Slesse East Pillar Joy

[daylward]

East Pillar of Slesse

 

Seems that now’s about the time of year when a lot of people start turning their attentions towards Slesse. They’ve had time to get a bit fit and dialed from climbing adventures earlier in the season, and the pocket glacier usually becomes slightly more manageable; that coupled with still-relatively-long days and reliable weather patterns, Slesse is an attractive objective. These are the circumstances that led Marshall to be the first to consider heading up into the DC-4 debris last weekend, and it didn’t take long for him to recruit Forrest and me, followed shortly by the signing-on of Dhillon, and then at the last minute, Tim.

 

Don’t worry if you don’t know all these people.

 

The plan: Marshall, Tim and Dhillon were doing the classic NE Buttress, while Forrest and I were going to take a stab at the E. Pillar. We drove up Friday night with 2 vehicles, had no problems crossing the border, then rallyed up the dirt road on the west side of Slesse to the new large dirt parking lot with piles of slash, and slept. After 4 short hours of sleep and then a quick alpine breakfast of oatmeal and fried eggs, all 5 of us piled into Marshall’s Pathfinder (Gertie) to cruise around to the east side of the mountain. It was just starting to get light as we pulled up and found 3 other cars parked at the trailhead…

 

We all hiked together up past the memorial, to where we split up within several hundred yards of the propeller cairn. Forrest and I continued up to the propeller cairn while the other three began their traverse over to the NE. Buttress.

 

The description of the E. Pillar in Alpine Select is quite good. We began climbing at about 7:30, and the first few moves to gain the ridge crest were a little thought-provoking and vegetated in places, but not enough to prevent us from simul-climbing. We did the entire lower ridge in one long pitch. Forrest realized we’d forgotten a nut-pick… so I tried to place all the nuts such that they would come out with a simple upward yank or something equally effortless. It worked out well. Of course I didn’t test ‘em out by taking a fall, but you know, who has time for that?

 

As we approached the first headwall (where pitch 1 is described in the book), it kept looking more and more like the free-flowing waterfall was flowing freely right over where we thought the route oughta go. Ugh! Forrest made the observation that even during times of the year when that water wasn’t flowing, it’s gotta be pretty manky there, so the route must somehow avoid it. We pressed on, and sure enough that was the case. The first pitch (5.8 per description) was sort of sandy but the rock was solid; I led it as the end of the long simul-climbing pitch. I belayed at a stance where two solid (if slightly rusty) pitons offered easy protection, but I think it was a little below the intended first belay. Forrest took it from there, leading out our full 70m rope to the right of the waterfall, on sustained 5.10 terrain, to a small ledge. I followed, and found the rock to be very edgy and fractured, but generally solid; very different from the rock on the NE. Buttress. I took pitch 3, which continued up past 4 bolts of varying (but never great) trustworthiness; I supplemented them with gear where I could (which wasn’t often). After the 4th bolt, I couldn’t see another up ahead; I had to go either left or right quite a ways, with no pro. I opted left because I could see a right-facing corner system up higher, but it still looked sketchy getting there. I traversed with difficulty about 20 feet left to a point about 15 feet below the corner system, where fortunately I was able to scrape out a little crevice for a green alien and a small nut. After much hemming and hawing, I went for the corner system and found it to be easier than I expected, and thankfully there was a great yellow-alien-sized crack. I finished out the pitch above the corner at a good mossy ledge with 2 bolts and a solid piton, within splashing distance of the waterfall. Forrest followed the pitch without difficulty.

 

Pitch four was the most enjoyable on the route. We were getting used to the rock, and we felt we were making pretty good time considering the difficulty of the climbing, which added to our morale. It was largely face-climbing, which was different for us in an alpine environment, but the protection was reasonably good, and it was nice to have bolts here and there when natural options became thin. Forrest (a.k.a. the “Stemming Machine”) found himself in his element as he ascended what the book describes as a “deep corner system”. The final moves were wild and free, swinging out around the outside of the corner and ascending the arête to a good ledge.

