Newsletter

Sep 2018, Vol 95, No. 1

 Brish Columbia Mountaineering Club The BC MOUNTAINEERING CLUB NEWSLETTER is an
ADDRESS: P.O. Box 20042 official publicaon of the B.C. Mountaineering Club and is
Vancouver, B.C., V5Z 0C1 published 10 mes per year (every month except July and
August). All material within this newsle"er is copyright ©
EMAIL: [email protected]; WEBSITE: bcmc.ca Brish Columbia Mountaineering Club.

HONOURARY PRESIDENTS Cover Photo: Mt Overseer and glacier from BCMC

Esther and Marn Kafer Summer Camp (Photo: S. Marsais)
@bcmc.ca
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND OFFICERS exec@
Submit Your Content:
PRESIDENT: WILSON EDGAR
[email protected]
PAST-PRESIDENT: DAVE SCANLON
VICE-PRESIDENT: CHRIS LUDWIG Submissions: We want you to write for us! Any submi"ed
SECRETARY: ROSEMARY COUPE
news, events, trip reports, le"ers relevant to the BCMC will
be published unless the club execuve decides otherwise.
TREASURER: VACANT treasurer@
MEMBERSHIP: CHRIS LUDWIG memberships@
About Submissions: For photos, high resoluon is much
SOCIALS: POLINA socials@ appreciated. Submi"ed material may be edited for clarity
CLIMBING: BILL MAURER trips@ or brevity, or for consistency with club policies. Opinions
CABIN/TRAILS: PAUL KUBIK cabinstrails@ and comments expressed in this newsletter are not
CONSERVATION: BRIAN WOOD necessarily those of the BCMC.
COURSES & CAMPS: PEER-DANIEL KRAUSE coursescamps@

WEBMASTER: CHRIS LUDWIG webmaster@

PUBLICATIONS: BILL MAURER editor@
ARCHIVIST: MICHAEL FELLER

LIBRARY: WALDEMAR JONSSON 604-780-0296

Scheduled trips: How they work
Parcipaon on club trips is open to any person
with adequate skills and experience, subject to
CLUB EQUIPMENT FOR HIRE the approval of the trip organizer. All non-member
parcipants must sign a disclosure and waiver form
The club maintains two personal locator beacons relieving the club and all other parcipants on the
and four ice tools, which are available for rental by trip from any liability. A trip organizer is not a cerfied
members only. guide. The funcon of the organizer is to organize the
trip, ensure that it gets underway, know the access
The rental rate is $10 per day for each item. to the area, and know a route or routes on the climb.
It is expected that each person on a club trip has the
Fees are non-refundable and payable in advance and a necessary skills, experience, fitness, and equipment.
refundable deposit may be required, at the equipment The organizer may specify certain equipment
manager’s discretion. Instructional Programs are mandatory for parcipaon in a trip. Any person
exempt from rental fees, all other uses are subject to who a"empts to parcipate in a club trip without
the rental fees. such mandatory equipment may be requested to
withdraw. Each person on a club trip is responsible
The equipment is stored at our storage unit near for his or her own safety and for checking the
Lougheed and Rupert in Vancouver. equipment used. Please be considerate and call
the trip organizer more than 1 day prior to the trip.
Contact [email protected] to book equipment.
If you are given a ride, please remember to pay the
driver your poron of the car costs. If you decide
not to go on a trip for which you have previously
registered, please be courteous and inform the trip
organizer.
2
The BCMC welcomes the following new members who have joined February 23, 2018 to August 22, 2018 :

Aareet Shermon Catherine Moloney Hilla Aharon Mariana Cairati Rob Stevenson
Aarohi Patel Chris Lippmann Ian Damerill Martin Roos Rock Wave
Aaron Barnett Chris Poskitt Jacob Quist Mary Schwieger Rowena Cariaga
Ada Yim Christine Weber James Hicks Mateo Quist Ryan McNamee
Adam Davidson Connie Drewbrook James Palframan Matthew Cochrane Ryan Turner
Adam Wilkie Connor Fraleigh Jasone Olloqui Matthew MacIsaac Sarah McKaye
Adrienne Peltonen Corinne Mercier Jayson Faulkner Maurice Castonguay Sarah Mooney
Alex Le Craig McKimm Jen Arnold Megan O`Brien Sarah Tranquilli-Doherty
Alexandra Donaldson Daniel Del Vecchio Jennifer Cheung Megan Zhu Sean Lowe
Ali Bahar Daniel Inoue Jens Ourom Melanie Trottier Sean Zoschke
Ali Pourrahmat Daniel Maul Jeremy Childs Michael Green Shawn Patapoff
Alison Sokalski Daniel McRorie Jeremy Dewick Michael Ratzlaff Shivakumar Melmangalam
Amy Thorogood David Williams Jessica Dimis Michelle Kim Silvia Lum
Andrew Heras Diyah Pera Jordan Gutierrez Mike Arnold Simone Schnegg
Andrew Ridsdale Dylan Curtis Joseph Lenz Mike Rayner Sonya Chan
Angelina Mak Eddy Wu Joshua Ford Mike Thomas Sophia Whang
Ankush Burman Eileen Bistrisky Julia Postill Mike Upton Spencer Treffry
Annette Muttray Elizabeth Price Julia Ratzlaff Min Feng Sterling Vanderzee
Ashley Glover Eric Dagenais Justin Seidl Mohan Zhang Steve Chamli
Bailey Wickes Eric Green Kara Shaw Moira de Valence Steve Godin
Bart Brown Eric McGill Kat Zambo Monika Pal Steven Yau
Beata Kosciolek Erick Miyazaki Katlyn Townson Natasha Romero Taylor Fleming
Ben Lucas Esteban Guisado Kelly Carswell Nichole De La Cruz Taylor Livingston
Ben Podborski Ettore Campana Kelly Kurtz Nickolas Grabovac Teige Frid
Blake Rupert Evin Zapf-Gilje Kevin Bellamy Nicolas Michel Thiago Teixeira
Brad Newton Ewan Alderson Kevin Nold Nikolay Khlebalin Thomas Levi
Brandon Everell Fiona Dalton Kimberly Marshall paddy mcmanus Thor Brandrud
Brett Norbury Gabriel Lai Kirby Brown Parker Treffry Tianlai Dong
Brock Longshore Gabriel Viel Cote Krista Hull Patrick Greenway Tom Rushton
Bryant Race Gabrielle Burke Kristina Waclawik Paul Levett Tomomi Chu
Bryce Westlund Galina Zvereva Lainey Mullins Paul Rivollier Tyson Leonard
Cameron Bond Gina Stetsko Lisa Demers Pavel Udovichenko Val Connell
Carlie Smith Graham Roberge Louis Arseneault Pinar Kavak Valtteri Rantala
Carole Lunny Hamed Karimi Luke Rogers Rachel Berkowitz Vera Zyla
Casey Rowed Havill Leitch Lynna Lippmann Raquel Hunt Wayne Dalzell
Cassandra Cheung Helen Weiss Marcus Engstrom Rebecca Clarke Yazhu Mi

