Monthly Archives: August 2006

Bugaboos – Bugaboo Spire

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We awoke to the annoying beeping of a wristwatch alarm at 4:30 AM and were hiking by a little after 5:00.  I had scouted the beginning of the route the night before and led us through the various tents to the trail that led past the lake to the base of the Crescent Glacier below the Bugaboo-Crescent col.  We didn’t hear the two climbers who were in front of us, but we were able to see their headlamps approaching the col.  We also passed a second party in the camp, who would be climbing with us most of the day, eating the last morsels of oatmeal.  This time, we were able to follow a trail in the darkness.  We did lose the trail a couple of times, but we passed the two lakes, crossed under some cliffs to the base of the glacier without much incident.  Still in darkness we started crossing the glacier, which began being covered in a thin layer of mud.  The glacier wasn’t very steep and we didn’t bother putting on crampons.  We had to walk carefully and deliberately, but it was easy enough to not slip while hiking up the ice.  I did encounter one slick spot near an icy crevasse.  I moved to the left to find more gritty ice and crossed there.  We could see the other party at the base of the glacier as we began soloing up the steep 5th class ledges and slabs to the col.

We could see the first party above us, scurrying around at the base of the route.  On arriving, we found out they were still trying to find the beginning of the route.  Pointing out to them where it was, they were on their way.  They promised to be quick, which they were.  Aidan then began our climb with the lead, grunting his way up but doing so in great form.  I had always looked forward to just seeing this view of the northeast ridge, but actually standing beneath me had begun to put me in a careful mood.  The first pitch also set the mood.  I began the first couple of moves hesitantly.  Before I was even 15 feet off the ground, I felt like I didn’t have my best mindset or my best skills available to me.  Aidan hollered down, “You’ve got to commit to the lieback!”  I am not a fan of liebacks, never have been.  I found myself trying to avoid doing the lieback moves.  With Aidan’s instruction, I committed to the lieback and started moving up.  I found myself not concentrating as I should, and before I could say anything, my right foot slip, the lieback fell apart and I took a fairly long follower’s fall, puncturing my middle and ring fingers on my right hand and bashing my left knee.  OK, this was not a good start and I found myself in a spooked mindset for most of the climb.  It wasn’t until the fifth pitch that I felt confident enough to take over the lead.

The second part of the first pitch was a hollow flake that required lieback moves the entire way up.  At least I was concentrated more and made the moves without problems, but nervously.  Many other climbers think the crux of the route is the traverse move near the top of the first pitch.  I did not find this hard at all.  I guess this shows me that if I want to be a complete rock-climber, I need to get more comfortable with liebacks.  OK, maybe it’s time to do laps on Godzilla back at Index.

I refused the second pitch as well, which was a good bit easier, but still steep and challenging.  The route climbs up a dike of granite flakes forming numerous short cracks.  Unlike the first pitch, there is plenty of opportunity for good protection.  The third pitch begins with a fifteen foot down-climb from the top of the dike to a depression which leads steeply up and rightward across the face to gain the true ridge.  This pitch is sensational.  Nicely exposed and with thin holds, but at every place that you’d want them.

The third pitch leads to a comfortable belay at the base of the fourth pitch, which is a long skyward reaching corner that leads off steeply and slowly eases in angle. This pitch starts off with an awkward, but not hard, move and then follows the corner for sustained but pleasant climbing up the corner. There are several sections of liebacks, but nothing as hard or as sustained as the first pitch. At the top of the fourth pitch, a 5.6 pitch up another steep, but shorter, crack system led to blockier ground and a long, low-angled chimney. Aidan again asked if I wanted to take the lead. I opted to this time, thinking it would help me clear my head. It did. We simul-climbed a bit and then I brought Aidan up to another good belay somewhere within the chimney and then headed out again.

