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Popkum, BC
Canada
5902 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2012 : 9:05 PM
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Stu, Karl and I headed up the Bridal Falls FSR about 5.2 kms, parked the 4WD and hiked from the North to gain Archibald's West Ridge.
It turns out that John and Katie were up there two days before and they took the exact approach that Stu and I mapped out in our minds from our last trip up there on March 24th.
What looked like an old FSR in March became a maze of Alders springing up from the snow. I should have taken more pictures of this wonderful route with it's ever changing views but I'm sure Karl and Stu have photos of the scenes I missed.
       
When we're gaining the ridge we admire this cornice, Stu's up there and we caution him but he claims he is standing on a rock, so we take pictures. Karl decides to pose under him, it all seems safe.
  
The ridge is beautiful, with breath taking views in every direction. We trudge on to really steep slopes that sometimes don't have quite enough snow on them for comfort. The snow was so hard that our crampons and ice axes had trouble penetrating.
We notice the cave in the snow and realize it's a drainage system for the mountain with two deep holes in the earth about 8" in diamiter.
  
It was here that I wanted to stop after ascending a steep crusty slope, but I found the courage to continue when Karl pressed on:
The going got sketchy on one more slope, but we kept going with the hopes that the snow would be softer on the way down.
 
Then success! We make it to Archibald all in one piece and have lunch on the nearby clearing:
   
It took 5 hours to summit Archibald and 2 3/4 hours back down. It was way easier to descend with the softer snow and the ability to get a foothold! The only surprising part of our day is near the end of the ridge where Stu dislodged the cornice that was thought of as safe earlier that day! Thankfully he had a split second reaction and plunged his body in the opposite direction of the falling cornice. I saw it happen, it was as though Stu levitated to safty!
 
I'm very thankful that you're okay hunny, I don't know what I would do without you! This is the only part of our Archibald adventure that I could have done without .
Happy trails,
Lynn
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canine loving, machete-toting bushwhacking lake seeker, Indiana Jones hat-wearing off-road 4x4 guru
Surrey Hole, BC
Canada
6868 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2012 : 10:12 PM
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Looks like a good work out |
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Outdoors addicted flyfishing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking car crooner and resident motormouth
Da'Wack, BC
Canada
5378 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2012 : 10:22 PM
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Glad we didn't lose Stu too!
Looks like fun. Sorry I missed lt. |
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Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13594 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2012 : 10:25 PM
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Great report and beautiful photos capture a lot of our scenes, Lynn. Thanks to John & Katie, their direction around the broken dead top tree, and their numerous foot prints leading the way. Many thanks to Stu for putting up this event, it was a photographer's delight. It was some hard work, usesd the crampons gifted me back in 2010 for trips, without them I never would have even got a third of the way,many thanks to the awesome people who made this possible.
I took about 75 photos and 4 videos. I will post some of my photos here, and put up a separate TR for the videos..
Photos are pleased in chronological order…..
                              
K |
Edited by - KARVITK on 05/19/2012 10:51 PM |
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Surrey, BC
Canada
1032 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 07:30 AM
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| Big kids at play...great stuff. : ) Archibald looks so mellow from the valley, but those are some steep slopes up to the summit from the ridge. : ) |
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Campbell River, BC
Canada
781 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 09:17 AM
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| Nice report and nice scenery. |
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Chilliwack
1285 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 09:28 AM
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| Looks like you could not have had better weather. Awesome views of Cheam and Lady Peak. Interesting about the drainage hole. Must drain into Bridal Falls Creek. |
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5902 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 09:32 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by John and Katie
Big kids at play...great stuff. : ) Archibald looks so mellow from the valley, but those are some steep slopes up to the summit from the ridge. : )
You're so right John. We didn't realize the extent of this route and found it amazing that you took the same amount of time with the addition of 10 km of logging road...wow!
Did you put the 4 flags we saw along the ridge? We found those helpful thank you!
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Surrey, BC
Canada
1032 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 11:42 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Flowing-Brook
quote:
Originally posted by John and Katie
Big kids at play...great stuff. : ) Archibald looks so mellow from the valley, but those are some steep slopes up to the summit from the ridge. : )
You're so right John. We didn't realize the extent of this route and found it amazing that you took the same amount of time with the addition of 10 km of logging road...wow!
Did you put the 4 flags we saw along the ridge? We found those helpful thank you!
Thanks FB, but don't give too much credit, I am just a young puppy at 44. : )
I did put up the flags. They were to help us find our way down, but we still went a different way....rolling my eyes. : )
Are you guys certain that hole in the snow is the result of drainage? I didn't see any running water. |
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5902 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 12:34 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by John and Katie
quote:
Originally posted by Flowing-Brook
Did you put the 4 flags we saw along the ridge? We found those helpful thank you!
I did put up the flags. They were to help us find our way down, but we still went a different way....rolling my eyes. : )
Are you guys certain that hole in the snow is the result of drainage? I didn't see any running water.
We loved where you put your four flags and followed them on the way down also. There's always more then one way to get up & down a mountain.
Because the hole in the snow wasn't as deep we could see the earth with two ventalation holes for a cave in the earth and a trickle of water falling into the holes from the melting snow. Here's a pictures of what we saw:
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Squamish, British Columbia
Canada
1028 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 1:06 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Flowing-Brook
The only surprising part of our day is near the end of the ridge where Stu dislodged the cornice that was thought of as safe earlier that day!
It probably was safe, earlier in the day.
If you want to risk standing close to a cornice it's important to factor the angle of the slope beneath the cornice to determine how it will fracture.
It looks like the slope angles in (although it's hard to tell for sure) from this picture which means the cornice could fracture behind the lip of the solid ground beneath it
See this example:
Glad nobody was hurt. It's a dangerous time of year for any overhanging snow later in the day.
As an aside... wow:
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5902 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 3:29 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by leimrod
If you want to risk standing close to a cornice it's important to factor the angle of the slope beneath the cornice to determine how it will fracture.
It looks like the slope angles in (although it's hard to tell for sure) from this picture which means the cornice could fracture behind the lip of the solid ground beneath it
Thanks lemirod, I believe that's exactly what happened. My policy is if there is solid ground to walk on why walk close to a cornice? I'm sure something positive was learned yesterday but it is nice to see the technical explanation of why the cornice that both men thought was safe turned ugly later in the day. |
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 | Mr. B
Intermediate Member
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Popkum, B.C.
Canada
639 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 5:02 PM
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I guess I like living life on the edge, but not over the edge.
It was a fantastic day on the mountain. The old logging road has more alder poking through than on the last trip!
Gaining the ridge proved to be staight forward, as was the first half of the ridge.
The steep, mostly frozen slope below this rock was the most challenging part
After this, a little more easy terrain through the trees, then this final slope to the top with the great views.
  
