Needle, Take 2

Grade I, Class 3
2,095m
Coquihalla Summit

Another visit to Needle, following our July trip. This one was envisioned as an overnighter but the logistics of getting ourselves up there after school on Friday, combined with so-so weather that precluded the stargazing we were hoping for, held most of us back until Saturday morning. Most, but not all. In a last minute show of bold determination, Aaron got himself organized and had himself, Simon and Linnaea at the trailhead at dusk, and up onto the ridge to camp. The rest of us came up in the morning. September in the mountains: it doesn't get any better.

This was the inaugural Scramblegs Peak for Linnaea (7yrs), Rosie (8), Leo (6) and Sparrow (5). Hat tip to Luca (2), who came up in a backpack.

Participants: Luca, Sparrow, Oliver, Leo, Rosie, Linnaea, Eloïse, Simon, Lisa, Sara, Jos, Pip, Aaron and Andrew.

Strava | Video

Diedre

5.8, 6 pitches

Squamish (the Apron)

The first time Aaron and I climbed Diedre (circa 2002) was also the first time Aaron had climbed anything. For some reason he didn't think it was an adequately gentle introduction to the sport and he decided that he would never be able to trust me again. Fifteen years later I had not only Aaron's life back in my hands, but that of his first-born, Simon, as well. Together with Eloïse (my own first-born) we had – I think even Aaron would agree – a delightful day out. Surprisingly, given that Diedre might be the most popular climb in Squamish, we also had the whole thing to ourselves for the morning. With excellent pro and rap anchors all the way up, it would be hard to find a better intro to multi-pitch climbing anywhere. Five hours car-to-car for our party (lead climber + second + third and fourth climbing together).

Participants: Eloïse, Simon, Aaron, Pip.

Strava   GPX   KML   Video

Mt. Tszil

Grade I, Class 2
2,377m
Joffre Lakes Provincial Park

Mt. Tszil is an easy scramble above upper Joffre Lake, where we were camped for a couple of nights. This was Oliver's (age 5) inaugural Scramblegs summit, and he was highly motivated to get to the top so he could earn his patch (we now have patches!!). This was an 8-hour round trip from the lake at 5-year-old pace.

Participants: Oliver, Linnaea, Eloïse, Simon, Lisa, Lisa, Pip and Aaron

Strava | Video | GPX  | KML

Needle Peak

Grade I, Class 3
Coquihalla Summit

An impromptu day in the mountains with the kids.  Needle is one of the most accessible peaks we have near us (two hours from Kelowna): a good trail straight off the Coquihalla highway. There are two sections of scrambling. Neither is particularly difficult, but the first is tricky enough that today it dissuaded a heap of hikers from going any further (and would've dissuaded us if we hadn't brought rope for the kids). Happily, this left the top of the mountain – including the nicest bit of hiking before the final scramble to the top – for us to enjoy alone. 5 1/2hrs return, at 7-year-old speed.

Participants: Eloïse, Simon, Pip and Aaron

Strava   GPX   KML

Cathedral Peak

Grade I, Class 3
Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park

This was the inaugural Scramblegs outing for Simon and Eloïse. Eloïse was battling a fever, which made it a little more arduous than it needed to be, but otherwise this was a perfect first trip for the two kids. It was also a good opportunity for the fathers to practice the dark art of short roping. The approach is an easy 4.5km hike from Tuolumne meadows (if you look at our track you will notice that we went further than necessary – more like 5km – on the trail before striking off towards the peak; our route down is more direct). Routefinding to the summit is straightforward, and the scrambling is technical enough to be fun without a great deal of danger. We short-roped the scrambling section to protect the kids (without them we would've gone ropeless) using a combination of simu-climbing and hip belays. Fantastic views for much of the day.