Aidan took the next pitch, which, if I recall, was a steep face climb with good protection. At this point the pitches started blending together. I don’t recall if it was the same pitch or the next one that we encountered another 5.7 section that was supposed to be a little burly. It wasn’t. The move was short, over a small bulge – nothing as challenging as the opening pitch. At this point, we were nearing the north summit. A steep gendarme blocked the way and we opted to make a difficult and constricted rappel down the east side to easier ground where we could traverse back on to the ridge. We then followed a knife edge to the summit. Beyond, on the traverse to the true summit, the south summit, was more fun knife edge walking. At one point the exposure over the east side is completely sheer – a straight drop down to the Crescent Glacier. In front of us were easy slabs below the north summit, which we traversed around to a large wall. We then headed up the north side of the south summit, following solid finger cracks.

I was relieved to be on the summit. I was definitely ready for the climb to be over. I remarked to Aidan that I thought this was harder than Slesse and that the opening pitch was harder than any pitch on Slesse. Aidan thought me crazy and wisely pointed out that it was due to the mental state. That was true; evaluating the two climbs pitch for pitch, Slesse is a much longer and sustained climb, with more difficult pitches. But, truthfully, I didn’t feel it. But, I did my best to keep my head in the moment. Leading those few pitches helped a lot, but not as much as having such an excellent climbing partner.

The climbers below us, Carl and Tom, soon appeared and we enjoyed our short summit moments together. Then we decided to stick together as we began the descent of Bugaboo Spire. We had read so much about the difficulty and complexity of the descent and Carl backed the story up. I suppose this helped prepare us for the descent, because it didn’t feel nearly as hard, to me, as it was made out to be. It was complex, granted, but not bad at all. The part where we had to pay the most care was locating the rappels. The second, right before the famous gendarme was fairly tricky – a committing and extremely exposed rappel over the east side. From about 3/4ths the length of the rappel is a large notch where the third rappel is. Getting to it requires an easy but exposed traverse while still on rappel.

Beyond the rappel, more exposed knife edges finally led to terrain where we could unrope and down-climb. There’s plenty of 5th class down-climbing but it slowly relents to easy 3rd and 4th class terrain. After hearing the horror stories of the descent, I had likened the descent to the awful on on Slesse. Because of that, this one seemed easy and soon enough we were back at the col. We waited a bit for another party to rappel down the col before beginning our loose descent. It’s almost impossible not to knock rocks down the chute; all it take is vibrations to get rocks moving. Each party absolutely has to wait for others to descend, otherwise it’s quite likely that someone will get hit. At the base of the bergeschrund, we quickly put on our crampons and headed down the ice.

While we were on Bugaboo, Colin and Ross were out climbing the Beckey-Choiunard route on South Howser Tower. They hadn’t returned by the time we got back. Aidan was getting a little worried about them but only a few minutes after dark, after we’d turned in, they showed up. Aidan and I were both very tired, but Colin bounced around camp and chatted as if he’d had a rest day. Ross, on the other hand, hit the hay. Earlier, before going to bed, Aidan and I talked with the campground custodian. He mentioned that weather was most likely moving in tomorrow. Both Aidan and I did not have the desire to do another big rock climb, and were a relieved at the justification of hiking out due to a storm.

Sure enough, in the middle of the night, the wind started picking up. We hadn’t bothered securing the Beta Light with lines, but each corner had a large rock to hold it in place. That didn’t stop the wind from loosing two of the corners of the tent in the middle of the night. It sounded like a near explosion and we were suddenly awake with the tent ends flapping in our faces. We jumped up immediately and secured the tent, finding extra large rocks to secure the corners and went back to bed. I slept well, though I recall waking several times to the roaring of the wind. Aidan, on the other hand, admitted to barely sleeping a wink. Instead, he’d periodically grab the pole next to us, holding it in place for fear of it being knocked over again.

We lounged in the noisy tent the following morning before getting up. Colin and Ross decided to not go for another climb as well and we all decided to hike out together. We took our time getting ready. I headed out before everyone else because I tend to hike a little slower on the descent, not to mention that Colin and Ross are very fast. Soon enough, they caught up with me and we hiked together for a while. After a bit, I got tired of the speed, let the others get ahead and took out my mp3 player. I enjoyed the tunes all the way down and stopped several times for more pictures, ones that I couldn’t get on the hike in because of the low light.