3
UPCOMING TRIPS ~ Sign up, updates and details at bcmc.ca

Aug 31-3 Lizzie Creek Cabin - B2 / C2 Brian Sheffield

Aug 31-3 Skaha Bluffs - A5 Brad Riffal
Sep 1-2 Mt Baker via Easton glacier - C3 Philippe Lambree
Sep 1-3 Pemberton Icefield from Squamish Headwaters - C3 Christopher Barton
Sep 8-9 Mt Rohr - B2 Alice Obermajer
Sep 8 Snazzy Peak - C4 Alastair Ferries
Sep 14-16 Mt Shuksan: Fisher Chimneys - C4 Wayne Paern
Sep 15 Parker Pk & Mt McNair - C2 Alastair Ferries
Sep 23 Black Tusk - C4 Bill Maurer
Sep 28-30 Mountain Lake Hut refurbishment - A1 Joe Blakeman
Sep 29-30 Alpine Rock Climbing Course - $319 Mountain Skills Academy
Oct 6-7 Snass Mtn - B2 Alice Obermajer
Oct 13-14 Mt John Clarke - C2 Alastair Ferries
Oct 20 LOST: Learn Outdoor Survival Taccs - $128 Be Wild Adventures
Oct 26-28 LOST: Learn Outdoor Survival Taccs - $425 Be Wild Adventures
Oct 27-28 Mt Frosty - B2 Alice Obermajer
Check hps://bcmc.ca/m/events for late addions

THE NEWSLETTER IS BACK - Bill Maurer

A!er a 30 month hiatus the newsleer is returning on it’s tradional 10 issue per year publicaon schedule.
The club first started publishing newsleers back in March of 1923. Back then, the arcles all started out being
wrien by hand and photos were on film. The arcles then had to be typed up and photos / artwork had
to be pasted up on physical masters and sent off to be printed.
The printed newsleers were then stuffed into envelopes with
handwrien labels and stamps affixed to be delivered by Canada
Post. The return is going to see an all digital publicaon which
YOU can print if you so desire. All our newsleers are being
archived and will soon be available on the website. We currently
have 1923 to 1935 in digital format and everything from 2001
onwards.

To the le! is one of the more humorous arcles from that very
first newsleer. Yes, we used to have to get a blood test cerficate
to enter the watershed of Vancouver’s North Shore and we were
thankful for the privilege. These days no blood test cerficate
is required but the watersheds are out of bounds to the public
including members of this club.

I hope you enjoy it’s return and if there’s anyone out there who
is interested in helping with the producon give me a shout,
[email protected]. I’d also appreciate any feedback on the layout
or styling you can provide.

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BACKCOUNTRYBC.ca - OUR NEW ADVOCACY SITE - Bill Maurer

Beginning in June of this year the BCMC has embarked on a new backcountry advocacy inave. As one of the founding
members of the Federaon of Mountain Clubs of BC and with over 30 years of membership we were no longer geng
value for the fees we were paying. We moved our insurance to JLT which is the same provider that the Alpine Club of
Canada uses. They provide a very good policy at a comparable price.

As a very acve club we feel that we need to be able to speak in a stronger and more independent voice than was
possible within the federaon. The fees that were being directed towards the federaon are now being used to help
fund our own direct iniaves.

These include:

1. The formaon of an open plaorm which allows non-motorized backcountry recreaon advocates from all across
the province to work on issues they feel passionate about. The province has been divided into regions and the
website defaults to your local region. There are no fees for anyone to use the site: h!ps://backcountrybc.ca.

2. The creaon of a facebook group open to anyone in the province to discuss issues: h!ps://www.facebook.com/
groups/BackcountryBC.

3. Funding for FOI (freedom of informaon) requests when we can’t get straight answers from government officials.

4. Funding for travel to out of town meengs with government / corporate officials.

5. Funding for a venue where we can hold regular meengs to discuss issues, strategy, do training, and network with
other advocates.

Backcountry users in the lower mainland and Sea to Sky corridor are parcularly facing a lot of issues due to populaon
and commercial pressures. Some of the issues being worked on include:

1. Lack of parking at the Singing Pass trailhead

2. Legalizaon of the LRMP non-motorized zones with Secon 58’s
3. Potenal status change to Tetrahedron park due to water district wanng to use Chapman Lake as a water source.
4. Direct winter me backcountry access to Blackcomb glacier.
5. Direct winter backcountry access to musical bumps
6. Access to Callaghan provincial park
7. Work on the Pinecone Burke master plan
8. Earlier opening of Seymour mtn road in the winter for morning backcountry access
9. Earlier opening of Cypress mtn road in the winter for morning backcountry access

We are planning to hold the first Rec & Con meeng of backcuntrybc during September, in Vancouver. Watch for the
meeng noce on the bcmc and backcountrybc websites and facebook pages. At the present me the BCMC is the sole
funder of this iniave but we hope that other mountain clubs will join us over me.