Participants: Pip, Aaron, Kyle, Simon and Eloïse

Strava   GPX file   KML file

Sky Pilot

Grade I, Class 4
Squamish, BC

Sky Pilot is an 18.5km (1,300m elevation gain) return trip from the top of the Sea-to-Sky Gondola (Matt Gunn's book and others describe the pre-gondola approach, which is considerably longer). The first (and last) 5km are the least interesting, following a wide gravel road then bouldery trail up through the valley to the base of the climber's trail. From there it gets good. The climber's trail is a great bit of new trail-building that quickly takes you up into the alpine with views, first, of Co-pilot and the amazing rocky tooth of Mt. Habrich. Next is some awkward climbing up steep and loose terrain to the base of the small Stadium Glacier. We had the option of skirting around the glacier on more of the steep & loose stuff, but the glacier provides the more direct route to the west ridge we were aiming for, and we had crampons, axes and ropes with us (I was comfortable scampering up in micro spikes).

The scrambling begins shortly after you get onto the ridge with the "pink-yellow" slab. This is the most technical part of the whole route, pushing 5th class for about 15m to a shiny new bolted anchor. We had a full length climbing rope which I set-up for top-roping, but we met a group of three rapping down on a 30m scrambling rope so that's all I'm packing next time! From the top of the slab the route makes its way around to the south ridge with plenty of fun scrambling to the summit. There are opportunities, particularly early on, to get off route, but it quickly becomes obvious when you do (above the initial slab there is nothing harder than moderate 4th class to the summit; if it looks harder than that you're going the wrong way).

We had some stand-out performances in our group from Tyler (10 years old) and Holly. Both got up the pink-yellow slab, and Tyler a little ways beyond it before calling it a day on some of the sketchy (loose) terrain above. They both then turned themselves inside out (actually, Tyler seemed like he could've kept going all night) to make it back in time for the last gondola at 7pm. Even though we were up on the first ride at 9:30am, our group was very hard-pressed to get back in time (we could've spent a little less time snapping photos before any hiking occurred). A good deal of uncomfortable running back down the valley trail was needed (Holly had some impressive blisters to show off the next day), and even then it was only thanks to the kindly gondola attendant that none of us had to face the long, steep hike back to the parking lot. Back at the base station we noticed that the gondola stays open later on Fridays and Saturdays in the summer. Note-to-self.

Participants: Pip, Guy, Jocelyn, Graham, Martin, Holly & Tyler.

Photos   KML   GPX

Recommended gear: 30m scrambling rope (material for bolted anchor if top-roping), harness & belay device for pink slab; helmet; ice axe & crampons or micro spikes for Stadium glacier.

Water: bottles could be refilled at the glacier.

References:
Matt Gunn's Scrambles in Southwest British Columbia
Topo 092G11
Bivouac.com
Sea-to-Sky Gondola Homepage and Interactive Map

Petit Dent de Veisivi

Grade II, Class 4-5
Val d'Herens, Switzerland

A little father-son excursion to the Val d'Herens, around the corner from Val d'Anniviers where we were staying with friends and family. On a five-week trip this was one of the few times we got onto steep rock, so it was a real highlight.

I am writing this post a year after the fact (precisely), and didn't have a GPS with me at the time, so won't pretend I can give proper directions. The trailhead is up towards (but not quite as far as) Arolla.

The approach is not overly long, and the climbing is easy 5th class, preceded by a bit of 4th class scrambling. Like most things in this part of the world, the route is bolted so nothing but a few slings required. We made things a bit more interesting, however, by only packing one harness.

Father did very well (who wants to fall when tied into the rope without a harness?), and we were up and down the technical climbing in a couple hours. From the top it is just possible to make out the Matterhorn. That will be for next trip.

Gear: full length rope; harness and belay device; 4-5 slings; approach shoes; good quality cheese and salami.

Participants: Pip and Guy.