It was a long long drive back, but more rap and hip-hop entertained me. We arrived back in Tacoma around 11pm and Aidan’s mom treated us to some excellent grilled chicken pasta, salad, and fresh peaches. Feeling like a refreshed flower, I opted to drive home since the traffic would be much better this time of night than the following morning. All-in-all, despite the exhaustion, this was a fantastic and memorable trip. Thanks for coming along, Aidan. It was a great way to end the summer.

Bugaboos – Pigeon Spire

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Ever since Michael, Robert, and Mark returned from the Bugaboos in 2003, I’ve wanted to go.  2006 had to be the year.  But, I seemed to have no luck in lobbying my various climbing partners to go.  Something always stood in the way.  Then, after enjoying Colin’s slide show on the first ascent of the north face of Mount Moffit with Aidan and his family, inspiration struck.  Aidan announced he’d quit his job a week before heading back to school and go to the Bugaboos with me.  A couple of days  later, we were on our way.  We planned to rendezvous on I-90 off 405, but en route, I realized I’d forgotten my passport.  A quick call to Aidan revealed he’d forgotten his as well.  We formulated a quick plan, turned around to get our passports, then met up somewhere in Auburn on highway 18, 50 minutes behind schedule.

The long ten hour drive wasn’t bad at all.  Aidan began giving me a survey of rap and hip-hop music at my request.  Now, I’m semi-literate in the genre.  Near the small lumber town of Brisco in British Columbia, we found the signs directing us to the dirt road that led to Bugaboo Provincial Park.  However, the crappy guidebook (the one by the Mountaineers) didn’t mention the maze of logging roads back there, and, what’s worse, the signs to the part are practically non-existent.  At a fork in the road, maybe a mile or a mile and a half after we turned off, we thought we would take the left hand, which appeared less traveled, because it looked to be a cut off road, at least according to the map in the book.  We even saw a sign that said “Bugaboo” not far after the turnoff that made us think we were going the right way.  Not so.  For those of you reading this looking for beta to the Bugaboos, just stay on the most prominent fork of the dirt road.  You’ll be fine; there are signs when you need then.  Aidan and I, however, bounced our way along passing more forks and getting more confused.  Eventually, we passed a red pickup truck who was also searching for the Bugaboos.  “Great.  At least we’re not the only idiots”, we thought.  The two of us searched together, the pickup truck being able to cover more ground than us.  A couple of backtracks eventually and somehow got us back to the main drag and we were on our way, after losing about an hour of time.  Thankfully, there was still ample light to hike once we arrived.

We moved quickly encircling my car in chicken wire to prevent porcupines and other varmints from chewing on the tires.  Shouldering packs that were way heavier than we were accustomed (each of us carrying a sizeable rack and a full-on 60m rope), we set out.  The trail is great, easy to follow, and scenic.  We arrived up at the Kain Hut just as the sun was nearly gone, at the point where you begin to think if it’s worth taking out your headlamp or not.  I thought I’d seen a sign that said the Boulder field camp was just above the Kain Hut (someone else we passed a few days later mentioned something similar) but a sign above the hut indicated that the campsite was below us.  We were both tired at this point; the long drive followed by a two hour grunt with a heavy pack can wear you out.  Aidan, though was adamant about not losing elevation.  So, with headlamps donned, we went up, searching for the Applby Camp.  We never found it.  We lost the trail almost instantly.  It’s nearly impossible to reliably follow it in the dark when the white and yellow granite blocks everywhere just seem to melt together.  We found ourselves crossing several wide streams.  We saw headlamps coming down from the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col and Aidan went to seek them out to ask them about the camps.  Eventually, I called back to Aidan.  I knew the camps weren’t in that direction and I’d found a place to camp anyway.  So, we bedded down on a large slab on the edge of a large gully.  We both suspected that the Appleby Camp was on the other side of the gully but we were fed up with looking for it.  Because it was so late, we decided to skip Bugaboo Spire tomorrow and instead have an easy day on Pigeon Spire. 