We will likely rejoin the FMCBC as an associate member well as the Outdoor Recreaon Council of BC (ORC) as a
provincial member. We connue working together with the FMCBC on many iniaves.

5
CYPRESS MOUNTAIN’S GROUP SEASON PASS PRICING DEADLINE is October 4, 2018.

You can buy ANY of the Alpine OR Nordic season passes. Prices for all passes can be found here: hp://www.
cypressmountain.com/groupseasonpass/

To buy your pass online, please follow the instrucons as stated below:

1. Please use the following link: hps://www.xforcypressmountain.com/e-commerce/GrpLogin.aspx

2. To access these special rates you will need to login in to the online sales system with the following:

Username: bridges
Password: 19SKYCHAIR

3. You are now logged into our online sales system and will be able to purchase your passes at your
discounted group rates. Please also note credit cards are the only form of payment for online purchases.

If you have any quesons, please contact Radmila Bridges at radmila.bridges at gmail.com.

TRIP REPORT:

SKY PILOT & A BIG CAMPFIRE

Brian Marn - August 18, 2018

What can we say group of 5 of us got together and headed up Sky Pilot. The smoke was so thick that on the
summit you couldn’t see Habrich never mind all the other views that should have been there. We le! the
top of the gondola at 9:50 and worked our way along and up. While I was the trip organizer Derek Fenton
took on the job of ge"ng us to the top. Derek is an excellent leader making sure we moved at a pace that
everyone was happy with but at the same me sll ge"ng us there. The glacier was sll mostly snow with
a patch of ice starng to form. Since we had opted not to bring crampons we walked around the ice and up
to the ridge and pink slabs. Having watched some gopro videos from the pink slabs I had hauled a rope all
the way up there. However once there I learnt it goes at grade 3 (not 5.3) so personally I won’t be taking
a rope again. Made our way to the summit enjoyed a snack and a glimpse of Habrich through the smoke,
then headed down. Thanks to Pinar Kavak, Roger Barany, Fiona Dalton, and Derek Fenton for a great day
and bagging a summit I first saw 20 years ago.

Notes:

outback runners were fine, hiking poles yes, ice axe yes, crampons no,

rope 40m if you don’t like down climbing (nice new rap rings on the route)

6
CAMP REPORT

OVERSEER SUMMER CAMP

Bill Maurer - August 4 - 12, 2018

Hanging out in basecamp. The

weather was phenomenal most of the
week. For the keen climbers, every
day was a climbing day!

Scrambling descent from the

Overseer summit. Watch out for
lose rocks!

Heading up to Frozen Boot

7
 On the summit of Frozen Boot

Creeks on ice. The glaciers

are melting!

Heading back to
camp from Zygo on
the Overseer glacier.

8
 Harrison Hut

Two Doctor

Music night in the tent

9
 Creek crossings can be challenging,
particularly in the afternoons when
they’re at full throttle!

Enjoying Meager Creek Hot

Springs on our rest day.

The whole group

10
TRIP REPORT:

RAINIER VIA EMMONS

Jose Collado - July 21-22, 2018

The inial trip idea was to do Emmons-Winthrop route as seemed to me more interesng than the
Disappointment Cleaver route while sll keeping it moderate but recent updates from the climbing rangers
speaking of several climbers falling into crevasses, disappearing snow bridges, almost no pares summing on
the previous two weeks and the possibility of the route shung due to more open crevasses/schrunds made
us decide on the planning forum to do the DC route instead; the approach to first camp –Muir- is much shorter
and so is the elevaon gained on both days, plus the route is being maintained by commercial guides with
ladders and fixed ropes. We met at the Paradise Valley center at the Rangers office, they opened the office at
7am we got there at 6am and found already a group bivying at the door. 2nd on the line but with most permits
already gone would be ght, the guys in front of us get it, the ranger says that we can camp in Muir icefield
,right before the normal camp, we say yes, he looks again to book it and boooom gone (as there 5 ranger
offices maybe someone booked in those 3 seconds?) DC route is off the list. We saw a few people going without
permits but apart from being very poor form and illegal means that you are making already a busy climb busier
and more dangerous for everyone. We could wait unl 10am to see if there are no-show permits but not very
likely and if that failed
would be too late to
do anything.

The ranger gives us

the speech about
why we cannot climb
DC (conser vation,
overcrowding…) and
ask any alternative
plans? Mummm
well Emmons via
Schurman? Looks and
yes enough permits
for the 5 of us, warns
us about the late
season condions but
seems quite posive
and says that most
people turning are inexperienced, the route definitely goes to the top without major hazards and reassures
us that if we have prepared for that route should be solid although ght on me…its already 7am we have to
drive almost 2h to the trailhead and the way to camp Schurman is not short, everyone nods with resignaon…
we have a new plan: the old plan!

11
Back in the car driving to White River trail head, a quick coffee and breakfast and we are moving at 9am on a long
beauful slog up the valley trail, which follows the river side and is quite popular with day hikers. The views of
Rainier with Lile Tahoma are spectacular and a few marmots greet us as we enter the alpine meadows. We arrive
to the talus were the Inter Glacier starts, we stash our approach shoes and me to get to business. The next two
hours is slow consistent 25/30degrees straight up the glacier being baked by the sun, we take a direct line straight
up, there are a few crevasses towards on top and we decide to rope up although probably wouldn’t be necessary.
We are making great me and moving fast, we don’t really take any long breaks just 1min breaks to drink/eat as
necessary. Once at camp Curs the route drops from the shoulder of the Steamboat into the Emmons Glacier…
the huge longitudinal crevasses undulang up
Emmons and the view of the enre climbing
route of the next day is completely amazing.
From there magnitude of the mountain is
obvious we have been sweang for awhile up
the Inter glacier and we haven’t made it even
to the base of one of the flanks. Its going to
be a long second day. 40 mins more up the
Emmons glacier and we are in camp Schurman
around 3/4pm. The climbing ranger briefed us
on weather, camp equee, and what the other
groups are up to. Seems like everyone is starng
that night from 10pm onwards, we said we
would start and midnight, he menons that it
is early enough for a turn around me of 8/9am
as with sunny days they don’t like people stuck
up route as lots of serac and bridges to cross,
also warns us we will be trailing a few groups
but that it is part of the Rainier experience but with such a great weather window everyone should have fun!

