[TR] Mount Temple - North Face, Central Pillar 4/6/2009

[Dane]

Trip: Mount Temple - North Face, Central Pillar

 

Date: 4/6/2009

 

Trip Report:

Mt. Temple. Greenwood/Locke in red and the Eastburn/Burns in black.

 

Scott Nelson photo

 

Another look at Temple's north face with our 1976 line marked.

 

 

To better understand this huge face I drew in some of the other lines. This shot shows the complicated topography of the face and our line.

 

 

Left to right...E-B 1976, Lowe/Lowe (North Ridge) 1970, Elzinga/Miller (Dolphin) 1974 and the horizontal "escape ledge" first used in a attempt on the north ridge in 1969 by Hank Abrons and David Roberts. It has since been used in bad conditions to traverse off all the way from the head of the Dolphin.

 

For me at least the only line on this face has to start at that triangular patch of snow and go up! (left or right your option) Which is how our adventure began.

 

 

Some of our gear used on Temple.

 

 

Only climbs really protected from the ice cliffs are the Greenwood/Locke, Greenwood/Jones and the Robinson/Orvig all on the far sides of the face.

 

Not a good place to hang out for long. You get the idea.

 

 

 

Scott Nelson and "Travelin light" pictures from the Greenwood/ Locke.

 

 

 

 

"Deltaform has some of the worst rock imaginable (anywhere, except maybe Deborah) in the last rock band. Same reason most now try to avoid as much rock up high as possible by climbing the shorter variation on the left.

 

Temple on the other hand has some of the best limestone in the Rockies on the central buttress before you break out into the bowl at mid height. If that ridge were anywhere besides under a few million tons of ice it would be a classic climb. Wonderful in boots, but something that would be a delight in shoes. Above that the rock quality goes to sh#t...but still not as bad as Deltaform's last bit."

 

Mount Temple from Lake Annette

 

 

 

Been fun going back and trying to remember some of these climbs. Never expected to write this one up.

If you were like me I kept a journal BITD but anything “easy” I didn’t make much of a fuss about. My journal from the dates shows little. Basic route description but not much else. Mike wrote up the climb inthe CAJ and I did for the AAJ. Some of the details come from those write ups. Temple turned out to be much more a problem of imagination than a climbing problem.

 

If Fritz‘s memory is as clear as I might expect we made a effort to keep the theatrics down to a believable level, no matter how much the climb might have impressed me.

 

July 1976.

 

 

What I do remember was driving up the week before our Temple climb with my father and one of his older brothers. Neither had ever climbed, being good old Texas boys. Closest my father ever got to climbing was taking a bad spill down a water fall while fishing in the Sierras. That fall impressed him enough to keep me off anything that might resemble a climb until late in high school.

 

As we drove through the parks I repeatedly pointed out peaks I had climbed. They had reason to question my integrity back then. By the time we drove into Lake Louise and Valley of the Ten Peaks, much to my disappointment , I was sure they had stopped believing me when I said, “I’d climbed that!”

 

After our failure on Deborah in May I was aching for a good climbing season in Canada. My list was long as it often is for an aspiring 20 something alpinist. One of the things on my mind was a “free” ascent of the north face of Temple. A direct line up the middle of the face without the aid over the ice cliff.

 

I’d (and no one I climbed with) had not been on such a big face but I was going. I needed a plan!

 

Borrowing my Dad’s motorcycle off the Winnebago, I road up the Moraine Lake road several times with the intention of scoping the north face with glasses. Couldn’t really see much till I climbed up a tree beside the road and finally got a good look at the face.

 

It had been a very wet summer. We were to find out just how wet several weeks later on Deltaform. Lots of ice in the gullies on Temple’s north face. The key to our ascent was a strip of water ice that ran down the right side of the vertical section of the serac barrier. (pretty obvious strip in one of the pictures posted) It was obvious from the road that if I could climb the rock barrier below the ice cliffs we could hop in that gully and weave our way through the upper seracs and on to the upper glacier.

 

A week or so later I had talked Mike Eastburn into trying Temple with me. None of my other normal partners thought it a even remotely reasonable objective. (that turned out to be a good and bad thing in retrospect) I was convinced it was managable and stubborn enough to try. Mike had just done the NE Buttress on Johannesberg in the Cascades, a 3000+ foot “easy” grade 5 with some reputation locally. Mike was a Cat 1 bike racer, obviously in great shape and hung out with guys on a daily basis that had already done some big peaks in Canada. He was not one to be easily impressed with “rules” or reputations, either a climber’s or a mountain’s. The perfect partner for my little scheme.