We awoke to brilliant sun.  I slowly opened my eyes and looked across the small chasm.  Sure enough, there was the Appleby Camp across and above us.  We took our time getting ready.  We stashed our leftover goods down between the boulders and set off around 9:30 or 10am to the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col and beyond to Pigeon Spire.  At the base of the Crescent Glacier, we heard “Aidan!”.  We turned around to see Colin, Aidan’s cousin, and TeleRoss who were heading up to climb a route on Snowpatch Spire.  We ended up hiking together up to the col where we took a break, at some food, and admired the impressive Howser Towers.

Pigeon Spire

We didn’t bother roping up to cross the upper part of the glacier and encountered no one disapprovingly shaking their heads at us.  Staring straight into the Howsers, we strolled easily up the glacier underneath Pigeon Spire on our left.  Everything about this climb is nearly perfect, even getting from the glacier to the base of the ridge.  There’s a brief section of easy ice and no moat.  Suddenly, you’re on the route.  I suppose the crux of the entire tour of Pigeon is the nasty col.  We immediately took off our crampons and boots, had a bit to eat, and packed up the rope, rack, and not much else and headed out.  We planned to solo as much as we could.

OK, so there were a couple of super solid boulders to scramble over to get to the ridge proper, but once there, we enjoyed solid long stretches of rock with wonderful cracks, ledges, and ridges.  Most of the climb is 5.0 on as -good-as-it-gets rock.  The first steep part featured a quick exposed little move to get on top of a small knife edge that led to more cracks and on to the famous first false summit that is down-climbed, or rather walked.  Beyond, we had great views of the second part of the climb which looked more challenging, but it too is an optical illusion.  The climbing is easy, consistently 5.0 and secure.  Still soloing, we passed a party of three who were also raving about the quality of the route.  On top of this second false summit, we cruised across the famous knife edge with outrageous views behind us.  Above us, the rock became steeper, but more blocky and we were soon to the point where we needed to down-climb to attain the last pitch to the summit.

The last pitch of the summit required a careful down-climb (the most difficult part of the climb, but still easy.  I believe many people rappel this) to another small col where we traversed briefly over easy blocks towards the 5.4 crux.  The crux is a short wide crack with good exposure down to the approach glacier.  It’s short though.  We followed easy slabs to the summit.

We made one rappel down from the summit and down-climbed the rest.  Because there is so much up and down on the route, the descent is almost as fun as the climb up and this time, you’ve got the Howser massif in front of you the whole way.  Back at the base of the route, we put our boots and crampons back on and headed back.  Aidan’s mood had strangely transformed into more quiet and inward and he admitted to not feeling quite right.  He didn’t know why.  Fortunately, he snapped out of it the next day because it was my turn to get weirded out and inward for the climb of Bugaboo Spire.  He snapped back to his old self back at camp.  We packed all our things up and headed up to Appleby Camp where we found Colin and Ross’s tent, the exact same model as ours:  the Black Diamond Beta Light.  We had dinner, set the alarm for 4:30, and went to bed.

Nesakwatch Spires, Mount Rexford

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Nearly two years earlier, Michael and I had tried our hand at this trip.  Somehow, misinterpreting the beta, or perhaps relying on incorrect elevations, we lost the way and spent a lot of time scurrying around on the logging roads searching for the trailheads.  Eventually, we did find it, but it was so late in the day that we decided to bail and go climb Tomyhoi Peak.

I always wanted to come back so I enlisted Ari.  We left from my place in Kirkland under poor auspices: 

  • A car nearly ran into us on the highway
  • At Everett, I realized I didn’t have my passport so we turned around.
  • While turning around, I smacked into a concrete block.  Fortunately, my car was undamaged.
  • I realized I also I left my water back at home.
  • Another car nearly ran into us.
  • We nearly ran out of gas.
  • I missed the turn to Sumas.

Once getting to Canada, things started go our way.  I parked in the same spot for Slesse and we made the long hot hike up the road past the Slesse trailhead.  It must have been at least three miles before we found the turnoff.  I found the same orange ribbon the Michael and I finally found, though it was a little more buried in the brush now.  The trailhead itself was easy to find and we were on our way in the sweltering clear-cut.  Another hour of the clear cut would have been too much.  We were hiking along this steep dusty path during the hottest part of the day.  The forest must have been 15 degrees cooler and we took a well deserved break.  I was surprised at how well-defined the trail was in the forest.  I expected more of a climber’s trail.  The trail was steep though, much like Eldorado.  We crossed a narrow granite gully which would be the last running water we’d see on the trip.