Everyone is in high spirits seng up the tent and prepping dinner/lunch whatever that was. Bad news Mike tells
us that he was super red hiking to camp and the altude isn’t helping so it’s not feeling like starng tomorrow,
we try to convince him as that is just because he had the bigger pack of the group (bringing a 300page novel was
a bit of a heavy luxury) and the next day with daypacks he should feel beer but he seems prey convinced and
set on resng up. Everyone is in bed by 6.30pm with alarms at 10.45pm… for me one of the longest nights of my
life as I did not close my eyes for one second, there are lots of groups arriving on three days aempts arriving
unl 8pm and then the alarms and people waking up to climb so the chang is non-stop and the acouscs of
the place should be studied for future generaons to improve on theaters…doulby-surround systems are nothing
compared to how people chang about how beauful the sunset is a few hundred meters from you seem to be
whispering it at your ear… Apparently Rich and Louis managed to sleep a couple of hours, I couldn’t at all and
made it very hard to Pav, that was sharing tent with me, as I was trying to stay sll but couldn’t help but moving
from me to me. At 9.30 I had had enough and just sat outside the tent to soak-in the views and wait for the
wakeup me, was prey cool to see the first groups start ascending with headlamps but sll some daylight.

A few minutes past midnight we start moving (Mike decided to stay in bed and “sleep” a bit more) the first groups
are completely out of sight and close to the summit, we think naively, and there maybe 6/7 groups ahead of us
the closest maybe 400mtrs ahead. Pav leads the group crossing/jumping crevasses very smoothly. We are going
12
prey fast, any faster we would need to take breaks to rest but everyone is moving efficiently and holding the
pace well. From leaving the camp you have to jump a couple of huge crevasses (maybe the biggest on route) to
get to the Emmons flat, then up an easy snow slope to then traverse le into “the corridor” which is a smooth line
that separates the Emmons and Winthrop glaciers, that is the normal route but now is heavily crevassed and can
only be followed half way up before becomes impraccable. This area is spectacular in the dark as you can only
guess the huge crevasses and seracs you are navigang through. We start passing a few groups here. This feature
that looks like just a few hundred
meters from camp seems to go
forever I think in two hours from
camp we were mid/high-corridor
where becomes impassable. We
made winding traverse left into
the “garbage disposal” (not sure if
called like this because anything you
drop is definitely gone for good into
crevasses down below or because in
late summer those huge iceblocks
fall down…) a steeper le traverse
between ice cliffs, this area must
get up to 40 degrees, the snow
conditions were superb with icy
snow that the crampons were bing
perfectly. Here we passed a few
groups and suddenly we saw the
girls group, they had been the first to start climbing and were moving fast and decisively so I was surprised to
catchup to them. Here was the main problem of the day, once arriving to the top of the garbage disposal there is a
looong almost 1km right traverse under the schrund but just over the seracs of the top of the corridor, unl it the
schrund becomes passable. Here we saw some groups trying to go straight climbers right but we had the feeling
the we sll needed to keep going up and le further before starng the traverse. On complete darkness and in
such a big mountain is prey difficult to measure at which point of the never ending series of seracs and faces and
crevasses you are and with the choice of taking an easy right traverse into the corridor or hopefully just above it
or keep going on to steepening terrain traversing le into what looks a wall of seracs…we were not very sure. We
paused to discuss and the next group caught up to us. The leader group of the girls seemed to think inially that
we had gained enough elevaon and was me to start the right traverse but aer discussing it ended up agreeing
with us on the le path, their headlamp was much stronger than ours and they glimpsed what maybe was a steep
ramp between two seracs way up. We let them pass and moved together with the girls group up the le traverse
unl we finally found the ramp that goes right between two huge blocks, this ramp is hidden at night by a serac
so its definitely the route finding crux. At night with icy snow and steep terrain this final le traverse felt to me a
serious no fall zone (on the way down with light seemed not that steep with plenty of room to self arrest and no
reason whatsoever to fall so much so that would’ve been happy to almost run downhill, crazy how just a bit of
light, soer snow and the confidence of knowing where you are going completely changes the risk percepon, also
I think we probably chose the worst line across this at night going straight up at first and then parallel and even
losing altude le rather than the normal lewards and up from the start) and together with the route finding
issues probably the zone where other groups turned around. As we found some old tracks we were reassured that
we were on the right way, saw headlamps of the groups from the right turning around and coming to the le path,
13
we were on route. Atop of this ramp the girls group stopped to rest, we thanked them as we passed them again
between the two groups we had managed to pass the crux and now the summit seemed within reach. It was sll
4am and completely dark, so we knew had pleeeenty of me. We kept moving right on a long traverse somemes
gaining elevaons somemes losing it, this is easy terrain but you are traversing on a 40degree snow patch with
narrow foot placements so despite being “easy” its important to keep focused as it enrely a no fall zone as if
anyone fell with the icy-snow condions and only 20meters before the seracs drop into the Emmons/Winthrop
glacier I don’t like the odds of self-arresng any fall. Pav connued on his mission of keeping a steady pace and in
no me we were by the schrund and the technical crux of the day. This is a 70 degree slope VERY THIN 10 meters
wall like feature to gain the final snow patch, we set up a few snow pikets as running belay that seemed prey
solid and connued climbing, that wall has some obvious steps so despite its steepness and definitely needing
hands&iceaxe to get up it we
didn’t have any troubles. Here
Louis informed us that his GPS
was telling him that we were
just 200meters of elevation
short of the summit. The red
light from the sunrise started
illuminang Baker and Glacier
mt in the horizon and the spirits
couldn’t be any higher, from
here the trail is obvious and
keeps going right and up, the
crevasses on the left side if
that’s the appropriate word
look like holds in the mountain
where you could easily fit
apartment buildings, in no
me we made it close to the
first patch of rocks and a few mins later to the summit, the sun had just risen and was sll low and red. From the
top the view of Hood, St Helens, Adams…absolutely breathtaking, condions on the summit were superb with
almost no wind so we stopped for breakfast, water, pics, I think Pav even took a short nap. We summited just
before 6am, and to our surprise we were completely alone, no one from the DC route onsight, almost 45min/1h
later when we were going to start heading down, sll no one from that side of the crater going up, we were very
surprised as we knew for a fact that all the camps there were full (muir, muir snowfield and Ingraham flats) and
that’s…lots of people.