 

We left C’dA early one morning. After driving all day we , arrived in Lake Louise in a mutually generated emotionally and physically, super charged state. It was time to climb! Leaving Mike's VW bus at the trail head we sprinted past the lake and up to the base of the buttress. Hair on fire, of course we couldn’t be sensible, stop, get some sleep and wait for cooler temps and a alpine start. It was warm, clear and no rock fall! We did manage to cap the energy level for a few minutes with a short nap on the toe of the buttress, but how much better could it be? Instead of waiting we started up what we figured was the Lowe route at 3:30 PM. 1500 feet on some of the finest limestone climbing I have done came next. Any number of times wishing we had rock shoes instead of boots and no packs full of ice and bivy gear. The rock was that good. Most of it mid to low fifth class done unroped or climbed together. Just below where the ridge splits, one side going left and the Lowe route going right we found the only other evidence of someone on the route, a rap anchor consisting of two pins and some sun bleached tat. I lead a pitch here which we hauled both packs on, maybe 5.7. Three more easy roped pitches and we were in the bowl and under the full exposure of the seracs above. I headed directly for the only overhang in the upper bowl. Which just happened to be straight up. So far the "plan" was working. The overhang would offer some protection from anything but a big serac fall.

We had a flat and spaciious bivy while watching a beautiful sunset with a high over cast building over head. A easy day out to that point. Only question in my mnd was would the next short rock band go free? Couldn't see why not.

 

We slept in late the next morning. At some point we finally started climbing again as I lead out of our bivy and onto the crux rock pillar of the route. If we could climb the final rock band above the bivy the route would be free and surprisingly, fairly direct. I had three distinct grey pillars to choose from above me. I choose the biggest and central pillar for no other reason than to have a landmark for our new route. All looked equally rotten and vile. Three shitty pins for pro and I was up and on the left end of snow band that crosses the entire face.

 

Mike was still a little unbelieving at what we would find next, as we donned crampons and pulled out the tools. I had to encourage him to take off left on easy ground looking for our hidden gully above. Sure enough the ice gully was still here. It was fun ice. Maybe 60 at the steepest for a short bit over another small rock band and then up the side of the serac barrier, which thankfully was a perfect path into the upper seracs. The majority of it just walking. An hour or so of casually weaving through the seracs and we were on top by 3PM.

 

The most impressive thing on the climb was the quality of rock on the lower buttress and the boot tracks that lead out over the south face cornice and came back. It was an easy descent down the s. side trail and nice walk back over Sentinel Pass and Lake Annette in warm weather with a mildly over cast sky with the sun still doing its best to burn through. We were the kings of our universe that day.

 

We had dinner and I drove the night through, still so jacked up from the experience. Not sure I slept again for another 48 hrs.

 

Obviously a climb you could do very quickly (easily under 8hrs) with a early start. We had spent 12 hrs total climbing. Which might just justify the exposure to the ice cliff for some. No offense intended to the other climbs but having been on the face I think ours the more natural line. It certainly isn't any more dangerious than the Lowe's central rib.

 

Our small provincial climbing community used the pictures of the huge avalanche down our route, published in the CAJ that month, to label Mike and I foolish and unsafe climbers. Not the first or last time climbs that were not easily understood, ended up alienating the climbers involved in our community.

 

While later, more dangerious climbs like the Eiger, Slipstream and Deltaform went almost unnoticed.

 

The summit glacier.

 

 

Looking back at the summit on the descent

 

 

The walk off descent down the south side of Temple and Sentinel Pass.

 

 

View down the descent into Larch Valley

 

 

Sentinel Pass from the south

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

BITD, a 55 cm bamboo piolet, Terro hammer, Galibier dbl boots, SMC rigids, a Lowe Expedition pack, wool knickers, dachstein mitts and a Polarguard sleeping bag.

 

Today? I'd dress warm, go light and in winter

 

Approach Notes:

Just off the Lake Moraine road and above Lake Annette.

[John_Scurlock]

incredible Dane..

 

young legs, gigantic heart..

[Dan_Miller]

Thanks Dane,

 

Chouinard-Frost Laminated Bamboo Piolet. I still have my 60cm. and cherish it about as much as any climbing implement I've ever owned. Finally threw out my old wool knickers some time back though.