More forest followed, but not for long.  The trail slowly breaks out of the forest and hugs the north edge of the small valley along a huge granite wall the resembles the town walls of Index.  The trail climbs steeply and becomes more dusty and loose the higher you go.  It eventually terminates in a large talus field below the Nesakwatch Spires and Mount Rexford.

We figured we’d camp just below the north spire, the leftmost peak, if there were water, but finding none, we pressed on to a higher basin beneath the south spire and Mount Rexford.  We found a large granite boulder to camp on.  There was already a fire ring on top of it.  I was surprised at how extensive the camping area was.  There were several trails leading all around to various camping sites.  I was tempted to hike just a couple of hundred yards east to the top of a knoll where we’d have dramatic views of Slesse.  But, there was no water nearby and since the slab was level and smooth and next to water, we stayed put.  The fire ring gave us an idea and I started gathering deadwood as Ari started melting snow.

Fires are comforting.  We sat around the fire chatting for quite a while.  We grilled a couple of salami slices over the flames, which tasted just excellent.  We still hadn’t decided on exactly what we wanted to do.  I felt happy to do just Rexford.  Besides, the guidebook indicating that the South Nesakwatch Spire true summit required a 5.7 offwidth didn’t really entice me.  We resolved to decide in the morning.

We awoke very late at 8am.  I have really been a bum this summer.  Ari made the decision for us – we would try the traverse.  Alright, let’s head out.  We made our way back down the talus and then ascended to the base of the north spire and scrambled to the ridgecrest at a good spot to belay.  However, the climb directly up from here looked hard.  It was mossy and difficult to protected.  Not feeling comfortable, I suggested that we scramble up and around to the right to start the climb.  We found a good place to start.  We roped up and I headed out on lead.  The beginning featured some goofy face climbing that required some careful moves.  Higher up, the climbing turned into a long slog over third class granite boulders.  We simul-climbed along this terrain.  The climbing steepened at a beautiful but short handcrack that I jammed briefly before arriving at more blocky terrain.  At this point, we were near the summit.  The climbing looked significantly harder and being in favor of speed, I moved left and climbed up 5th class terrain on easy cracks and ledges.  A steep wall blocked my path so I moved left again, this time out over the exposed east face.  The final pitch to the summit was a fun exposed 5.4 ramp that protected beautifully.  For fun, I arrived at the summit by crawling through a small tunnel.

The route to the next spire looked easy – mostly third class before the route steepened.  The right hand side of the south spire is very steep but looks really clean.  There’s probably the opportunity for a new 5.10 route there.  Amazingly, we spotted another party on what looked like the south spire.  Where did they come from?  Well, it turned out they weren’t on the south spire, but were on the lower ramparts of Rexford.  The south spire and Rexford sit so close to each other with a deep cleft between the two that it was hard to tell.  I figured we’d have the whole area to ourselves.  We decided to climb down the 3rd class terrain and make our way towards the next spire.  I was eager to see what this 5.7 offwidth looked like.

We made quick time down the easy, but sometimes loose, slopes towards the south spire.  We stayed either right on the crest of the ridge or on the left.  We went as far as we could until the route steepened to the point of requiring roping up.  I began leading one long simul-climb that terminated in a high quality pitch.  The first part followed easy twin cracks.  I spotted a gorgeous hand crack, but looking too difficult (5.10, I guessed), I bypassed it on the left.  The crack started out as a finger crack then widened to a hand crack, but I couldn’t tell where an how it ended.  It didn’t matter because on the other side of the wall, I was looking at the crux of the route – a beautiful ascending ramp with a column leaning against it forming a finger crack seam.  There was also a hand crack in the column that arched for maybe twenty feet.  On the right side of the column was an offwidth crack.  Was this the offwidth?  It couldn’t be, I reasoned because you weren’t required to climb the offwidth.

