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 

Cuillin Ridge

Isle of Skye

Without great expectations of actually pulling it off Jos and Pip took a crack at a 1-day traverse of the fabled Cuillin traverse on our last day on Skye. We managed about three fifths, we figure, bagging about 15 peaks along the way between Gars-bheinn (southern end) and Sgùrr Thuilm (we exited the main ridge via the West ridge of Sgùrr a' Mhadaidh). A 5:30 start from the Glenbrittle Campground got us to the top of Gars-bheinn and the start of the traverse for 9:00 (we lost a bit of time traversing too far East under Gars-bheinn before starting up). Consistent with almost every mountain day we had during our month in the UK we were in the clouds and didn't get much in the way of views. However, we enjoyed a tonne of fun scrambling, including two technical pitches (TD gap and King Chimney) made more exiting by the fact that we had no pro (though plenty of slings). We moved well, and took few breaks, but eventually ran out of steam (and water), and when Guy (aka dad) intercepted us north of Sgùrr a' Ghreadaidh we faced a stark choice between A: continuing on for a guaranteed Sufferfest or, B: calling it a day and getting back to our families for dinner. Pip was only half-inclined to suffer (against Jocelyn's resolve not to call it a day; bailing at this point still meant another 3hrs or so on our feet) so down we went. Back to the Glenbrittle Hostel around 6pm where Gillian (aka mum) was waiting to give us a very-much-appreciated ride down the road to the campground.

Scramblers: the sister-brother team of Jos and Pip.

Guidebook: Mike Lates, Skye: The Cuillin (2011).

Photos | Strava

An Stac and the Inaccessible Pinnacle

The Cuillins, Skye

Midges notwithstanding our five days on Skye were a highlight of our month in the UK. The Glenbrittle campground is by the beach at the foot of the Cuillin ridge and, best of all, has a shop and cafe with croissants and genuinely good coffee. On our first full day we went up to Lochan (lake) Coire Lagan and then the more intrepid among us continued up for a scramble on An Stac. Jos and Pip did this a couple days later unroped as part of a longer traverse of the ridge, but today we all tied in (Andrew did so the old-fashioned way as we didn't have a harness for him). A straightforward but quite exposed scramble; it felt like a good intro to the Cuillins. At the top Jos and Pip had to take the opportunity to get up the 'Inaccessible Pinnacle', and then Oliver climbed / got hauled up the rappel route on the opposite side. A long descent down the west side of Sguur Dearg before Oliver, with Pip in tow, took off on a full-out run down the trail and then cross country in order to make it back to Glenbrittle for ice cream before the shop closed (we made it with about 9min to spare).

Scramblers: Oliver, Jos, Pip, Andrew, Guy.

Photos | Strava | Video of Danny Macaskill getting up the IP with his bike.

Tryfan

Snowdonia National Park, Wales

I had just enough time for a quick scramble up the north ridge of Mt. Tryfan on our first evening in Snowdonia. It was a short visit – just two nights camping at the Idwal youth hostel – so I wanted to seize the opportunity and it turned out to be a highlight for me of our month in the UK. Having never been to Snowdonia before it was a thrill to discover this place and I hope we get back with more time to properly explore it. The scramble was straightforward and a lot of fun, with increasingly good views back down into the valley. I was surprised to discover that Wales isn't into trail markers, but did go too far astray. The top was unbelievably windy (hard to stand) so I didn't linger. Down the south side and around to Llyn (Lake) Idwal where I ran into the rest of the gang coming up for a post-dinner walk in the rain.

Photos | Strava

Avalanche Mountain

Rogers Pass
Southwest Ridge (F 4th) - Southeast Ridge (F 3rd)
2,861m

The vision was of a 2-day early summer enchainment of the Sir Donald group, including (from North to South) Avalanche, Eagle, Uto, Sir Donald and the Terminal peaks. The reality was a 16hr winter adventure on Avalanche. Still, a fun outing with good friends and a chance to get more familiar with Rogers Pass (the following day we also took a day hike up to Hermit Meadows, which we will have to return to). An opportunity, too, to practice being safe in the mountains in less-than-ideal conditions. Pip kind of blew it near the end (losing control on a patch of snow in our descent gully), but otherwise we did well and made it back to Illecillewaet (where we had had the good sense to keep our tent site, 'just in case') shortly after dark.

Sir Donald and the enchainment await our next attempt!

Photos    Strava