As we were going to start going down two groups of two people came from our side (Emmons) and just before
leaving the crater the group of girls appeared, prey happy that everyone was making it to the top we started
descending. On the way down we stopped to take some pics and both groups of two passed us. Surprisingly, or
not, the other groups seemed to have turn around at some point before. As we were going down surprise, on
the long traverse to the right we see a guy on a thermal/fire blanked, seang on a snow ledge aach secured to a
snowpicket (non-locking binner of course, as I think Rich noted later). I really thought that was it, now we are going
to stop for 5/6h unl the rangers/heli appears we will be lucky if we arrive to the car with light le, the group of
14
two that just passed us descending had stopped there as well and…well as it happens that guy was from a group
of three started to feel bad (altude) and the other two guys decided to connue climbing. I want to think that
he just had a mild headache and was red and just wanted to stop and was comfortable with being le alone
there because if not… even with that, very quesonable decision making in my opinion, as we were all thinking
that just a few hours before the ranger menoned not leaving anyone behind in the mountain and seemed so
obvious that we even joked about it, well not so obvious aer all. We stopped and chaed with them for a bit,
everyone even the injured climber seemed in good humor and joking. Very funny moment because we didn’t
know if the two guys assisng him were part of his inial climbing group, or if we was a solo climber or…pav
asked, “do you have any friends you are waing for?” (To assess the situaon) and the other two guys looked
at each other…”Yes, us. Although given that we le him here, maybe no or at least he needs beer ones?” If it
wasn’t cause we were on a ledge mid traverse with what appeared to be an injured climber I would’ve thrown
myself to the floor to laugh. The guy alone had a GPS InReach type device so he always had the chance to contact
rescue services and was capable of descending on his own, so we decided to let the group go down first with
us trailing behind in case they had any problems. A few hundred meters the injured guy said that was feeling
much beer and asked us to pass ahead. The snow condions could’ve not been any beer, icy-snow that the
crampons bited in the morning, and slightly slushier on the way down for a fast descent. On the way down you get
to appreciate how obvious the route was (and shocks how hard was to find at night) also it felt much easier and
secure going down despite appreciang the exposure on the traverse and the crevasses and how menacing those
house-size seracs you pass by
are. Here we felt it was too
hot, red, sleepy and Louis
picked up the pace in front to
confortable speedwalk so we
ended passing the other duo.

Here we saw a group trying

to still go up (obviously
too late and turned safely
around soon after) and the
two climbing rangers flying
up, at the me we thought
they were just assessing the
route but we were informed
when we arrived to camp that
a party had been seen lost
off route and they had gone
to retrieve them. I think the
only way to get lost so high on
the route might have been, just before the 70degree schrund there is a obvious bootpack that winds climbers
right so I guess on the way up if you feel the schrund is hard and think the route connues traversing right or
on the way down if you don’t remember where you came…we assumed that was the trail from old Emmons
route as would go down to “the corridor” now a fully inaccessible by crevasses. Anyhow! We went fast down
and were happy to see Mike in high spirits as well, aer a late morning start he had been reading his book (a
good idea bringing it aer all), we spoke with a few nervous climbers that were ready for trying to summit the
next day as we were the first group to get down to successfully summit so they wanted to know if the route
15
was sll “open”, had a quick sandwick and headed down.

The way down was…long the Inter Glacier was super fun though, aer passing the crevasses Louis had eyed
on the way up a glissade that would take him without a single step direct to our stashed shoes on probably
400m elevaon descent in just 2mins…he prepared and flew down, I don’t really like glissading much but…
my knee was hurng a bit and…so I went second…if it wasn’t cause he had just climbed Rainier would’ve
been a highlight of the trip and almost worth doing on its own, long with curves (bobsleight style)…definitely
worthed the cold ass. Rich and Pav followed aer and Mike couldn’t resist to try it neither. The next two
hours I can barely remember what happened, I think was trying to stay awake talking to Mike but finally we
made it to the cars.

Everyone was red and Friday aernoon wait on the border was almost sure so we carpooled and parted ways.

Overall great climbing, we were discussing on the way down that the Emmons route despite being an “easy
route” the rangers do well in advice that in late summer condions is definitely a different animal. Not hard
at all but very unforgiving if you were to make any mistake, so not really a great beginner climb. The first half
is heavily crevassed then what we felt an intermediate route finding problem as route changes you cannot
trust bootpacks from previous days I think at some point we didn’t have any and that part of the route is
always tackled in the darkness. Followed by a long easy traverse but I feel was “no-fall area” finally a steep
short schrund and only from there the route can be considered easy glacier moving. Very fun day.

