Don_Serl Posted October 28, 2007 Posted October 28, 2007 Trip: Sumallo Headwall - Zero Gully Date: 10/27/2007 Trip Report: I was gonna head back down to the seracs on Baker with a few buddies, but one of the guys I contacted mentioned doing something in the alpine cuz the weather was gonna be suitable. This got me thinking, and Zero Gully seemed to fit the bill - fairly close to town, short approach, and a nice climb for the autumn. In the end Fishstick, GR, RT, and I left town at 5 and arrived at the end of the road at 8 after a lard-puck stop at McDonald in Hope. Btw, there's a gate on the upper valley road 1/2km beyond the forks, but while it's chained, it's not actually locked. We got Graham's RAV4 to the flats below Silvertip - beyond that, it's now ATV terrain. We got away from the car just before 8:30, hit the end of the road in an hour, and crossed the meadows and scree-fields to the snow in another half-hour. Here we cramponned and harnessed up, and by about 10:30 were crunching up hard neve with 5cm-10cm of surface snow of varying consistencies. Once into the gully proper, we encountered wildly varying conditions, from sections of very hard old neve to deep, punky, energy-consuming spindrift-slabs to a few places where the points actually scrabbled on dirt and/or rock. A couple hundred meters up, RT (who's a newbie) reached his comfort limit for soloing, so I roped him up and led and belayed a couple pitches. However, belays were pretty much non-existent with the gear we brought ( a few screws - useless! and a half dozen tri-cams - managed to place one... ), and we were gonna have to downclimb the route (very time consuming), so at 12:30 at about half-height I decided to shepherd RT back down while Fishstick and GR continued to the top. By 3pm we were back at the road-head, and at 4 the others caught up to us, having taken another hour to reach the col thru some "very funky snow" and "badly rotten ice". Sporty! By 5 we were back at the car, and it started to shower at 7:30 just as we got back into Vancouver - I love it when it happen that way! Summary: the cirque is awesome, the approach is cake, and the route conditions are 'entertaining'. take a handful of thin pitons and leave any and all other gear at home. it'll stay good till we get heavy snow... there's a Michael Layton photo in the gallery that shows roughly current conditions: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=27&size=big&cat=&si=zero i'll try to get a cpl more up once i get some digitals from GR. cheers, Quote
goldenchild Posted October 28, 2007 Posted October 28, 2007 I like to thank GR, Fishstick and especially DS for inviting me to their trip. It was an eye-opening experience for me and a great introduction to what 'couloir soloing' is like. Halfway up the gulley I lost some of my nerves and vocalized my discomfort before I got myself in trouble and perhaps turned a good day into a bad one for everybody. DS graciously put me on a rope and we turned back. Thanks DS. This my first time in the Sumallo area and had no idea how beautiful it could be. With a little more experience I hope to be back. Once again thanks to the 3 for taking me. RT Quote
Chad_A Posted October 28, 2007 Posted October 28, 2007 Very cool, thanks for the TR. Looking forward to the pics! Quote
cheamclimber Posted October 28, 2007 Posted October 28, 2007 Do you drive into that area from Hope or Chilliwack Lake> Quote
G-spotter Posted October 29, 2007 Posted October 29, 2007 Wow I'm glad we didn't go to Zero now because it would have been a gong show with seven people in the gully! Quote
Don_Serl Posted October 29, 2007 Author Posted October 29, 2007 all 7 would have been welcome - there was quite a bit of pretty deep flogging where the spindrift had packed in. then again, there were some cool sections of 50 degree HARD neve too... way different than 'last time'! ain't snow and ice wonderful that way. cheers, Quote
Don_Serl Posted October 29, 2007 Author Posted October 29, 2007 Do you drive into that area from Hope or Chilliwack Lake> Sunshine Valley, 12km east of Hope on Hwy 3. close to home for you, cc - check it out - it's a spectacular valley head. cheers, Quote
cheamclimber Posted October 29, 2007 Posted October 29, 2007 (edited) I will, I thought the area looked really nice when I saw it from Mt. Barr last year. Silvertip and Rideout are pretty high on my list right now. Edited October 29, 2007 by cheamclimber Quote