 

From there the ground got easier; we were at the deep depression that housed the snow that was the source of the waterfall. We filled our water bag (neat and uncommon to be able to do that in the middle of a route like this!), and I led a long simul-climbing pitch that wrapped up several of the pitches per description, passing a community of house-building spiders on 5.8 terrain, and then class 4 up some mossy steps. I stretched it out as far as I could, making it to the top of the small pillar that was supposed to be the beginning of the “5.10b serious” pitch (whatever that means…). I was happy that it was Forrest’s turn to lead, in any case! He went up left, then way right, up a wide dirty crack with lots of moss and little protection, then a little easier for a bit before heading straight up a left-leaning crack system with reasonable pro, to a bomber #3 camalot placement before a 15-foot unprotected 5.10 traverse straight right to a small ledge where he made his anchor. Following that traverse was rather unnerving for me, especially with the pack – I was shaking as I pulled the #3 and matched hands and feet on the shallow dimples and thin edges.

 

According to the description, it’s supposed to get easier from there, but I found that to not be the case, at least right away. The first few moves up from the right end of the ledge were very thin and demanding, even a little dynamic, and it didn’t ease off much after that. When it finally did get easier after traversing right onto a large bench and then taking some nice cracks up the left side of a right-facing corner, I began to have major rope drag issues. I had to free the rope from a couple flakes, downclimb and remove protection, and the rope drag was still so great that I finally had to give up and belay. I wasted a lot of time on that pitch. Forrest realized a little more ease on the next pitch, which was more consistent 5.8 or so in a relatively straight line; about 30 feet into it, we passed a pair of bolts that would have been the anchor for my previous pitch if I’d been able to make it that far! Somewhere in there was supposed to have been a 10a red flake move, but I don’t really remember anything like that.

 

Forrest observes:

“I think I have it figured out, and the verdict is that we added an extra 5.10 variation… if you look in the McLane book, in the other photo that shows the route, it actually shows a short down zigzag at the top of pitch 10. based on this and the description to traverse right to 4th class, my belief is that the 10b serious pitch was supposed to end on that big down sloping ramp. then, the 4th class pitch went down and around to the right. then the 5.7 pitch went up, basically to where you belayed, which was supposed to be ‘back left directly above the end of the 10b pitch.’ Instead of traversing down and right, we went straight up to the top of the 5.7 pitch (or maybe somewhere in the middle of it.) Finally, I climbed out right on the face, bypassing the entire 5.8 ‘gross chimney’ and the 10a ‘red flake’. does that make sense? I think it resolves all the inconsistencies…”

 

At the next belay, we decided to simul-climb again, and I was able to make it to the summit in one long stretch, starting up a 5.8 corner on the right side of an alcove, reaching the summit ridge crest, and following it a hundred yards or so around gendarmes and through gullies. Actually we made it to the south summit, at the respectable time of about 7:00, which had cairn with an old weathered hatchet and a summit register tube with a glob of illegible wet paper in it. Yuck. When Forrest got there, he just went on by with the gear he had on him and continued to the true summit, where Chris and Jesse had just summated the NE. Buttress. We asked them if they’d seen Marshall, Tim and Dhillon, and they confirmed our suspicion that our boys had already summited and gone down.

 

We teamed up with Chris and Jesse for the descent; it was nice to have two ropes for the rappel. They weren’t sure of where the descent went, and since we’d been there before (albeit 6 years ago), we were able to figure it out and show them the way.

 

One final obstacle awaited us. We were able to blast the entire pounding 5000-foot descent headlampless, and we were prepared to meet our dinner very shortly afterward. We assumed the parking lot was right nearby; 6 years ago, when we did the NE Buttress, we had ditched our bikes alongside perfectly drivable dirt road, only about 200 yards from where the steep trail came down. We were clearly walking on old roadbed, but it was very overgrown with alder, grass, and thistle, and looked nothing like how we had remembered it. We walked for half a mile, to a place where the roadbed went up, and Forrest thought out loud "We must be on the wrong switchback!" We almost second-guessed ourselves and went back, and even considered breaking off down towards the valley floor to find the right road, but finally we decided to just keep heading along the trail (which was obviously traveled recently, based on the bent-over grass), and hope for the best. As we motored on in the twilight, the thought occurred to me that our bike ride in 1996 had been almost 15 miles and I started doing some math with my tired brain... 5 miles on the Chilliwack River Road, 3 miles up the road on the east side, which left 7 miles up this side. And we had only driven 6k... which meant that the parking lot was about 3 miles ahead! How demoralizing. Sure enough, after 45 minutes of what seemed like hours of thrashing through alder-overgrown roadbed, we broke out into the parking lot, where Tim had a fire raging and spaghetti on the stove. It sure was nice to be able to eat and sleep there and not have to worry about driving home that night! Chris and Jesse showed up about 45 minutes later, looking forward to a long bike ride around to get Chris' car, but Marshall (who had already been back with Dhillon to retrieve his) dashed their forward-looking by offering them his car to do the shuttle. And Dhillon drove straight to Squamish to see Jenna. And then we drank beer.