PS: I just found out on the climbing rangers blog the reason why were alone at the summit. A few expedions
from the DC didn’t summit because one of the early pares turned around saying that an essenal bridge
had fallen. The rangers had since confirmed that the bridge is sll “alive” but fragile and that could be used
although if it broke on the way down…would be a very long detour (hp://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.
com/…/dc-route-flicker… ).

As I finish wring I read the new update from the rangers on the Emmons routes, must be the from the rangers
that we encountered on our way down (hp://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/…/emmons-winthrop-… )
and happy to see that they confirm what we were thinking and im not just a chicken about the traverse being
a narrow “no-fall area” and needing to be independent not just following old bootpacks in these condions.
The pic from the schrund where we climbed it…was so THIN, its scary to think that we climbed that as seen
on the image but we had placed a few pickets to probably would’ve fine even if it broke although VERY glad
it didn’t. Looks like they decided to avoid the schrund and keep traversing further right and probably will be
the route from now unl the end of the season.

The trip parcipants were Jose Collado, Pawel Wypych, Louis Os, Mike Knudson, and Rich Carmona.

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TRIP REPORT:

HABRICH AND SKY PILOT

Jose Collado - July 14-15, 2018

Part 1 Habrich/Escape Velocity

Aer bad weather two weeks ago we were able to re-schedulle the trip. Met at the church at 10ish took the
Gondola a bit late and started hiking right the way, once the trail branches out of the Valley Trail…it’s straight
up an alpine version of the Grouse Grind while carrying climbing gear.

When we got to the climb oh oh, two pares ahead, they probably came on the first gondola and beat us to
the start. The follower on the first rope struggled a bit on the 5.9 with some hanging, yelling (PS:so funny that
this person a complete stranger at the me is someone I just climbed Rainier with and happens to be a very
cool BCMC member that I am so glad I met, Rich)…everyone was kind off tense as with 6 more pitches and
behind two pares could be a loooong day, the leader of the second rope (a brish couple) launched to pass
them before Rich got to the belay I guess linking P2/P3 and did so. That was the last me we saw either party
climbing, the brish couple when up at lightspeed and we ended up sharing a belay as they were rapping. I
shared the anchor atop of P2 with Rich but as they went on to link their pitches onwards and we had decided
to let pass Tim/Pav… we didn’t see them again unl the top. All smooth sailing and super enjoyable.

I was going to do a pitch by pitch breakdown but I don’t think this climb needs it, the topo is a clear as they
come and with plenty of bolts and bolted belays geng loss would be admirable. The “first pitch” is literally
two moves with two bolts to gain the ledge to belay the second one…we didn’t link them cause there was a
party ahead so we decided to “climb it” and watch them tackle P2 while snacking (on the way down Pav and
me didn’t even rap it, just down climbed it using the PAS to clip on the bolts aid style). The 5.9 pitch has a bit
of an awkward corner crack/chimney type move but it’s just a couple of moves with all the gear you could
possibly want so very fun and by far the best pitch, maybe the only interesng one. Being not a strong 5.9
trad leader and seeing one party struggle I was a bit nervous but I lead it prey smoothly to my surprise. I’d
say from there is all the same unl the last pitch, short secons of 5.6/7 face/slab with lots of bolts and gear
possibilies between ledges, all the pitches can be linked and there is a fair bit of scrambling between these
secons of walls. The last pitch don’t think can be linked as there are a few meters of walking to move the
belay and finishes on a 5.6/7 crack on perfect granite, Smoke Bluffs style, the ledge is so big that you don’t
really feel climbing to the summit, but the climbing is great.

Strategy: As there were a few pares on it, Fernando and me climbed the first pitch (P2 of the topo) and linked
the rest. Pav and Tim, as the stronger party, waited for us to finish P2 in case I had any trouble with the 5.9
and linked with it P3..so basically we were overtaking and been overtaked by each other all the me so it was
quite a chay enjoyable climb. The climbing was super fast, especially compared with the steep approach,
so Tim and Pav decided that sll had some climbing in them and would try to climb something in bluffs aer
Tim’s first trad lead on the last pitch. We decided to have a quick bite and start rappelling quickly. There was a
large party on the raps bellow us that were taking some me and super kindly decided to let use their ropes
and link their two raps, that plus the fact that we had 2 60m ropes meant that we were at the base in no me.
I was surprised on both how busy it was the climb and also on how that didn’t really make any difference in
17
terms of going faster/slower other than delaying a bit the start.

All and all a good moderate but with so many bolts covering easy moves, climbing pares and bolted anchors
couldn’t quite say that it was an alpine climb, more of a good “entry level” mulpitch with an alpine set up.
Surprisingly the next morning Sunday as we were coming back from Sky Pilot noced how no pares were on
their way to Habrich, maybe just bad luck with crowds on a glorious Saturday morning but either way I don’t
think it made a difference other than the first few mins of nervousness when you see people ahead of you.

Part 2 - Sky Pilot Scramble

We got down quickly to the main fork, Tim and Pav decided to get back to the gondola to go down to Squamish
and climb a bit more and Fernando and me recovered our overnight packs. Our wives had been hiking during
the morning and le us the sign that aer doing AI Habrich trail, had already been on the fork and connued
walking uphill towards Sky Pilot.

We cached them as they were resng/napping on their sleeping pads in a cairn before crossing the river,
took a break, ate and connued walking uphill the last secon of forest. We all were prey red so as the
forest thins out and the first patches of snow are melng we found a perfect bivvy spot, right over a small
waterfall with sll by the forest to pick dead wood, the river a couple of meters, Habrich behind and a first
glimpse of the east shoulder of Sky Pilot above us.
Carrying heavy packs has a few advantages; weight training and good dinner! We shared a flask full of whisky,
sausages over the campfire unl got dark, almost midnight, with Fernando taking some great shots with his
camera. Luckily this was just before the start of the campfire ban so we had a nice fire to cook the sausages,
scare the moskitoes and provide a beauful light into the glacier mountains around us.