Trip photos

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

Mt. Begbie

Grade I, Class 3-4
Revelstoke, BC

As Aaron put it, climbing Begbie gives you a little bit of everything. A nice, steep'ish approach through old-growth forest, then into the alpine and across the mountain's lower slabs with good views of the route ahead and of Revelstoke and surroundings behind. Up a small but quite heavily crevassed glacier. Back onto rock across an exposed ledge, followed by a long stretch of mostly easy scrambling with the odd tricky bit to the summit. Oh, and some very cool geology thrown in as well. We had a great day (about 12hrs car-to-car). The crux of the climb for us turned out to be the glacier, which was a surprise. Despite thoroughly researching the route (a 5min look at a couple of blog posts; there were photos) we underestimated it a bit and weren't entirely prepared. We had axes, and Aaron and Pip had micro spikes, which were just good enough, but Ben had yak tracks, which were not (on the advice of his more experienced partners he left heavier boots and full crampons in the car). Nevertheless, after a bit of screwing around we got up and over it and onto the rock. Across the ledge we made use of the bolts to fix a line; not strictly necessary but a nice bit of security. After that we could've (but didn't) dropped all the climbing gear as it wasn't needed for the scramble to the top. This felt like a bonus outing at the end of the season. Great day. Great company.

Participants: Aaron, Ben & Pip

Gear: 30m scrambling rope (8mm), ice axe, crampons (sort of: see above), 4 slings w. biners (to clip bolts on ledge), harness and belay device.

Trip photos   GPX   KML

Middle Teton (South-West Couloir)

Grade III, Class 2-3
Grand Teton National Park

Hopefully this will be our first of many trips to Grand Teton National Park. On this visit we just had the morning to get up something before continuing on with our families north to Yellowstone. Pip conspired to kill the whole adventure at birth by neglecting to set his alarm, but Aaron (with some reluctance it is reported) saved the day and got himself out of bed. By 5am we were on our bikes for the 20km ride from our campground at Signal Mtn, to the trailhead at Jenny Lake. From there it was up and down 6,000' in five hours, including a little bit of 3rd class (unexposed, non-technical) scrambling near the top. Great views, but no time to properly enjoy them. We'll be back! [note: take the GPS tracks provided here with a grain of salt: we were a little off-route at times as we went through the boulders and up towards the base of the couloir).

Participants: Aaron and Pip

Photos   GPX   KML

Mt. Robson (South Face)

Grade IV
Mt. Robson Provincial Park
3,954m
25-27 August

It's not exactly a scramble - some would call it mountaineering - but the guidebook says something to the effect of "actually only a hike, though a grunt of a hike at that". The climbing isn't technical, it's just sustained 4th class with a bit of glacier thrown in, on a big, committing mountain. Jeff and I had been to 11,600', 3 years ago but the weather didn't allow us to go higher then. This trip was initiated on Thursday afternoon when Jeff had a break in his residency (year 1 family practice in Ontario) so he called to see if I was up for an adventure and arranged a flight to be in Prince George the next day. I borrowed a mountain bike, ice tools and a light weight rope Thursday night (from 3 different people), then left work early Friday to pick him up at the airport and head to Robson. It was drizzly Friday night so we slept in the valley and headed up the next morning. We were pretty lucky to have the weather clear and it was completely calm the whole climbing day. It was absolutely calm on the summit, which almost never happens, so we felt pretty lucky. The weight of the commitment was pretty heavy so we didn't linger or relax much. It was a LONG way down. We had hoped to descend the whole thing in a day, but that didn't happen ...

Participants: Sean & Jeff

Trip photos

Matriarch and Macabre Tower

Denture Ridge.JPG
Originally uploaded by Master Pip

Cathedral Park | July 28, 2007 | Kyle, Pip and Aaron

This section was the highlight of our aborted Cathedral Ridge traverse. Following the scramble to the ridge from the Boxcar, we spent some hours walking, scrambling, climbing and rappeling along this ridge towards Grimface (with the latter seeming never to draw any closer!). It was a blast. At times we didn't really know where we were going, but it all worked out in the end and the routefinding was a welcome challenge for us who are pretty novice in that department. There was some technical climbing here that took this part of the traverse beyond the realm of Scramblegs, but the initial scramble itself was also a lot of fun. Cathedral Trip photos here.