 

 

Dan

Edited July 28, 2003 by daylward

[Dru]

one of you was wearing a red jacket and one a black one right

[daylward]

Dru said:

one of you was wearing a red jacket and one a black one right

 

Well, no, but our pack was red, and we both had sorta dark-colored shirts on... Was that you coming up the NE Buttress behind Chris and Jesse?

[Dru]

No that was me & Fern walking underneath you on our way to Flight 810 buttress.... you guys were just where the east spur butts into the face as we were leaving prop cairn area. I coulda sworn one of you had a fully red shirt or jacket on though if you say it was a pack i believe you.

[daylward]

Aha, do tell about your day! Is Flight 810 Buttress also called Navigator Wall, or is it to the left of that? Does it go to the summit?

[Dru]

see here

 

Flight 810 Buttress is also known as the South Spur in McLane; it's the next buttress left of the SE buttress of the S peak and goes up to the third summit of Slesse (first Southeast Peak).

[forrest_m]

dru - i was wearing a red shirt; dan was wearing a dark blue shirt. our pack was bright red.

 

do you know how often the e. pillar gets done? from the amount of lichen, grass in cracks, etc, i'd guess not too often. more traffic would only help the route...

 

one other beta note, the route is not as committing as we expected because there are fixed anchors (to rap with a single 60 meter rope) to the top of the 4th pitch (per mclane). these consist of either large horns/blocks, bolts, pins or some combination. each belay has one 1/4" stainless smc bolt and one rusty-but-ok- buttonhead bolt (thanks to whoever placed these!). in at least one place, there is a mid-pitch 2 bolt rap anchor.

[Dru]

lichen, and grass in cracks, are found on every route on slesse, frequently travelled or not, has been my limited experience

 

as for how often e pillar gets done i would guess not as often as navigator wall. as as for ne buttress - that thing got done by like 6-7 parties this weekend and it stilllooks like a cow pasture in some places...

 

i find the schist &gneiss gets much more vegetated, and the

granite is lichenous but clean. must be rock chemistry.

[Attitude]

daylward said:

One final obstacle awaited us. We were able to blast the entire pounding 5000-foot descent headlampless, and we were prepared to meet our dinner very shortly afterward. We assumed the parking lot was right nearby; 6 years ago, when we did the NE Buttress, we had ditched our bikes alongside perfectly drivable dirt road, only about 200 yards from where the steep trail came down. We were clearly walking on old roadbed, but it was very overgrown with alder, grass, and thistle, and looked nothing like how we had remembered it. We walked for half a mile, to a place where the roadbed went up, and Forrest thought out loud "We must be on the wrong switchback!" We almost second-guessed ourselves and went back, and even considered breaking off down towards the valley floor to find the right road, but finally we decided to just keep heading along the trail (which was obviously traveled recently, based on the bent-over grass), and hope for the best. As we motored on in the twilight, the thought occurred to me that our bike ride in 1996 had been almost 15 miles and I started doing some math with my tired brain... 5 miles on the Chilliwack River Road, 3 miles up the road on the east side, which left 7 miles up this side. And we had only driven 6k... which meant that the parking lot was about 3 miles ahead! How demoralizing. Sure enough, after 45 minutes of what seemed like hours of thrashing through alder-overgrown roadbed, we broke out into the parking lot, where Tim had a fire raging and spaghetti on the stove.

How much longer before this trail disappears back into the wild?

[daylward]

Just re-read this after many years and changing times and have a few name clarifications for corrective/historical purposes:

 

"Marshall" - Marshall Balick

"Tim" - Tim Matsui

"Dhillon" - Dylan Johnson

"Jesse" - Jesse Huey

"Chris" - Christine Boskoff

 

...unfortunately it doesn't seem to let me "edit" anymore.

 

Dan