Cathedral Core Area Circuit

Grade III-IV, 5.7
Cathedral Provincial Park, Keremeos, BC
7-8 AUG 2012 | Aaron, Kyle & Pip

After a bit of a hiatus (children were born, a house was built .. it wasn't all time wasted) Scramblegs is back in action with a return to Cathedral Park for attempt #4 at The Circuit, a goal that dates to the earliest days of Scramblegs and involves hitting every peak in the core area (map.pdf) from Lakeview to Scout Mtn. Although we still haven't quite got it all wrapped up in one day, we did manage the crux of it (the Matriarch – Grimface traverse, Grade III, 5.7) on this trip. We hiked up Lakeview Trail (.gpx) in the afternoon and camped at Quiniscoe lake. This is the last time Pip will use his bivy sac in any buggy conditions. Early start and off to Lakeview Mountain (rather than taking the most direct route to Matriarch, for the circuit we wanted to make the loop as big as possible). From Lakeview it was down and up to the Boxcar and across Denture Ridge (this took more time and route finding than we'd remembered from our last attempt). At the base of Matriarch we met up with a couple climbers who had come direct from the lakes and were starting up the first pitch of climbing. It was nice having them ahead of us, particularly for the Grimface climb as we weren't 100% sure about the route. Got caught in a hailstorm at one point in the morning, but progress was pretty good for a three-some. Up and down and up and down and up and down. Awesome! A pretty major screwup on the last big rappel off Matriarch and Pip had to prusik back up the rope to the anchor to get it untangled. Crazy how ropes can tie themselves in knots. Once off Matriarch we were into new terrain. Got over to the base of Grimface without too much trouble (one nameless member had to be babied across an exposed bit of ridge walking) and the climbing to the top of Grimface was fun and easier than expected. Back down the other side and started hoofing it to the lakes and all the way down the road to the car. Awful. An 18hr day all told. The full loop around to Red and Scout Mtns. remains to be conquered.

Gear:
60m rope, harness and belay device, helmet, small set of cams (Black Diamond 0.3, 0.5, 0.75, Metolius 7), small set of nuts (didn't place any), one hex, a little bigger than my biggest cam (placed it once), draws incl. a couple long slings.

Photos