The Boxcar - Cathedral Park

Kyle, Boxcar.JPG
Originally uploaded by Master Pip

Cathedral Park | July 28, 2007 | Kyle, Pip and Aaron

The Boxcar was the first scramble we arrived at on our attempt of the entire Cathedral Ridge traverse - Lakeview Mtn (which is classified as a scramble in Matt's book, but which we discounted) to the Boxcar and Denture Ridge, over Grimface and on back along the Rim Trail to Quiniscoe Lake. We failed at our traverse attempt, sadly - choosing to descend to Goat Lake at a notch between Denture Ridge and Grimface when it got to dinner time - and are now highly motivated for another crack at it next year. The Boxcar was a fun scramble up behind a group of mountain goats, with fanastic views all around of Cathedral Ridge and surrounding mountains. Cathedral Trip photos here.

Pyramid - Cathedral Park

Approaching Pyramid.JPG
Originally uploaded by Master Pip

Cathedral Park (near Keremeos) | July 27, 2007) | Lisa, Aaron, Kyle and Pip.

Pyramid was the first of a handful of scrambles we did over a few days in Cathedral Park. A nice, short jaunt from our campsite below at Lake of the Woods. We took a jeep up the private road to Cathedral Lodge on Quiniscoe Lake, and then had a 10min walk to Lake of the Woods - so an easy start! After a nap, a couple chapters of the last Harry Potter book, and some coffee, Pyramid was a good opportunity to check out our surroundings. Aside from some wonderful views and a couple fun little sections at the top, this scramble is perhaps most noteworthy as the moment when Scramblegs was taken from its humble origins and re-defined as the complex meritocracy that it is sure to become. In this new spirit, Pyramid was Pip and Aaron's SL2 Peak, and Lisa and Kyle's SL1. From the top we had an even more interesting (scramble-wise) round-trip return along the ridge to the Rim Trail and then back down past Glacier lake to camp. Photos of the whole Cathedral trip are here.

Rim Rocks

IMG_0267
Originally uploaded by Master Pip.

Coldstream

This weekend Sara and I did a wee bit of scrambling just outside of Vernon in a place called Rim Rocks. Just one word for you – Beautiful. After Google failed to provide us with directions Sara did some brilliant old-school sleuthing with the telephone and we were on our way. The day started with a short hike up to a gorgeous plateau (where we stopped for lunch to enjoy the award winning views of the Coldstream valley) and then a fun scramble/stumble down into a crazy rock field with a series of ~30 foot rock spires. We had a really fun hour or so bouldering/scrambling on the spires, before the short hike back down to the car. An awesome day, and only a short 15-minute drive from Vernon. Well worth the visit for all you Okanagan folk. Can’t wait ‘till the next scramble – hopefully this fall. Trip photos.

Participants: Sara and Aaron.

West Lion

Kyle above the precipice!
Originally uploaded by Master Pip.

West Vancouver
1,654m

What a leg-burner! This was Kyle's first time up the Lions, and Pip's first since he was a wee lad. A nice, steep trail heads up from Lions Bay (one can also go from Cypress, over Unnecessary Mountain) through the woods to the notch at the base of the Lion's "head" (Kyle is looking down into the notch in this photo). Such good views of HoweSound from up there, and then over to the mountains east once at the top. From the notch it's a pretty straightforward scramble, but the exposure is no joke and we had to backtrack a couple times to stay out of trouble. On top it was chilly, and the clouds were coming in, so after a quick feast of muffins we picked our way down. Perhap's the last scramble of the year?? Trip photos.

Participants: Kyle and Pip.

