Name the climb?

[Dane]

Trying to put all my old photos into a digital format and thought some might enjoy this.

 

Can you name the climb? A hint...easy aproach, a sting it the tail and a long ass walk out. (don't spoil the fun if I just mailed these to you I have a lot more if anyone finds them interesting.

 

Looking up..from a little over half way

 

and down from a bit higher.

 

The 2nd and last of the rock pitches with the cornice to get out of the gully.

 

[Dane]

Mtn. is Deltaform, Valley of the Ten Peaks, CAN.  Pics in the above post are from Super Coulior.  The gully is a garbage chute for the entire face.  As Dick Renshaw said in the Guide to the Rockies South, "in foul weather it is more dangerious than the Eiger".  Also a good description in Dougherty's excellent "Selected Alpine Climbs".

 

But, OH MY GOD, what a line! Enough alpine ice (1000m) to make it worth the 2 pitches of shitty rock to get you out of the gully.

 

Top pic is from the narrows mid-way in the upper gully.  The shot looking down is from a bit higher up, just below the rock band. The snow arete in the sun below is where you cross over from the lower gully.

The other route just to the left on the face isn't a lot easier.  With the simple name, North Glacier, it is long, steep and takes some effort to get past the upper ice cliff and final 'shrund. And you still have an ugly decent and a long (15 miles) walk out.

 

Both climbs are well worth the effort! All the pics are in fall conditions.

 

FWIW the pics aren't mine. The upper two are Greg Cronn's (who also did the 2nd on Alberta's N. face with Blanchard) during his and James Blench's ascent, taken in '81 or '82 iirc. The third is from an uncredited pic in an '86 CLIMBING ad. Gwain Oka and I did the second ascent in a storm, 6 or 7 years earlier. I was so happy when we finished the rock band and got out of the gully, I started crying. And really stoked years later to get pics from Greg.

 

 

[genepires]

is it by mt temple? super couliour on deltaform?

[Dane]

You got it, the pic above is the face on Deltaform you see from the top of Mt Temple or the Sentinel Pass trail.

[Cobra_Commander]

awesome. the can rockies always inspire and intimidate me.

[Chad_A]

Hi, Dane,

 

Nice post. I had to chime in; we were up there in that neck of the woods, late September, to do some climbing in the area up there, this year.

 

After the first objective, we thought about Deltaform. The wardens at the Banff info center directed us toward another office (the rescue operations center?) where another head warden was offering to give us advice on the route. 20 minutes later, we were staring at beautiful photos of this face, on large monitors, in the office.

 

He proceeded to give us tons of beta (big difference between what you'll find in our own parks here) when I noticed that the pictures were from a rescue, and that items left over from a tragedy last year (perhaps the year before) were highlighted before our very eyes; a set of ice tools high on the face below the rock band, other items below on the lower snow slope. It filled me with enough dread that I wanted to go elsewhere.

 

No point to my post except to say that "fall conditions" up there have changed; the word on the street up there is that routes such have this have higher success rates in the spring, now. Here is another example from this year: http://live-the-vision.com/cms/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=41&func=view&id=7679&view=flat&catid=11

 

At any rate, thanks for sharing. I for one appreciate it (and second what Cobra mentioned).

 

[Dane]

Good point Chad. Been more than a few killed on this

climb recently including some NW locals. Slipstream,

Deltaform and Cavell hold the high water marks on the

Mountaineering Accidents in Canada list. In my limited

experience Fall was never a great season for the "gully"

climbs (Kitchener and Popes are others). Most are better

done in spring after the snow pack has settled a bit or

winter on a good snow year. Just might be a less real

ice which may not be a bad thing

 

Those three climbs aren't technically all that hard and

easy enough in good conditions ( and draw bigger crowds because of

it)...but in bad conditions all can easily

kill you. Never hurts to remember it is a Lowe/Jones route as well.

 

 

The accident report you mention is easy to find on Google.

 

One of many other accidents on Deltaform here: http://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/2006/04/charlie-borgh_24.html.

 

All said some of the bigger climbs have gotten easier/less dangerious with more water ice/less

snow in the right season (Slipstream and GCC come to mind), some harder with less ice. If you

can climb it its generally easier If you don't it might well be harder

 

 

 

 

[G-spotter]

The 2004 accident was a pretty bad one. Basically the climb is way thinner than in Dane's photo, rarely "in", but these guys charged up on it because it was a "classic route" and pretty much marched smiling to their deaths. Maybe less hyping of these 70s routes is warranted due to climate change.

[Dane]

Hummmm.....

 

Hyping? Bad accident? Really bad accident? Shit, I can tell you from recent experience any fall can be a "really bad" accident.

 

Been thinking about reactions to this post over night. Many of the bigger alpine routes of Canada were done in the '60s and '70s. All are dangerious even in the best conditions. I can't think of a classic N face in Canada that hasn't had a serious accident or death in the last 40 years. Conditions change in the the mtns....all mnts. Few die doing them.

 

The Eiger supposedly was unclimbable a few years ago because it was too dry. Slipstream too dangerious because of serac fall. Andromeda Strain to dangerious because of the rock fall If you include GCC add any excuse you like. North face of Athabasca went from 5.4 to M6. The list goes on and on.

 

But then all get climbed on a regular basis, winter/spring and summer. More so now than ever before. Only thing that has really changed is the percentage in the number of climbers out who are willing to accept the risks involved.

 

This photo is from late Sept in 2005

 

 

A fuzzy pic but you can easily see the distinct lack of ice and the huge water/stone troughs in the lower gully in the fall of 1975. I know from the pics what year I would have choosen given the chance. And that is 30 years difference.

 

 

If last winter was any inclination in the Rockies I would have never believed there was an issue with global warming. (which I do believe btw) The Rockies had a long cold snap, lots of snow and water ice every where. Up high the peaks I got on at over 10K were colder than normal with a LOT more snow. When spring did come, it came fast with warm temps instantly. I'm interested to see what happens this season. One of the Parks guys told me a couple of weeks ago it was "winter already" in the icefields....a month or so early.

 

Been climbing in the Rockies for almost 40 years now.

I have been on Deltaform 5 or 6 different times, done two routes and can be fairly confident in my assessment that not a lot has changed over the years when you look at alpine conditions is general.

 

Yes it is drier, but then we now climb in different seasons. Not jack worth of difference between the 2004 photo and photos I have from the early '70s. Hard alpine climbing has always been about conditions. Be it the north side of Rainier or the water ice on Hood or the N face of Alberta.

 

Having met a few young lions lately taking up alpinism I was asked to add a few (old) trip reports since there is little here on classic alpine routes. More fun than a dry old guide book and I agree the web site would be better for it.

 

 

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Great stuff Dane, some stories and more old photos would be great. I often feel that one thin cc.com lacks compared to supertopo is the old stories of FAs and early repeats of classic routes. Would be great to see more and more old photos and stories as we enter the rainy season.

[kevino]

Thanks Dane.

 

I still want to take you up on your offer/idea of climbing dragontail etc in the winter/spring.

[dbb]

definitely enjoying your contributions Dane.

[Chad_A]

definitely enjoying your contributions Dane.

 

In that vein, I'd certainly like to hear of some stories you have from years prior.

 

On the topic of the changing conditions (now vs. then) I certainly don't have the same experience as you to say; but I hope to be up there in that beautiful area some more to forge my own experiences. On the whole, though, my observations are that the local talent is easily dealing with the evolving seasonal conditions in the CDN Rockies quite well.

 

My hope is that I'll become one of the "young lions" finding out for myself.