Mt. Fryatt - South-West Face, Alpine II, 5.4

With crystal clear skies and no wind we had a glorious ascent of the South-West Face of Mount Fryatt on Sunday August 26.  Our team of 3 (V. Dewit, E. Coulthard, K. Barton) approached via the Geraldine Lakes trail on Saturday, with low clouds enveloping the summit of Fryatt for most of the morning and afternoon.  We had hoped the forecast of sun and 20 degrees would clear out the recent snow, but it turned out the face was in great shape.   We easily made our lake shore bivy (GR376218) in 7 hours.  To bed at sunset, up at 4am.

Left camp at 5am (temperature at bivy +1), arrived at the col south of the summit block just before the sun lit up the surrounding snow/ice faces, perfect timing.  The majority of the SW face was clear of snow and ice, with only the deepest gullies, or highest portions of the steep scree slopes held pockets of water ice covered with snow.  We tended to climber’s right fairly quickly making good progress on scree and easy scrambling.  Traversed one ice gully, then more moderated scrambling on loose slopes and buttress. 



Top of snow slope

 At the bottom of the “central” main gully we travelled up ice/snow slopes for about 150 metres to the final cliff between the face and the summit ridge.  Nearing the top of the ice/snow we had a surprise, a solo climber caught up to us (F. Jacso).  FJ got the green light from his wife later than the rest of us and decided to catch up to us. 

I believe we ascended to the final cliff band more right (east) than drawn in Bill Corbett’s guide.  Worked out great, about 25 metres above the snow, I lead a 30 metre pitch of 5.4 with great pro on solid holds to a set of two rappel anchors (slings around boulders).  A short scramble of 10 to 15 metres, then another short pitch of 5.3/5.1 to another rappel anchor (slings around boulder). All rock on this band was bone dry and quite solid. 

From the last station, easy to moderate scrambling to the summit.  Summit and final ridge bone dry. 6.5 hours to summit.  Great views, especially of Robson , Clemenceau and Tonquin Valley peaks.   We did three raps on the descent, all from boulders slung with cord/slings.  Downclimbed mostly rock ribs, avoiding gully systems, but there was no natural rock fall on descent.  Back to col and bivy site quickly.  Hiked out in about 6 hours with perfect weather.  All in, car to car 36 hours.

GR407165 'Tombstone South' - Scramble

August 20, 2012 had a great solo day up and down GR407165, better known as 'Tombstone South'.  Kane’s guidebook rates the south ridge as a moderate scramble, but he must assume the scrambler drops left (west) to avoid the difficult ridge.  

Looking up crux




I followed the ridge crest all the way up and there are several sections of very serious scrambling.  The crux section is a long exposed knife edged ridge crest on solid slab, but with few holds, then the crest transitions to a difficult short face climb. 

After this section the ridge climb is moderate for about 50 vertical metres, then another difficult and crazy exposed face climb, that actually bulges outwards, provides some more spice.  This short face is probably low 5 class climbing, short, only a move or two, but certain death if one of the crappy rock holds blows out.

Once on the false summit the scramble is actually moderate to the main summit.  3 hours 45 minutes to the summit, slower than I was hoping, but the ridge climbing required thought and attention.  No summit register in the small cairn. I descended by the scree/slab slopes between the two summits, hard to pick the easiest line and avoid the slabs.  I did stay more to skier’s left and I did have the odd slabby step to downclimb.

Found my bike after crossing the Elbow River, yeah!  Then only 30 minutes out from the bike stash.  I was 3:45 to summit, 15 minutes on top, then about 2:30 from the summit back to the car ; all in 6:40 car to car.  I was hoping for 6 or less, but that ridge worked me a bit.

Mount Packenham - North Gully, East Ridge, Alpine II, 5.6

On the fifth anniversary of the famous Nugara ascent of Mt. Packenham, Raff and I decided to climb this lovely peak.  Actually it was just a coincidence that Raff and I ascended Mt. Packenham on the same August day (our ascent Aug. 6, 2012).  Raff was out peak bagging Saturday and Sunday, so we had a late start to let Raff get some sleep.  We were both very concerned about the probability of a thunderstorm and figured we had a 50/50 chance of getting chased off the mountain when we left the parking area at 11am.

Hot, hot approach leaving the car at midday, so we set a casual pace up towards Grizzly Col.  About half way up to the col we cut due east towards the basin between Mt. Evan-Thomas and Mt. Packenham.  Once on the scree fields we picked the line of least resistance towards the most eastern scree cone that provides access to the steep gully on the north face of Packenham.

We had our first rest stop, ate and drink a lot, then plodded up to the steep gully.  She looked long.  On descent we figured that the gully is about 400 metres tall.  About 1/5 of the lower gully is on good scree when you want poles, then the remaining 4/5’s is a variety of steep scree, peddles on slab and several difficult rock steps.  Raff and I stayed to climber’s left all the way up, but did get cliffed out nearing the summit ridge.  A bit of route finding got us onto an exposed ledge that lead into a gully system to climber’s right.  This gully steepens even more and ends on the most eastern summit of three summits of Packenham.

Along the summit ridge heading west we encountered both bad and good rock quality with difficult and exposed scrambling.  The skies were getting dark far to the north west, but we were not too worried yet. Nearing the summit block the ridge looked steep and we did set up belay stations, but the climbing was actually fairly straightforward, maybe 5.0 (?) (we did downclimb these steps on the way down).  The final summit is guarded by steep wall that is about 30 metres tall and provides solid fifth class climbing.

