Slesse Season Starting

[G-spotter]

Couple of things currently to be aware of:

 

Slesse Creek road (west side of the mountain) currently GATED at the Chilliwack Lake road, thus adding on 7km of road walking to the descent at minimum if coming down the west side.

 

Nesakwatch Creek road reportedly washed out c. 5km - adding about 2km to the approach;

 

NE butt is becoming snowfree, except for the mid-height ledge and near the junction of the Bypass and Original starts (see photo) but there is lots of snow at the base still and in other places.

 

Don't forget someone was killed by toppling ice blocks while approaching across the Bypass Glacier in July last year.

 

[marc_leclerc]

yay.... im stoked for NEB

[AlpineK]

Everybody should do the complete NEB not the sissy cutoff route.

[marc_leclerc]

how much harder is the complete?

[G-spotter]

Everybody should do the Texplorer version where you get so off route on the approach you climb a 17 pitch new route on a different part of the mountain and don't realize you are offroute until pitch 10

[AlpineK]

how much harder is the complete?

 

It's not harder it's just longer. You stay on the buttress from the valley. The reason it's better is you do the whole climb. Afterwards you can say you really climbed the route not some wimpy cutoff version.

 

There are some cool cracks down low with trees growing out of them. They're like climbing a jungle gym. After that there's a long slab to solo.

[marc_leclerc]

Everybody should do the Texplorer version where you get so off route on the approach you climb a 17 pitch new route on a different part of the mountain and don't realize you are offroute until pitch 10

 

I read aboutthat.. isnt it called Bamboozled Butress or something? Funny story.

 

 

[G-spotter]

Conditions as of Sunday June 15:

 

Photo by Gerry Kollmus on Flickr

 

[marc_leclerc]

the pocket glacier is still sending loads of ice and crap down the approach and as you can see in the pic theres a lot of snow on the bivi ledges.. otherwise it looks pretty dry

[G-spotter]

SLESSE CONDITIONS: JULY 7

 

Pocket Glacier has some menacing seracs and crevasses. East Face glacier is a mess of ice cubes.

 

That said, the hot weather of last week probably caused a lot of motion. I did not see or hear any icefall yesterday, but look out as temperatures warm up again.

 

Road conditions: Nesakwatch Creek road is 4wd with high clearance; we drove all the way to the Rexford trailhead with only one waterbar incident requiring pushing on the tailgate. 2wd will get you about 1km from Chilliwack Lake Road.

 

Slesse Cr. is still gated right at Chilliwack Lake road. This makes the Crossover descent a lot more appealing than going down the west side.

 

 

[marc_leclerc]

Crossover descent would be soooo easy right now with the snow. I was checking it out a few weeks ago when I did crossover

[sisu]

sick

[olyclimber]

Definitely a cool looking place

 

 

http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/61068094

[marc_leclerc]

Has the pocket glacier conditions changed much from these pictures? How would the crossing to the bypass ramps be?

[boadman]

Any updated info on Slesse conditions? Is the gate open? Has the glacier let loose? Would the west descent require a 9 mile hike out? Thanks!

[gertlush]

Was in the area last weekend (12/13) and everything still looks the same as the picture above.

[jmace]

How was the trip Gert ?

 

Gate is not opening, come down crossover

 

Havent really had much heat up high I bet the glacier sticks around for most of the summer

[boadman]

A couple of friends have advised that the cross-over is, "the bushwack from hell" Is that an exageration?

[gertlush]

It was luvly, did the SW ridge of the N Spire one day and a "lite" version of the enchainment on the next (which meant going round the side of the S spire at 4th class and from Rexford rapping into the gully rather than descend the W ridge). What an area; easy approach, nice bivy spots, stellar granite, not too committing, I'll be back fer sure.

[marc_leclerc]

Pocket clacier is sui-fucking-cidal right now... we had seracs collapsing every few minutes and many crevasses to be navigated. WE ended up having to finish the crossing becuase is would be dangerous to go back but you should wait a while because it is very dangerous right now. BTW we made some bivy ledges part way up but got fogged in the next day, had an epic getting off the mountain, ended up leaving half my rope on the mountain cuz we had to rap to the north glacier as the pocket glacier couldnt be descended.. will post TR

[marc_leclerc]

BTW, we only had general ice axes and no crampons. With ice tools and crampons it would be fairly easyas soon as the tower near the base of the bypass ledges collapses. The only way around that tower is below it and it looks quite unstable. Remember someone was killed on that glacier last year, for the most part it isnt bad but onve you get into the seracs near the back of the glacier be very careful, we had our misadventure because we were not willing to back track around the tower at the back of the glacier, either wait for it to collapse or wait for the glacier to slide.

[marc_leclerc]

 

 

 

 

East Face Glacier (we ran very fast accross these slabs)

 

 

Bypass glacier pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problem with the glacier is that it appears to be okay as you approach it but it gets bad once you are 2/3 finished. You look at every obstacle and foreshortening makes it looks like 'after this next obstacle it will be okay' but it just gets worse the further you go. Once the tower near the top colapses it will be much better, if the tower remains beware, the next crevasse is irreversible as you would have to jump uphill and it is undercut. You cant see this if you cross it to get to the back of the glacier but once you are accross you think to yourself 'oh shit' we cant get back...