Slesse northeast buttress descent options

[TheAxe]

Yo, so a few buddies and I are planning a trip to slesse's northeast buttress and I've heard conflicting stories about the whole park the car on the other side of the mountain for a way out. The select book said you can park at the slesse mountain trailhead (west side off the hill) to get back to where you started, but people have been telling me you can't do this anymore because of the military or something. Has anyone been up there recently and know the situation? Perhaps suggest a plan? Thanks alot! Peace, Old bones dobie

[Lowlander]

Was up there about a week or so ago. Military Police can and may arrest you if you are caught on the Southwest side, sleese creek road. It is now the site of military blasting and tank training. Well, that is what I was told. The gate is locked and it now will add around 5 miles to the descent if you do go down the southwest side.

 

Crossover trail is not a better option, just another one. Here is some Beta, but check out the Alpine Select description as well:

 

From the summit, follow cairns and rap slings down the southwest side, standard for all descents. From the snow/talus field head North to the main notch just west of the ridge. If you start traversing the ridge from the snow/talus field you will get cliffed out, and eventually find my rap slings.

Take this notch and then walk all the way over to the summit of the ridge, shouldn't be more than class 2-3, about 2/3 a kilometer. About 150 meters or so before reaching the high point of the ridge, do a double rope rape to the east side, and then scramble on sand and crap to crossover pass.

From here, traverse under the east side of Stumpy Hill, down scree to the north and down through the woods. Supposedly a trail made by Frimer and friends but we didn't see it on the way down. As you go through the woods stay as far left, as you go down, as possible, or else you will get cliffed out.

The trail pops out near the memorial plaque but we never saw any signs of it on the descent. I would recommend plenty of time and light to do the crossover. Maybe 6-7 hours from Summit to Memorial Plaque.

Hope that helps.

[jmace]

there is detailed beta somewhere on this site on how to get off via crossover, or try squamishclimbing.com

 

Or if you want to park your car try these guys, let us know what they say

 

Cheers

 

Slesse Creek

H101

5127.07

0 km Slesse Creek FSR

Department of National Defence

For Public Enquiries contact Duty Officer 24/7 @ 604-793-8638. Ministry staff may contact Ops Officer Master Warrant Officer Terry Haley 604-798-1649, or 604-858-1122 Warrant Officer Rice email

[Argus]

there is detailed beta somewhere on this site on how to get off via crossover, or try squamishclimbing.com

 

Here it is:

 

Crossover Descent

 

[Buckaroo]

You might find this helpful

 

http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/151101/Slesse-Mountain.html

[LaughingSquirrel]

Thank you all so much for the beta, it is much appreciated.I will post what the military says about venturing on their land after I talk to them. Peace out yo, Dobie

[sparverius]

I was up there last week and did the crossover descent. There is a sketchy rappel at the second critical routfinding point indicated on the topo. The block seems solid, but there are a lot of large, loose blocks on the rappel route. Be careful. We camped at the crossover pass and found water downhill of the pass (west). It was a stream coming off of a snowfield, draining into a pond. It was a good, clean source, as we were dehydrated at that point. We took a forested/slabby rib down instead of traversing under stumpy hill to the easier gully and ended up doing 4 rappels and some 3rd class to get down to the snow. Once in the trees, we found flagging and a faint trail, which led us left (to avoid the cliffs) and down to the stream. We lost the trail at the stream, but the bushwacking was short to find the trail up near the memorial plaque.