Final summit block

I was able to bang in two bomber pitons for a comfortable belay station.  I lead straight up the face (same as the Andrew Nugara’s lead).  The first few moves off the station were probably 5.6 and I did get a perfect wire placement (#6), but about 15 metres up, it was obvious the chance of getting rock protection was low.  The climbing was getting easier, probably 5.4, but I didn’t like the lack of protection, so I dowclimbed, clean my nut, and then traversed far right to a small pinnacle, maybe 5.4 climbing.  Access to get behind the pillar was tougher, four or five strenuous 5.6 moves, but I had sunk a perfect piton so I was well protected.  Once between the pinnacle and the summit block the grade was easy, maybe 5.2, so I blasted up quickly as we were hearing more and more thunder from the distant dark clouds.

I built a quick piton station and bought Raff up, then we ran the final 30 metres to the summit since the dark clouds were moving in.  Once on the summit the clouds appeared to staying to the north so we did relax a bit to enjoy the view.  6.5 hours to the 3000m summit from the highway. There was a small summit cairn, but I couldn’t find any register.

Leaving, I belayed Raff’s downclimb to the lower station, then removed my piton station and downclimbed with a belay from below, cleaned the piton and meet Raff below.  I again belayed Raff’s downclimb and removed the station.  We left nothing on the mountain, no slings or pitons.

Quick scramble back to the top of the gully, then the long butt slide/downclimb to the scree cone.  We made the soft grass just as it got dark, then the big Grizzly Col trail, then a surprise detour back to Ripple Rock Creek (I am not going to use the “L” word ;-) and finally the car; yeah!  All in, Raff and I were 12 hours car to car.  Great day out with a lot of variety of climbing and scrambling and no rain or thunderstorms!

Bastille Mountain - Scramble

Mt. Delphine

July 22 Raff and I had big plans to day trip the gorgeous Purcell 11,000'er, Mount Delphine, but big washouts on the logging roads in upper McDonald Creek changed our plans.
After a lot of thought and discussion, we decided to drive back to Invermere, load up on coffee, and head out to Jumbo Pass.  The weather was perfect, and the sky completely clear, so a trip up to the beautiful Jumbo Pass area sounded like a great plan. Raff has been to Jumbo Pass before, and even had ascended Bastille Mountain before, and we had climbed Commander Mountain and Jumbo Mountain together back in 2010; so I was very keen to see the south side of the Jumbo Mtn. area.

Bastille Mtn.

Again using "Hikes Around Invermere and the Columbia River Valley" by Aaron Cameron and Matt Gunn for road directions, approach and scrambling beta; we parked at the Jumbo Pass parking area and we setting out at 2:45pm.  Same time as our start time on Indian Head Mtn. the day before. Great trail gave us quick time to the pass.  We had a quick lunch then blasted up to the small col west of the 4 peaks of Bastille Mtn. The views all around from Jumbo Pass and Bastille are mind blowingly beautiful; very, very scenic region.  We took lots and lots of photo breaks and dreamt of climbing the surrounding beauties.

Karnak and Jumbo

We seeked out the toughest scrambling and there were definite sections of difficult scrambling, but overall the scramble is moderate, with lots of easy plodding.  The first two summits were chossy crap loose near rock and did present some tough scrambling on the ridge.  The next two highest summits had much better rock quality and provided some fun scrambling. 

Incredible views throughout the scramble, highly recommend a clear day for this peak.  We took about 200 summits photos ;-) and headed back to Jumbo Pass and the parking area with ease.  All in, just under 6 hours car to car. 

Indian Head Mountain - Scramble

Back on July 21 the venerable Rafal and I scrambled Indian Head Mountain in the Columbia Valley.  Raff and I had plans for some fun mountaineering in the Purcell range, but a combination of the mudslide that closed the trans canada highway on July 20, and big washouts on the logging roads in upper McDonald Creek (Purcells), changed our plans.

Indian Head Mountain is the official name of this mountain, but many locals refer to it as Chisel Peak.  Indian Head is the highest mountain in the Stanford Range with an elevation of 2690m.After a late start, Sonny would be proud, we left the parking area in upper Madias Creek about 2:45pm on Saturday.  The drive up the Madias Creek Forest Service Road is narrow, rough and provides some thrilling exposure.  We parked at the first washout described in "Hikes Around Invermere and the Columbia River Valley" by Aaron Cameron and Matt Gunn.

Up the old road and near the second washout found a great trail leading to col west of Indian Head.  The trail was littered with many huge trees blown down in the fierce windstorm in Friday night's thunderstorm (another reason to avoid climbing during thunderstorms).  Once at the low treed col we made quick time to the rocky crest of the south ridge.

The south ridge to the south summit provides moderate scrambling, with the odd short difficult step on the ridge crest proper.  We made quick time to the south summit.  The traverse north to the north summit is the best part of the trip.  Mostly moderate scrambling, but if you stay on the true ridge crest there are fun sections of difficult scrambling; recommended.  

North Summit of Indian Head Mtn.

4 hours with a casual pace and we were on the north summit of Indian Head Mountain.  Raff and I agree the central part of the summit ridge is the highest point, but the register is located in the large cairn on the north summit. On our descent we were buzzed several times by gliders (engineless planes); it was awesome.  A very cool end to a very cool summit ridge traverse.  All in Raff and I were 7 hours car to car.