I decided to start up, doing this pitch as a simul.  The protection was excellent and the holds were obviously solid.  Higher up, the finger crack became too shallow for nuts.  I made an interesting move on top of the column and placed solid gear inside the offwidth.  Getting above the offwidth was, of course, a pain, but with some stemming, I managed.  Higher up, the offwidth became more awkward.  I stood high, slung a chockstone and climbed back across the column onto exposed face moves.  The moves were reasonably easy and I soon arrived at a belay platform and brought Ari up.  I guess I’d rate this pitch at 5.7.

The next pitch featured more route-finding challenges and steep climbing.  It was short though and I soon myself on granite blocks below the true summit.  Then I saw the 5.7 offwidth.  If you want to stand on the true summit, which is maybe only 20 feet higher, you must brave the offwidth.  I was awfully tempted, but didn’t have gear.  The lower part could be protected with two large chockstones, but you’d have a good 10 feet of exposure which could be dangerous if you fell.  On top of that, I couldn’t tell if there was a rap station on the top.  If there wasn’t, getting down would be interesting, to say the least.  Later on, from the summit of Rexford, I looked and couldn’t see a rap station.  Wisely, I decided not to do it.  Ari was never too keen on it.  This turned out to be a good choice for another reason – our ride out!

We decided to head to Rexford, which was just a stone throws away.  We needed to rappel down into a notch and make our way to the col where we’d rope up again and head up.  This side of Rexford didn’t exhibit the best rock.  Sure enough, I wasn’t too pleased with the lower part of the route.  There were large areas of unprotectable rock, thankfully not too hard.  There was another section that reminded me of Dynaflow Tower – it looked good, but is deceptive, unprotectable, and dangerously loose.  I avoided that section to the left.  The rest of the climb was pretty interesting.  It was steep but well-featured.  I climbed a long, easy, and steep chimney, making good use of back-stepping and stemming to comfortably move up.  In one long simul-climb, we were at the base of the standard route where I saw the quarted of climbers:  Aaron, Adam, Allen,  and Frasier.  They offered to let us pass them.  I did so on the right and was immediately in harder terrain.  It was probably only 5.6 or so, but definitely harder than the standard route on Rexford.  I thrutched my way through an awkward flaring chimney.  I was only a 20 feet or so below the summit ridge but the rope drag was becoming too hard.  Dang, I wanted to do it in one long simul.  Deciding that it was best not to force it, I brought Ari up.

It turned out that we could scramble along an easy ledge that led to the upper part of the the standard route leading to the ridge.  We scrambled up to discover the true summit is to the left, not the right.  We could see the quartet climbing on it.  We grabbed the rope and scrambled over to them (it turns out you can bypass a small tower on the ridge on the right side via secret ledges).

At the base of the summit block, Aaron had just led through a wide chimney and up to the summit where he was setting up a belay.  The other suggested that we climb in parallel off to the left, which was apparently an alternate route to the summit.  I clipped into the anchor and headed off.  The route was short, but fun.  In fact, this is probably a more aesthetic line to the summit than the direct route because you immediately enjoy lots of exposure over the north face.  The climbing is easy, no harder than 5.2.  Soon enough we were on the summit.

We enjoyed sitting on the summit for a while with these excellent Canadian gentlemen who offered us a ride out.  The recalled seeing the black Audi parked way down there on Nesakwatch Creek road.  This turned out to be most appreciated!  Thanks, fellas.  Ari and I headed out first and rappelled down.  Getting back down to the camp was a little tricky – we followed the gentle ridge down for quite a way, but it quickly became brushy and we found ourselves blasting through dense pine trees suspended above cliffs on the ridge.  We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, but it was at least brief.  Soon enough, we found footprints again and followed them down to the talus.  There was another party camped out planning on climbing Rexford the following day.  Wow, this spot is more popular than I thought.  We arrived back at our granite slab camp, packed up, and headed out.  We didn’t really have the time to melt water and we had only a few drops to sustain us all the way out.  Fortunately, being late in the day, the entire descent was protected from the sun and it wasn’t difficult at all.  We ran into the quarted at the top of the Index walls and hiked out pretty close to each other.  Their Forerunner was parked high up, near the actual trailhead in the clear cut.  By the time everyone had arrived, it was dark.  We all jammed into the SUV and bounced our way out.