“Buller Pass Peak” (GR204382) - South Slopes Scramble

"Buller Pass Peak"

                              

Had an enjoyable day in the snowy hills on Friday October 25. Laurie and I needed some cardio and alpine views so we headed out for a scenic hike up “Buller Pass Peak” (GR204382). More snow than I was expecting, but fortuitously, a group of strong trail breaking alpine friends were on the Buller Creek trail before us. Turns out, they too were headed up Buller Pass Peak. Funny, we never saw or meet our friends as they chose steeper frozen scree  directness, while we chose a snowier lower angle slog to the summit. Once upon the rocky prominence of the summit, I was convinced the snowy summit slightly to the North was higher, so I slogged over, while Laurie stayed on the rocky summit. Winter like light on the summit and a casual return with a cool winter vibe. Great day in the hills.

View to Laurie on the rocky south summit of 
"Buller Pass Peak"

CFD+ 5.9, 310m, 10 pitches

View to pitch 4 on CFD+

Had a great of climbing with Carlos. We meet for a fun 10 pitch sport route on Friday August 30. Weather was cool and a little windy, but overall good conditions. We had a lot of fun on “CFD+” a 5.9, 310m, 10 pitch fully bolted sport route. Pitch four (5.8, 40m) was the crux. Sustained 5.8 moves with many delicate foot placements and interesting hand pulls. Carlos led pitch four. I led pitch five, graded 5.9, real grade, but short burly wall right off the station, overhang with big blocky holds, super fun. The crux on pitch five was burly, but short with excellent hands and feet, overall easier than the more sustained 5.8 pitch. The upper pitches were awesome slabby 5.6-5.7+ moves for a few pitches. Well bolted and walkoff. Great day out. Tons of fun.

Carlos hanging out.

Looking up to pitch 4. 

Carlos having fun on pitch 4. 

Carlos at the top of pitch 4.

Looking down the crux of pitch 5. 
Just off the belay station.

Good times.

Upper pitches, super fun cruising. 

Good views,

Mt. Peter - South West Ridge Scramble

 

Fabulous day out with the intrepid Steve on Mt. Peter in the Purcell Range. To avoid potential thunderstorms on Monday afternoon, we pitched a tent Sunday night on the Farnham Creek FSR to allow an early start. Our road side camp has great views to the Commander Glacier. Moving before first light on Monday August 5, we made great time on the trail to the South West Ridge. Lots of scree slogging to gain the interesting scrambling on the solid quartzite cliff band at the top of the ridge. As the ridge steepens, traverse to the upper West Face to gain the easy North Ridge to make the summit. A little glacier exists on the upper West Face. We used a snow/ice ramp to avoid some of the nasty wet down climbing we did on the ascent. Incredible views to the surrounding mountains. Weather improved throughout the day with skies clearing as we descended. Awesome day out on a fabulous Purcell 11,000’er.

Mt. Engadine - North West Ridge Scramble

July 26 Scott and I were back at the Mt. Barham/The Blade Col. Took a new line, way left of our attempt last summer, but again the steep slab shut us down with 5.9+ unprotectable climbing. We returned to our front country campsite to regroup. July 27 we needed a simple and easy day and chose the North West Ridge of Mt. Engadine. Fun easy day out with interesting scrambling and a good cardio workout. Just under 7 hours car to car. Great views and nice to tag a summit. 

View to Mt. Engadine at the end of the day. 

Big slab below The Blade / Mt. Barham col.
Difficult to protect and all 5.9+ lines. 

Back at camp dealing with defeat.

Onto the fun NW ridge of Mt. Engadine. 

View to the top of Mt. Engadine.

Enjoyable hiking and scrambling. 

Some fun sections. 

Scree slog after fun ridge.

View to the summit.

Scott's final steps to the pinnacle. 

High cloud views.

Summit posers.

Summit register.

Summit entry.

Cool lines, interesting gullies and steep ridges on 
"Mount Buller - West Peak"

“Cat’s Ears" (GR385179) - South Summit - West Face, 5.6 Alpine III

 

View from Opal Creek to the "Cat's Eats".
South summit is the right summit.

July 22 Scott Berry and I were successful on our climb of “Cat’s Ears” (GR383179). We had attempted this peak last year, but didn’t figure out the route description. We climbed the West Face of South Cat’s Ear on the Don Forest/Gene Fraser route (1981), or close to it. The upper mountain, once at the col between the two Cat’s Ear, is a series of steep loose gullies, with steps of varying rock quality up to 5.6/5.7. A truly scary choss fest. The final pitch to the summit was fun 5.6 on solid rock with great pro. Not all the 5.6 climbing was as high quality. Incredible views from the summit ridge. Two high points on the summit ridge. Both appeared to have cairns, but I carefully disassembled both and found no register. I left a new summit register and book. Based on my research, our ascent is the second ascent. A stunning summit, but hard climbing on loose terrain, not an easy day for sure. Super happy to reach this elusive summit. 

more details to come ... 