Everyone was very red and didn’t want to connue uphill the next day, just enjoy the day and get down,
so I promised I would wake up early summit and be back for breakfast me. I set the alarm at 4.30 but slept
through it unl 5, got the crampons, trekking pole, candybar, water and a couple of layers in case anything
went wrong and started moving by 5.30am. The first part is already a scree talus (there are snow patches on
the le but decided to go through the scree and delay pu"ng on crampons unl the end) and only “needed”
them once I got to the upper bowl/cirque of the stadium glacier. There is sll lots of snow to get to the ridge
so went straight to it, the snow is very so so even on the steepest part to gain the rigde could probably be
done without crampons by kicking steps but with them on and using the trekking pole instead of an ice axe
felt super safe (a fall here is completely inconsequenal with this level of snow as you would just glide down
to center of the bowl were the angle eases, in fact lots of glissade tracks). Kept moving fast and passed a group
of sll sleepy people bivying on the col before the pink slabs and went for it. Having heard about it I was a
bit nervous but definitely just 4th class and if starng right and traversing le not even that much exposure.
Followed the cairns that loop around to the south side and from here all went downhill…

I kept following recent tracks traversing south-east (not gaining any elevaon) unl got to a roen red rock
area of very crumbly ledges with a steep fall on the south side despite what would be been beer judgement
I connued moving on these precarious and exposed ledges with unsecure foong, kept traversing and
traversing…aer awhile the quality of the rock was a bit beer but quite narrow…def not for the faint hearted,
kept going unl the system of ledges I was following started trending down the south face, definitely I was too
east and I had to gain elevaon not lose it…every path up looked 4th class maybe low 5th but nothing obvious
that would connue to the top and didn’t want to down climb into those narrow ledges so stopped to assess
18
the situaon as I had been sort of on autopilot unl then. I was a bit shaken, this was wayyyy more technical
and exposed than the pink slabs, although I was completely safe I didn’t feel comfortable with exploring this
side of the mountain by myself with no one else around, whether this was the scrambling route or not I felt
like turning around, so I did. Aer geng back in solid ground and sll shaken by the red scree area decided
to stop drink water and have a sandwich. I browsed through the printouts of the guide book (why I didn’t
check them before I sll don’t understand, but as I said was sort of in autopilot unl then) and booom im
such an idiot, the new McLane&Boyd has lots of pictures of this route, there is lots of flagging and cairns but
focused on moving fast followed footsteps to the nice rest were I was and where the red scree starts rather
than moving up through a chimney a few meters before (with flagging within sight I should say, adding to my
stupidity). Feeling like an absolute idiot followed the obvious trail/cairns to a ridge(west shoulder as per route
descripon)that then goes down with a few exposed moves but nothing as loose and exposed as the terrain I
had been before and a couple of mins later I was in the summit. So cool to have the enre mountain for myself
in a blue sky morning, cool temps and a bit of an adventure that ended well!

I didn’t feel like glissading as the rao of terrain that would save me to descent to frozen ass wasn’t quiet there
but ran downhill unl the snow disappears and then back to camp. Fernando and Lu had just woken up and
were making coffee. Best ming ever, arrive to camp as coffee is being served! Waited for Renee to wake up
and we all had a nice breakfast and an easy morning walking around and finally back to the Gondola as the
Sunday morning hordes came to scramble the route.
Checking the mestamps of the pics: started moving just before 5.30am, not running but quite fast to the start
of steep snow that gains the col at 6am, summit 6:55am back to the forest/camp 7:50am.
Also looks like there is a route going through the red scree (see 2min26sec onwards of this video h"ps://youtu.
be/oInBHPNlP-A?t=146 ) but that route looks like goes up were I kept traversing south-east, anyway the route
described in McLane&Boyd is definitely the way to go!

TRIP REPORT:

WASHINGTON PASS / MAZAMA

Jose Collado - June 30 - July 2, 2018

The bad weather looming over Vancouver for the long weekend meant I had to change plans. Last minute on Saturday
decided to instead go to Washington (US) as the closest place with a good forecast.

Aer a few stopovers and a late start we made it to the parking lot of the Washington Pass trailhead around 2pm, the lot
was almost completely full with lots of car parked on the side of the road. It was late for an alpine climb but we thought
that we could do something like the Beckey route or Rapple Grapple reasonably fast, on the way we crossed a party
coming down that told us they had spent the enre day waing and not climbed anything as too many people on Beckey…
ok, we are definitely going to be the last people on the route and hopefully people are way ahead of us so we can move
quickly, around 3.30ish we arrive to the gully and the sight is not pre"y. Never seen so many people on a climb, let alone
alpine, the traffic jam made look Diedre on a Sunday morning empty. There is no way the people on the back are making
it down with light… lots of pares of 3 and what look as new leaders moving extremely slow, the traffic jams on the belay
ledges being full didn’t speed thing up. Noone in any other route on the Liberty or Concord tower though! We considered
alternaves to the Beckey route but most of them share a few pitches with it and the prospect of being stuck behind
pares that have been waing the enre day to climb on the way up and then on the rappels didn’t seem too a"racve.

19
I had scouted the North Face of the Concord Tower as an alternave… and absolutely no one in the enre mountain,
so we decided to do this route:

P1: maybe a few 5.6 moves up the crack that starts in the same notch as Beckey route, then le through an easy foot
railing (good gear and solid rock) but we were freezing so felt quite uneasy, and arrive to the ledge, instead of using
slings around a tree that are used to the rappel I kept climbing up and right to the start of the next pitch to avoid drag
for David in the next pitch. Anchored using a sling around a boulder (light case of screaming barfies in my hands as we
moved on to the sun)
P2: David started climbing up the crag, here you can go up and le up some crags and face or straight up for the
“direcmissmo route”, the later look prey wide and we didn’t have enough gear for that 60m wide pitch so decided to
move le, up some hidden ‘huecos’ that look inmidang when moving on to the face but quite juggy. Here I had read
about a gear belay in a cave looking crack ( we found a sling and a broken cam fixed) but just two meters le there is
the two bolt and chain rap anchor…this must be new cause it is on route and very close so cannot imagine why anyone
would suggest a gear anchor two meter short of a belay ledge with chains.