Mount MacFarlane

Chilliwack
September 30 - October 1

This Saturday morning a large crew of dedicated ScrambleLegs members met for coffee to choose the location for an overnight scramble. After Aaron out-debated Pier on the ideal scramble location (a very sad debate on all accounts) we set out to conquer Mount MacFarlane in the Chilliwack river valley. This 'easy' scramble required 1770m worth of climbing. The trip began with a long but enjoyable hike through hemlock forest, past a small mountain lake, and into the sub-alpine. The signs of autumn were all around us and the colours and smells were absolutely wonderful. We camped by a small second lake just below Mount MacFarlane. Day one was only slightly spoilt by a pea-soup thick fog. We unzipped the doors of our tents on Sunday morning to see much of the same, however, as we prepared our breakfast the clouds began to lift. The final 45 minutes of ascent provided beautiful views and a very rewarding summit. The rest of the day consisted of a quad crushing but beautiful descent, which provided some amazing views masked by Saturday's fog. Another successful ScrambleLegs outing! Hopefully not the last of this dwindling scrambling season :) Trip photos.

Participants: Aaron, Adrian, Gerad, Kelly, Lisa, Pier, and Sarah.

Crown Mountain

Mel and Aaron with Vancouver behind
Originally uploaded by Master Pip.

North Vancouver (N 49°24.6' W123°05.5')

Crown is much more of a hike than a scramble, but worthwhile all the same. We hiked a little over an hour up the BC Mountaineering Club trail that runs beside the Grouse Grind, and then settled down at the top to watch the annual race up the Grind - winning time was a little over 28min; nowhere near the record (almost 4 minutes quicker I think), but still outrageously fast. Aaron's brother Kertis came in 4th, and Dustin a respectable 10th or so. Two hours from there to the top of Crown, passing Goat peak and some great views to the north along the way. It's a steep trail from Goat - first down to a notch, and then back up to Crown, but no real scrambling until the last few metres really. Spectacular views of Vancouver and surrounding mountains from the top. Pip tried to get down to the Camel, right beside Crown, and have a look at the 5.2 route up that, but after a look-see decided to turn back as only one with the maturity of a 30-year-old could. Just a few trip photos.

Participants: Aaron, Melanie and Pip.

Mt. Robbie Reid

Pip and Slave Lake
Originally uploaded by Master Pip.

Golden Ears Park, BC
September 1-2

This was Sean's brainchild. Part one of a two-part series: the bigger, badder Mt. Judge Howay is still to come, one day! Friday afternoon we took Sean's boat from the west end of Alouette Lake all the way to the other side (15km) and then made our way 4,000' up a surprisingly well-marked trail through the forest and into the alpine. Great views from our bivy spot down to Stave Lake and the city beyond, and Mt. Baker beyond that, to the south; Mt. Judge Howay to the north; Golden Ears to the west; and countless other peaks, including Slesse, to the east. Beautiful sunset and clear stars at night. In the morning, a bit more steep climbing through trees and bush from camp, and then quickly into the scrambling. Some of this was a bit stiffer than we were expecting, but still within the unroped category, and an exciting challenge. Sean did some great route-finding to get us safely and promptly to the top in 3 hours. Lunch on top, and then we carefully picked our way back down to camp and on down to the lake, where we arrived, dripping and diminished, for a much-needed swim.

Participants: Sean and Pip.

Trip photos

Twin Peaks - West Ridge

Washington State

Our first Scramblegs outing! An initial scare when Aaron, despite having read the route description several times already, discovered for the first time that we had to cross the border to get to the trailhead. Fortunately, Pip happened to have the original copy of his birth certificate in the car so the Americans let us in. A quick, steep climb up logging roads onto a lovely treed ridge bursting with huckleberry and blueberry bushes (we lost a bit of time here). Then on up into the clouds. The final hour and a half was exciting ridge scrambling, bordering on 5th class in a couple places, on great rock (sandstone). Lunch on the peak with a family of flying ants. We chose to decend the north slope, thinking it would be quicker, but steep snow and scree made us a bit uncomfortable - both kicking ourselves for not bringing ice axes. Cold hands, wet bums, but safely down, we traversed back to the trail below the west ridge, with a bit of fun bushwacking thrown in. A long walk back down the road on tired old legs to the car.

Participants: Pip and Aaron.

Guidebook: Matt Gunn, Scrambles in Southwest British Columbia.

Trip photos