[TR] Sir Donald - NW Ridge 8/18/2015

[JDT]

Trip: Sir Donald - NW Ridge

 

Date: 8/18/2015

 

Trip Report:

Summary:

I climbed Sir Donald via the NW ridge with my wife, Lisa, and two Canadian climbers we teamed up with, Meghan and Sheena. This was a really fun climb with continuous exposure and spectacular views. It's easily soloed going up, but the exposure might get to you on the way down. I would describe the route as rock ad nauseam. A word of warning, due to grizzly bear activity in the area, you need to climb this mountain as a party of 4! This came as a major surprise to us when we registered for the climb.

 

Details:

Lisa and I were on a bit of a road trip, so we took two days to meander over to Sir Donald, arriving on Monday afternoon August 17th. On the way we passed through Chelan, which looked like armageddon with the heavy smoke in the air. The Wolverine Fire was easily seen from the highway and resembled a nuclear mushroom cloud.

 

After getting to Roger's Pass, we went over to the visitor center to declare our intent to climb Mr. Donald, but much to our surprise, they said we needed 4 people to climb. Huh? We'd never heard of such a regulation in all of our climbing, and had not seen this advertised anywhere. Summitpost makes no mention of the 4 person requirement. In retrospect, the requirement is written in fine print, embedded deeply among other fine print, on the descent beta pamphlet for Sir Donald that Parks Canada puts out (http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/bc/glacier/activ/activ4.aspx). Apparently grizzly bears have been molesting two person parties in the vicinity of Sir Donald, so Parks Canada wants us to gang up on the bears.

 

Feeling a bit bitter about Canada in general, we scrounged around for other climbers in the same fix to see if we could team up. Just when we were about to give up and head off on an alternative trip, two Canadian climbers, Meghan and Sheena, rolled into the visitor center and got 'grizzly beared'. We decided to join forces, and we really enjoyed climbing with these two. What luck!

 

Stoked, we quickly prepped for the hike up that evening, but then dithered around for an hour or two while Parks Canada sorted out the permits and camping fees. Our fellow Canadians pointed out that this sort of thing is common with Parks Canada; however, to be fair, the park officials were all very polite and helped us connect with the other party. Finally on the trail, we hoofed it up ~3500' to the lower bivy site, just below the Uto-Sir Donald col, reaching camp at dusk. The bears did not attack us, but we kept close together lest they target any stragglers. Even in this dry summer, we found a good source of water, a decent sized tarn, at the bivy spots.

 

We decided on a 430 AM wake up time and got going at sunrise. From the bivy sites, you go up a loose talus and scree slope and traverse over to the Uto-Sir Donald col from climbers right. Take time to find the trail up the scree, it'll make life easier.

 

At the col we were a bit intimated by the ridge, but like most things climbing, it looked a lot less fearsome up close. We decided to solo the ridge until we no longer felt comfortable. For the next hour+ we scrambled up 4th and 5th class terrain with continuous exposure. Super fun and solid rock climbing! The ridge crest generally has the most solid rock, but easier climbing (3rd or 4th) can usually be found climbers left of the ridge when the ridge gets steeper. After ~2000' of upward progress, we came to a steep step and we decided it was time to rope up for simul climbing. This turned out to be about as fast as soloing, and we quickly made up the remaining ~700' of elevation to the spectacular summit. Just clip the many anchors as you go along, I only placed one cam. On the summit, we took a moment to marvel at the unknown-to-us glaciated peaks stretching to the north and south of us.

 

The descent off Mr. Donald ended up taking a lot more time than the ascent. We started things off by going down the SW face bypass; loose scree on rock steps hanging over a sobering drop-off. Pretty easy though. After intersecting the ridge, we downclimbed for a bit, but everyone was feeling a bit tired and the exposure looking down made for slow downclimbing. So, we started a series of endless rappels. 3 raps down the ridge, followed by ~100' of downclimbing. 2 more raps down the ridge, then 5 off of the ridge down a rock face, then more downclimbing, then 2 more raps to gain the lower scree slope. All in all, the descent took about 7 hours. Look at the Parks Canada pamphlet for beta!

 

Pictures:

 

We got a good view of the NW ridge of Sir Donald from the highway, looks steep! Sir Donald is the right most peak and the route goes up the left hand ridge.

 

Beware the bears! Glad to have a 4 person party now.

 

Mr. Donald is looking moody. The route goes up the left hand ridge from the col.

 

The views from the lower bivy sites were OK.

 

All is right with the world, a room with a view.

 

Starting up the ridge.

 

Stoked on climbing the ridge.

 

 

 

 

 

The views from the summit didn't suck.

 

Reading the summit register.

 

Starting the loose bypass descent.

 

Some exposure on the bypass.

 

Only two more rappels to go!

 

The second to last rappel

 

Descending down a sea of rock.

 

Finally done with the rappels and on the talus slopes.

 

Later, Mr. Donald.

 

Gear Notes:

Minimal rack

Single 60 m rope

Good hiking sneakers for the descent

Puffy coat would have been nice

 

Approach Notes:

Must be approached and deproached as a party of 4. You must also camp together as a party of 4; however, you can climb as separate teams. I kinda like how Mr. Donald is bringing people together...sort of.

[BrettS]

That looks like a lot of fun in a beautiful area. I would love to get out there sometime soon!

 

Thanks for sharing!