P3: We were a bit confused, since only had a vague idea of how the route went as this was just a back up I had faintly
considered, and not having built the anchor exactly on the same spo confused us, where we too le too low… looks like
wide easy crags to the (climbers)right to gain the ridge line or le going up some crags to a slab that traverses le to
gain the summit on some steep finger crack that moves again right, we seled on the laer as not knowing the grade
of anything it seemed more easily protectable even if a more vercal finish. Doing some research now, we followed the
correct line and the one moving right just connects with the ‘direcsimo’ finish up easy terrain as well. SUMMIT

Raps are very straight forward summit to anchor of P2 (26m)and to the ledge where P1(30m rope stretch just lands you
there, TIE KNOTS at the end) and a 18m rap to the starng notch so no need to bring up shoes or anything. We got our
rope stuck on first rap, as they wind blew the ropes to the wrong gully (Patriot cracks route I think) and as I was raping
down and tried to retrieved them the knot got stuck in a crag, right at the boom, so as 3Pitches of climbing was not
enough had to go down unstuck the rope (I needed the nut tool, bomber knot placement for sure) and climb the rope
back up for a 4th pitch. The climbing was on solid rock, the moves and jams of great quality, the views spectacular and
with a lot of exposure, rapping is fast, only caveat is that it’s too short, would’ve loved 3 more pitches of the same!! (No
idea how this is just a 3 star climb on mountain project or in the guidebook)

6pm back at the notch, considered at least doing some pitches in Liberty but…the group that we le starng P2…was
sll at the top of P2 belaying the leader on P3 and the line of rappels was super busy so decided to spend 30mins taking
pics of the goats as they seem as interested on the start of the Beckey route as climbers and back to the car in me to
go and set camp in Mazama with some daylight le.

DAY2
We set camp on a free campground with pit toilet close to the start of Goat Creek Road (Naonal Forest land I believe)
got up early (not enough I guess) and we were at the parking lot of the Goat Wall by 6.45am. 6 cars already there, as we
get ready someone tells us that ‘Flyboys’ the 18P 5.9 sport route is were all those pares are so, another traffic jam on
the making. They menon another route 5.9 sport, 12 pitches close by called ‘Prime Rib’, I had read something online
but we had prepared for flyboys…looks like another day of changing plans. We go towards prime rib and luckily there is
a couple ahead of us that points us the start of the route. We let them a few pitches of distance while having breakfast
and we had the route for us! As we started climbing a few pares came behind but we must have been climbing prey
fast as we didn’t see them again (while climbing P4 Dave told me that there were lots of pares waing to start, so
def be early for Prime rib, super early for Flyboys). The climb is very well bolted and impossible to get lost even for a
clueless party like us, mostly 5.7 climbing with a few 5.9 very cool moves, lots of bolts so the crux moves are almost in
top rope and easily aided if need be, we skipped a few bolts here and there as we were not sure how many quickdraws
were needed and how long the pitches were. I think we only linked a slabby pitch that has a short 5.4 traverse to the
20
right (maybe pitches 9&10?) but the 60m wasn’t long enough so had to simul maybe 10 meters? (very easy terrain but
lots of rope drag, extend everything if you are going to do that) also looking at the Mountain Project (hps://www.
mountainproject.com/route/107730934/prime-rib-of-goat )descripon we must have linked pitch 6&7 although we didn’t
see the anchor in between and def no more than 50m so they might have changed the climb to combine those(?). The
climbing is excellent, great views of the valley, great bolng and some very cool moves past overhangs and chimneys very
unlikely for the grade but always a jug nearby makes it easy enough to be a fully enjoyable no worries climb! Loved it!!!

We were at the top at 12.30pm…lile we knew that was just half way. In flyboys we have thought of rapping the enre
route since raps go parallel to the climb, but in Prime Rib the rap chains are the climbing anchors. There is lots of loose
rock and boulders on the ledges (only caveat of the route if pares ahead of you are careless with walking on ledges or
moving the rope) and with lots of pares coming behind we though would be a dick/dangerous move to drop ropes on
all of them (we found out that the party behind us decided to rap anyway) a quick shower convinced us against rapping.
16miles to the car and we hadn’t stashed a bike or arrange a drive out… we caught the couple that started ahead of us
at the end of the climb and as they had bikes at the top, they very kindly agreed to take my car keys and move the car
from the parking lot (2xkm away)to the boom of the FSR (only 13km away), so I could run down the 13km of FSR to
the main road pick the car and drive back to pick Dave. Bad plan, I charged down running and got to the main road in
about 1h I waited there another 30mins hoping that they would come back with my car to find that I must have passed
them on the way down and they were behind me (didn’t ask too much, because they were trying to help so no place
for complaining here, but must have a mechanical or stop for lunch or something cause despite running prey fast it’s
a very easy downhill road for a bike so no way I can outrun them even less put over half an hour on them) got the keys
back hitchhiked back to the car (I got before them cycling)and drove back to the summit to pick up Dave…around 4pm.
Completely destroyed and happy from the climb/downhill run combo we headed back to Vancouver. Maybe going on
Canada day long weekend and 4th of July week in the States made it a bit overcrowded but with good start mes should
be easily avoidable, and so much beer than top roping wet stuff in Squamish. Awesome two routes! Discovered that
Mazama is full of climbing not just the famous two long mulpitches that see all the traffic but single pitch stuff (the
local climbing shop sells a booklet for it) so it’s a great home-base to explore the Washington Pass for alpine climbing
and then chill doing some sport climbing. To be repeated soon for sure!!

21