Flat Iron and Needle Peak

 

Surprisingly, our first overnighter to Needle and, delightfully, an opportunity to welcome some new members to the club. We hiked up Saturday afternoon / evening and camped in the rain at the tarn below Flat Iron. Nobody was motivated to get up Flat Iron, so we'll have to return soon! This is a beautiful spot; well worth spending a sunny afternoon at (though it probably gets very busy during the summer in good weather).

A few of us tagged Needle in the fog on the return trip Sunday morning (just over 1 hr there-and-back from the junction).

(for more details on the Needle scramble see previous posts)

Scramblers: Breagh, Garrett, Jamie, Chris, Pip

Photos

Sir Donald and North Terminal

Sir Donald NW Ridge: Grade IV, 5.4

North Terminal: 4th Class

Kyle and I kind of got our asses handed to us on Sir Donald. It started snowing when we got to the col, so fair warning: we probably should've turned back at that point. And once we got part way up the ridge we had other opportunities to back out by getting onto the rap route, but neither of us had been to the summit so we continued (it was also cold, and the thought of starting down a 12-pitch rappel was not very appealing). It was slow going with fresh snow on the rock. I think it took us about 6hrs to get up; way too long, in any case. So by the time we got to the top (aprx 4pm) we really needed to hustle. We stuck to our original plan to descend the SE ridge, and wasted a bit more time looking for bolted anchors (they appear not to exist; I misunderstood the guidebook) before committing to a rat's nest of pre-placed stoppers and a chock-stone (we're not too proud to admit that these 4 or 5 rappels down the SE ridge terrified us). With the fear of a night out on the mountain spurring us on, we finally made it down to North Terminal at dusk. It was only at that point that I took off my climbing shoes to discover my toes were frozen and bloodied. A long, dark scramble down Terminal ensued, with much gnashing of teeth if not outright weeping. It was a proper epic. Eventually, inevitably, we got lost and had a hell of a time finding our way down to Pearly Rock, but we got there in the end. The final hike down 1,200m to the car was pure misery. Writing this 12 months later my toes still haven't recovered!!

Photos | Map

Cathedral

A great couple days at Cathedral with the Bridges and Hilary, Tova and Alyssia (welcome to the club you three!). Scrambled up Grimface and Pyramid. Hung in hammocks. Swum in lakes. Created rhyming couplets. The usual.

Photos.

Needle Peak

Running out of things to say about Needle! Another lovely day out. This year with David and Laurie, Barb and Garth. 

Photos.

Cathedral Rim in a day

In an effort to adhere to the principle of informed consent I advertised the day as a 'sufferfest' and Chris gamely signed on the dotted line. We set out from Westbank at 3:30am and were on our way up the 4x4 road by 5:30; to Quiniscoe Lake at 8:00; and top of the Boxcar (via Goat Lake) by 10:30. From there the adventuring began. Having done the full traverse over to Grimface once before, plus a couple unsuccessful attempts, I more-or-less know the route now but still find some of the descents hard to discern. This time I made a hash of getting off Matriarch by blindly using some rappel tat that set us up for a rappel that was a good 10m longer that our 60m rope. I never figured out how we did it last time - there are a lot of options - so don't have any beta to offer here. From our starting point I think we needed to work our way diagonally to skiers left rather than heading straight down, but at the time thought staying to the right and heading right off the end of the ridge line was the way to go. Will try to figure this out next time!

This was Chris' first scramble (previous experience: 1 pitch of rappelling at Mt. Boucherie the day before) and he did admirably. It was a full 8hrs in the hot seat, so to speak, between the Boxcar and the top of Grimface, and at no point did I feel I'd put our friendship in any real jeopardy. The weather became increasingly menacing as the day wore on and when we finally topped out on Grimface we were confronted with scenes from Mordor: a stormfront that must've been a couple 100kms wide; lightening to left and right; wind; and the start of rain (oh, also we had about 45min of daylight left). We beat a hasty retreat off Grimface, got out of our climbing gear, put on our jackets, and started hoofing it over to Stone City to find the trail off the rim before it became completely dark. A long haul down Ladysplipper Trail (some genius put reflective trail markers on the trees: thank you!). We poked our head in at the ranger hut around 9:30pm to let the ranger – who we ran into in the morning – know that we were off the mountain, and then began the sufferfest proper: the interminable slog back down the road to the car. It took us almost as long to go down as it did to come up in the morning, allowing for Chris to stop every 15min to stretch his back.

Quote of the day from Chris at about the 16hr mark: "I think I might start swearing soon."

An awesome day out :)

Scramblers: Pip and Chris

Photos  Strava (note: the storm did something to the GPS at the top of Grimface; lost the signal at that point).

Needle Peak

Grade I, Class 3
2,095m
Coquihalla Summit

Needle Peak is becoming an annual tradition. This year we had inaugural scramblers Anthony, David Garth and Maggie the Dog in our group, as well as Guy / Grumps who joined us from Vancouver. It was a perfect day to be in the mountains. Oliver set a storming pace up the first steep section with David / Grandad and Garth in tow and it took quite some for the rest of us to catch up. We met a huge (well at least a dozen) group of Filipino's from Vancouver working their way nervously up the first bit of scrambling. Maggie was also a little unsure about this section, but after sniffing around for an alternative eventually scampered up it with no trouble. For the final climb to the summit we pulled out the webbing harness I had fashioned for Maggie but it was a complete failure and Eloïse ended up staying back with her while the rest of us went up to the summit and back. Guy provided a final bit of excitement when his legs started cramping very badly (I result we guessed of dehydration after a flight back from UK followed by a day in the garden). Through gritted teeth he told us to go on and save ourselves, which David, Garth and Anthony promptly did. Oliver, Eloïse and Pip, being blood relations, stuck around to make sure he got off the mountain which, after some nervous moments at the lower technical bit, we all did.

Photos    Strava

Mt. Schäffer

Southwest Ridge (F 3rd) 2,691m
Lake O'Hara

Another visit to Lake O'Hara (we were here about this time last year - see 15/AUG/2018) and another trip up Mt. Schäffer. This was the inaugural scramble for the Bridge Family (Chris, Sonya, Breagh and Allie)! Although we were familiar with the route from last year we inadvertently got onto a different, easier route from about halfway up the scramble, moving off the ridge West / climber's left into a bit of a gully. This was just as well given the deteriorating weather, and we wasted no time getting up and off again before the rain began in earnest.

Scramblers: Oliver, Eloïse, Allie, Breagh, Lisa, Sonya, Chris and Pip.

Photos   Strava