NE Face of Golden Ears

[granolapher]

I'm looking for any info regarding a:

 

6 pitch 5.4 up the NE Face of Golden Ears Peak. (FA: Moorhead, Pinel, Wilke 1971)Golden Ears Provincial Park, BC Canada

 

I found a brief description in a 1993 Reprint of "Climbing and Hiking in SouthWestern BC" Bruce Fairley.

 

Anyone climbed/attempted this, or have a climbing topo?

[Don_Serl]

one of the guys involved was Brian Moorhead - he's still active (in fact, part of the Squamish Access Society), and lives in Furry Creek. a web search gives this phone number - I'm sure he'd love to talk about the 'old days' and a (possibly unrepeated) climb.

try: (604)896-1940

good luck.

p.s. their "5.4" is likely current 5.8, or harder if you aren't good at route-finding, moss, lichen, etc... fine looking piece of rock...

[G-spotter]

(possibly unrepeated) climb.

 

It's been repeated a few times. Even had a winter ascent

 

[Don_Serl]

tks drew, i realized that was improbable shortly after posting and was gonna withdraw that part of my remark, but had posted at work and was only able to get back on now at home. i'm sure (per Fairley) that "other routes and variations may have been done".

[Don_Serl]

btw,

here's a photo i was able to lift from the web:

 

( at http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/9883783.jpg )

 

 

the only big corner i see is right of the summit, but there's no ridge right of that... i wonder where the route goes? but i bet you can climb about anywhere on that face!

Edited June 8, 2010 by Don_Serl

[Don_Serl]

and right next door is the N face of Edge Pk. with the fabled East Peak on the left. as Culbert put it back in '74, "The E. Pk. is a bitch." still true. VERY few ascents, by ANY route. (Drew you know the history better than I do, so chime in...)

 

 

there is a 1962 Jack Bryan - Byron Olsen somewhere on the main face: "start... directly under what appears to be the summit", "left of two open corners", "follow line of weakness right for 200 ft", "climb onto slabs and head for corner between wall and buttress to right", "behind gendarme", "angle rigth through rotten rock gully to come out on right of apparent summit". I'm unaware of a repeat.

 

as for the east peak, it's possible to downclimb and rappel from the main summit into the notch, then climb back out. either leave a rope to jug back out, or rap south to get down.

 

there are 2 routes on the north flank:

N Face: 1968; Dick Culbert, Dave Harris (not the same guy who was editor of the CAJ in the '80s), Brian Moorhead (again), and John Rance. I think their route lies in the shady ground in its lower half, then (from about the height of the light coloured triangular slab halfway up on the right) "ascent on either side of a major gully here is possible".

NE corner: 1971; Brian Moorhead (!), Dick Dorling, M. Humphreys, J. Spencer. Reach the triangular slab. "Climb several leads up center of slab, which has moves to 5.6 [sic] with knife-blad protection. Above this is 3-4 leads (A2) up corner, followed by a difficult free traverse left from a tree nitch to just below summit ridge."

 

I have a vague memory of a repeat ascent of one of these routes, but it might just have been an attempt... Drew?

 

reportedly good gabbro, so likely fun to be had, for those willing to get off the beaten path.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2010 by Don_Serl

[marc_leclerc]

One of the guys who did the FWA is my girlfriend's uncle. I might be able to get an E-Mail or something if you are interested.

[G-spotter]

I think Lorne Hoover tried a repeat on one of those north face of the east peak routes a while back. Like 92.

 

I was just talking to Brian M. and Graeme Taylor a few months ago in the Smoke Bluffs about these climbs and I think I recall Graeme had climbed something here too but I can't remember what. I know he did the West Face of Blanshard, and so did Justin Brown and a couple of other guys.

 

The East Ridge of the East Peak has been done per my Fraser Valley sources, probably quite a while ago (pre 1980) but didn't make it in to Fairley. Sounds like the easiest summit route on the E Peak though, especially if you approach from Evans Creek and up the gully at the right side of the south face.

 

Colin Wooldridge was in on the FWA of GE northeast face, wasn't he? Sadly he's dead now. I remember there was a write up in the BC Mountaineer. I probably have that issue on the shelf somewhere.

[G-spotter]

 

Colin Wooldridge was in on the FWA of GE northeast face, wasn't he? Sadly he's dead now. I remember there was a write up in the BC Mountaineer. I probably have that issue on the shelf somewhere.

 

I now believe Colin W did the second WA of the NE face. Turns out the FWA was Simon Schosser and Brian Friedrichs in December 1995. See 1996 BC Mountaineer, pp 47-49.