PaulB Posted October 30, 2007 Posted October 30, 2007 Is this at Mt Rideout? Map of cirque from previous TR: Quote
layton Posted October 30, 2007 Posted October 30, 2007 I'm always surpised how little attention this place gets...even with tr's on the board. I mean, don't you people look at the beckey guide and see this cirque and want to climb here? Do you need a tour guide? Quote
cheamclimber Posted October 30, 2007 Posted October 30, 2007 (edited) how close does the road get you to the mountains? Is there a trail? Edited October 31, 2007 by cheamclimber Quote
jmace Posted October 31, 2007 Posted October 31, 2007 Dont get lazy..work on your reading comprehension, it will help you in the future Quote
swaterfall Posted October 31, 2007 Posted October 31, 2007 I smell a cc.com flavor of the week coming on here. Quote
layton Posted October 31, 2007 Posted October 31, 2007 You're a pussy if you don't climb in the Sumallo Cirque this weekend Quote
Don_Serl Posted November 1, 2007 Author Posted November 1, 2007 Here's a couple photos: RT getting an introduction to some lovely alpine gully ice at mid height in Zero Gully. Fishstick into a snowpatch in Zero Gully, with DS on ice below. cheers, Quote
cheamclimber Posted November 1, 2007 Posted November 1, 2007 That looks sooo sweet, the only thing I've done like this was on the North side of Cheam Last Spring and it was great, can't wait to get out there! Quote
Weekend_Climberz Posted November 2, 2007 Posted November 2, 2007 Nice!! After trying this route during the Spring 3 times, I'm switching my plans to early Fall for next year. Fred's guarantee'd me he's not going back again. Oh, and for anyone going, there's a nice sized grizzly that patrols the road. Might be asleep now though... Quote
jordop Posted November 2, 2007 Posted November 2, 2007 Are you sure it was a grizz? They were attempting to reintroduce them into the area about 5-10 yrs ago, but I think most of them were either shot by hunters, or managed to make their way back to the Coast from where they were unfortunately taken in the first place. Quote
cheamclimber Posted November 3, 2007 Posted November 3, 2007 I ran into a Sasquatch once...it was on its hind legs and had brown hair all over its body so it couldn't have been a bear lol (a guy told me this once) Quote
G-spotter Posted November 3, 2007 Posted November 3, 2007 Nice!! After trying this route during the Spring 3 times, I'm switching my plans to early Fall for next year. Fred's guarantee'd me he's not going back again. Oh, and for anyone going, there's a nice sized grizzly that patrols the road. Might be asleep now though... Jmace and i just got back from zero gully, we climbed it & went on to summit sumallo peak, great shape, good times, look out for loaded logging trucks on the road and they are locking the gate now... Quote
G-spotter Posted November 3, 2007 Posted November 3, 2007 Pics: The cirque The route Spindrift welcome party! Climbing photos from the route Payne and Jesse on way to summit of Sumallo. Summit cap of Sumallo Peak's SE summit. There is a NW summit that is the same approximate height just hidden in left of photo behind foreground rocks. Rideout with silvertip behind. Traversing over to the Silvertip-Rideout col is NOT the fastest way off Zero Gully. Downclimb you must young Jedi! We ended up placing a soft iron pin and an abalakov for rap anchors and downclimbing the rest of the gully. The pin was superfluous, we started rapping 30m too high, but with double ropes would be in the right postion. It seems like there must have been more snow and thicker ice and less bare rock than last week as per Don's report above. We could not find any kicked steps from last week and in fact most of ours from the way up had been filled in by spindrift on the way down. We took a couple thin pins, a couple screws and a couple Tricams. All could have been used. I suppose pickets could have been used too but if you spend a lot of time belaying on this route you will have a very late day out at this time of year. Quote
cheamclimber Posted November 3, 2007 Posted November 3, 2007 How does minus 0.5 gully look right now? Looks like a great day out^ Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.