursery pass!!!! Or is there a desent of clark that gets you back to a bivy spot. McLane doesn't mention a good one in his SW BC guide.

 

Also, are there sections I need an ax and or crampons for? Could I get away with a sharp rock and insteps (which I hate doing...lost a few years off my life being so friggin' scared).

 

Thanks Don!!! (or whoever else gives beta)

p.s. I need a partner this weekend (fri-mon)

[jordop]

That's the trouble with asking for beta in the summer; anybody who knows anything is actually out and about climbing things! From what I have heard about Chehalis approaches (pure personal conjecture here, mind you) you might want to move "puke" to #2 and scrap #3 Take a third tool with a hammer end instead of an axe: cracks in Chehalis are thin and pins should be considered essential (so I have read from Don either here or in CAJ).

 

Jordo's golden rule of alpinism: If you get HALF your objectives done in a road/climbing trip, then it was a success (helps keep me sane)

[layton]

Thanks.

Just need someone with some emotional problems to go and do it with me.

[rat]

we started up the flavelle-howe, traversed to variazioni to escape some grunge, then finished up flavelle-howe without pins sometime in the mid-1990's. take don's advice about the thin pegs. you may find that you don't have much daylight left by the time you get back to your nursery pass bivy. we didn't and we weren't really slouchin'.

 

it looked possible to do the north face of clark in a day from nursery pass but crampons looked like a real good idea when we were there. the photo in mclane's book makes it look much mellower. doing the route and getting back to your car in a day (especially after doing vienesse) would be another question. might as well give it a try---worse come to worse, you'll only miss a day of work.

 

any info on road conditions? i haven't been able to reach canfor since we gutted their timber industry.

[jordop]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Rat:

any info on road conditions? i haven't been able to reach canfor since we gutted their timber industry.

---

That's cause theyre only answering the phone for Canucks after what you bastards did!

[Buckwheat]

I did Direktissima last week (Sunday the 21st. ) The weather and conditions on route were perfect. Completely dry. Lots of snow at end of descent. After the rappel from east ridge. But it was nice to not hike on talus. We did the route without pins but a couple would have come in handy for belays. Route finding was somewhat of a problem, which it appears it would be anywhere on the face. I think we climbed a little left of the line in the guidebook for the middle pitches but we were able to find a way through to the slabs at 5.10 or so. The road conditions are pretty bad after the Shatlu lake trailhead (which is where we parked). As for NF Direct: my parent for Dir. did the first ascent and says its a much better line. More sustained, with lots of 5.8-5.9. Better anchors as well. He has gone back and placed a couple bolts and pins to make it safer. He highly recommends it.

 

A spectacular area! Didn't see a soul the entire time.

[layton]

 

 

[ 07-31-2002, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: michael_layton ]

[layton]

Thats crazy! I was going to climb that route on sunday also. Went up the wrong road Sat Morning, and by the time we found it (the right road) it was 1:30pm. We were going to go back on Sunday to climb monday, but the weather looked like it was gonna crap out. Almost had to B'hammers on an obscure route on the same day.

 

How long did the approach, climb, and descent take? Any othe info, like how did the approach/descent from Clark look? Need crampons or ax? What was the feasablility of mtn biking up there?

 

Good job on Direktissima!

 

p.s. to add to my wrechedness, I bailed off ashlu again today. Partner had a cracked rib from before that didn't heal (screaming). My two partners for the bugaboos just bailed on me for separate reasons. Why, God, Why? I've been good. I will be soon making a pact with the devil.

 

[ 07-31-2002, 07:16 PM: Message edited by: michael_layton ]

[Buckwheat]

Well, you'll probably hate me but we went out to the Bugs afterwards... Let's see, aproach was maybe 5 1/2 hours. Mostly on the logging road. Nice 1500 ft. snow field to the pass. Sure beats talus! There's a few snow fields to cross to reach the base. No need for crampons or axe though. There is actually a bit of glacier activity near the base. Hanging seracs and the like. Some avalanche danger for maybe five minutes of the approach near the end. Stash some boots near the pass for the return to base camp so you don't need to carry them on route. (There's an obvious flat rock near the pass) The route took about twelve hours and the descent (back to base camp) took 3. We did the route in 17 pitches to the ridge and then two more to the summit. That's with a little bit of simul-climbing but also a few short pitches thrown in.