Wasootch Peak. North to south traverse

 

View to Mt. Lorette. 

On Friday July 12, after a full day in the office and feeding the family dinner; last minute I decided on a quick bike n hike. Parked at the regular parking spot for Wasootch Peak, rode my bike about 4 kilometres north and hide my bike in the bush. Bush bashed up the north ridge of “Wasootch North Peak”. Fun scramble once above tree line. Great evening light and a cool breeze in the alpine. Great hike from the north peak to the main Wasootch Peak. Haven’t been in the hills much recently, so I pushed the pace and was happy with a car to car of 3 hours 15 minutes. Good times. 

Ceramic Engineer - 70m, WI3

Anyone ever hear of the ice route “Ceramic Engineer “.  Probably not. I am approaching 30 seasons of ice climbing and have never heard of anyone climbing this route. Haven’t been out at all this season and was looking for an easy WI3 route. Ceramic Engineer 70m, WI3 is in Jo Jo’s guidebook and seemed like a reasonable day out. It is just east of Mt. Wilson, about 6 km east of Saskatchewan Crossing in Owen Creek. 

From the creek, view to the route.

First view to WI5 up on cliff band.

We see some ice. 
John spied the WI5 pillar.

View up Owen Creek.
Nice little valley.

Hiking up to the WI3 route we climbed.

Reviewing the information provided in Joe Josephson's "Waterfall Ice: Climbs in the Canadian Rockies", there is some incorrect UTM numbers provided for Ceramic Engineer. The guidebook description is shown below, the UTM grid provided for Ceramic Engineer is 227643. Ceramic Engineer is in Owen Creek, the guidebook also lists three routes in Thompson Creek, and provides a UTM grid of 227644; only 10 metres apart. Not correct since these creeks are kilometres apart. My reading from the route we climbed is shown below on the map below, UTM grid 196627. I am assuming we climbed Ceramic Engineer, even with only about 45 metres of climbing. The route is in a gully, so some years would have more ice for sure. 

I convinced John it was a good idea so we headed there on Saturday Feb. 10. After hiking in almost 5 km we saw some scary sun affected WI5 ice. We hiked a bit and found a 45m WI3 route. Climbed it, not sure it was Ceramic Engineer?  Was a great day out with a great bud in remote setting. Tons of fun.

Blue dot is the WI3 route we climbed. 

UTM grid of 227643 would be in Thompson Creek.

Map in Jojo's excellent guidebook.

View down from my first screw placement.
Route was the most steep off the deck.

John pulling the ropes after our rap off a tree at the top.

Jughaul Wall - 5.7, 105m, 3 pitches

 

Had a glorious day of rock climbing October 16 on the trad route Jughaul Wall. Pretty sure this will be the last multi pitch rock route of the season. Jughaul is way up on Grotto Mountain, sharing a small face with a few other routes, mainly the serious looking Grotto Crack route. Jughaul Wall is 110m, 5.7 in three pitches. Grotto Crack is 70m, 5.8+; both routes established in the 1970’s so the grade is definitely old school. We had a great time on Jughaul Wall. 

View of the Grotto Corner wall on the approach.
Jughaul Wall is straight up the middle

Laurie led pitch 1 and 3, both super steep with excellent rock quality and the grade a stiff 5.5. I led pitch 2, 5.7; definitely the money pitch. Long and really steep for the first half, solid rock, super great holds and lots of opportunity for solid gear placements, so much fun. 

Laurie on pitch 1. 

 Laurie at the first station (piton/bolt) at the top of pitch 1.

Approaching the belay, Grotto Crack to left, looks so cool. 

OSWB heading up pitch 2, Laurie’s photos. 

OSWB heading up pitch 2, Laurie’s photos. 

Looking down pitch 2. 

Laurie heading up the last pitch. 

Looking up third pitch, awesome rock and great gear, so fun.

OSWB topping out, Laurie’s photo. 

Great weather for our day out. The rock quality on Jughaul Wall is fantastic, but all the belay stances suck, especially the tree belay on the top of pitch 2, super awkward. Still highly recommend this trad protected route. 

Couple of images from the amazing guidebook by the exceptional climber Chris Perry, Banff Rock. The edition I have is getting dated, so I wanted to highlight a couple of fixed gear bolts in place not mentioned in the guidebook. 

Pitch 1, maybe about 10 metres up from where we belayed (nice wide flat ledge with trees) there is a single bolt (only fixed gear not at a station). 30 metres up from the bottom of pitch 1 is a double bolt anchor. These 3 bolts are not shown on the topo or mentioned in the write up.

We used the single piton/single bolt station 45 metres up for our first station (top of pitch 1), then used the tree 50 metres up for the second station and a tree on the top of the route for the third station. 

Copy of the topo map from guidebook.
Banff Rock. Chris Perry.

Guidebook write up.
Banff Rock, Chris Perry.

Approximate location of single bolt on pitch 1 and
double bolt anchor 30m up pitch 1.

Double bolts 30 metres up pitch 1.