Be ready for a little 5.8 don't fall and 5.9 don't wanna fall. The roof pitch we did, which we think is about 20 left of the line in the book felt like 5.10c or so... The slab up high is amazing. 5.6 crack for a thousand feet. It's much longer than it looks... We brought 1 axe for the descent. You don't need it until the end where you rappel onto the snow. It was nice to have because you land on some steep snow. + you must crawl up over the bergshrund from the rock. I can't think of much else as far as beta. It's a pretty nice route. I do think that NFD would be of better quality and more sustained but it would be much harder to do in a day. Have a great time if you go up there!

[layton]

Thank you for the beta.

Email me if you wanna climb some long routes sometime (up there, anderson river, wherever...). I don't hate you for going to the bugs afterwards, but I will be crying myself to sleep tonight.

Anyone wanna go up there with me, sniff.

[Dru]

just a tiny little note its Derektissima cause its named after Derek Boekwyt who is dead...

 

So from what I hear from everyone despite the fact Crescendo looks like the most obvious line everyone sez not to do it? I want votes on which one to do: orig. NF or Derektissima. That roof pitch on NF direct/Bohemian looks kinda harddddddish....

[layton]

I tried Damnit!

 

Forecast called for mostly sunny this saturday. Necronomicon and I got to practice our fog finding skills ala Marko Polo. Excellent 4wd-hc. We got pretty far on the road. Mtn bikes would not save 1.5 hours on the descent, since it took 45 minutes to drive back to the lake (unless bikes can go back in time). The approach took about 4.5 hours from the car, and 2.5 back. We can speed up our in time by bringing some crappy throw away shoes and just hiking in the river from the end of the road, up to the snowslope, which we did on the return. Fucking cold! Saves a really nasty bushwack. Plus there is a ton of bear poop all over, and you could surprise one really easy in the tall "grass".

 

Wish we climbed up there. I will be back many many many times. Direktissima seems like a totally awesome route. Yeah, the NFD route looks sweet too, and harder, but 1000' of 5.7/5.6 crack on an amazing looking slab makes Diretissima seem like the one to do first! Shit, do em both...Clark too. Hope a 4-5 day weather window opens up really really soon!

 

A couple guys went in to do Tuning Fork on Bardean the same day as us. I would be totally amazed if they got up it, do to the serious lack of visibility from fri night till now. Their truck was still there, so they must've done the approach. Blech!

 

Oh, by the way...this area totally blows. Stay home.

 

[ 09-02-2002, 03:40 PM: Message edited by: michael_layton ]

[Don_Serl]

anybody who climbs crescendo, lemme know. i did the approach and traverse ledge with erik frebold a few years ago, then set off up the crest; came up against wide cracks thru loose, mossy overhangs within half a pitch; backed down; climbed to a higher break and again went out right to the crest - more looseness. chickened out and had a fun time doing about 6 or 7 pitches up and left, then left and up, to the east ridge crest. nice rock over that way. see righthand dotted line in alpine select p309.

beats me 'bout the "real" route...

cheers, don

[Don_Serl]

btw, it's clarke with an "e"...

[Crackhead]

The North wall looks wonderful from the traverse above... did it last week ... Excellent rock!

[rat]

quote:

---

Originally posted by michael_layton:

[QB

 

A couple guys went in to do Tuning Fork on Bardean the same day as us. I would be totally amazed if they got up it, do to the serious lack of visibility from fri night till now. Their truck was still there, so they must've done the approach. Blech!

 

[/QB]

---

we climbed to the top of the flying buttress on saturday then bailed due to very poor visibility above. of course the clouds thinned out slightly in the early afternoon but we were enroute to the cooler by then. hidden pillar looks like a must-do. the approach was a cakewalk.

 

nice job on the traverse, crackhead. that looks like a fine time.

[layton]

I think the difficulty in that approach, due to your cakewalk, and our rather pleasent approach that day...compared to my previous nasty approach is the sun. Approaching when it's cool and cloudy makes all the aproachs less unfun I guess.

 

How long did it take you from the car to the bivy site, and likewise, how long out to the car from the bivy site (for future ref when I head up again)? Water's plenty there I imagine?

 

Nursery pass takes about 4.5 hours from the car 2-3 miles past the bardean approach. Shitloads of water at nursery pass.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Sexuall poop post after me to get the page top.