The return was more exciting with a few explatives on the descent of the steep slope and the thump of the broken cornice. |
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Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13594 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 5:17 PM
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Stu and Lynn..
Beautiful photos all around....What a day it was.
Indeed that was a close call..
I attach this photo of Mount Archibald as viewed from Mount Cheam on a trip early last October. You can see Cultus Lake in the upper right hand corner. Out mountain more or less in the center of the photo with new snow on its northern shaded side.
Then a crop to bring in the mountain closer.. Like that clear central spot where we hand lunch...
 
K |
Edited by - KARVITK on 05/20/2012 5:27 PM |
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5902 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 5:42 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by KARVITK
I will post some of my photos here, and put up a separate TR for the videos..
Photos are pleased in chronological order…..
Great photos Karl! Why not post the videos here of our adventure instead of starting a new trip report of the same trip? |
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Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13594 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 5:49 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Flowing-Brook
quote:
Originally posted by KARVITK
I will post some of my photos here, and put up a separate TR for the videos..
Photos are pleased in chronological order…..
Great photos Karl! Why not post the videos here of our adventure instead of starting a new trip report of the same trip?
Lynn
In the past put on a separate TR for videos aside for still pictures for one or more of my own TR's so they would not get lost in the maze of photos and script.
Tried uploading videos on You-tube... got only one on out of the four I took. I will put the one here; and others later... HD definition; takes impossibly long to upload.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kS5yt2GA9U
Take a look, You-tube said my video was shakey and gave me the option to fix it, so here it is. It looks okay.
K
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Utah's canyon trekking,deck chair packing desert explorer who dreams of visiting Canada someday
3988 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 7:32 PM
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Very Nice!! Careful, Stu! Being Corniced would suck!
Video was great! Adds so much, Karvitk. What a view! Clear, blue skies, great companions,
doesn't get any better. Heading over to an old silver mine I haven't been to in 14 years.
I never knew there was so much to learn about snow and conditions until I started visitng CT.
I just always thought it was soft, fluffy, and fun. Never imagined there was so much to the conditions and how to traverse it and what dangers there are. Fun day!! |
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Trail blazin', backcountry bushwackin', pine huntin', photo takin', long winded story teller
3839 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 9:29 PM
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| It would be interesting to take this route in Summer when the snow is gone from the ridge to see if there are still signs of the old original trail along the ridge that I was told took that route to Archibald and was oftem used before they wiped the lower part out by logging. |
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5902 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 9:07 PM
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Wally, that would be a real bushwack from the north. The slide alders were already springing up a lot on our way down, it almost didn't seem like an old FSR anymore. Good luck with your endeavour.
Thanks everyone else for your kind replies.
Nice video Karl.
Happy trails,
Lynn |
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Sunnyvale Trailer Park
Canada
1092 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2012 : 08:24 AM
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| Would love to get my wife to the top of Archibald since we look at it all the time. Stu - your other trail was steep enough, can picture the direct ridge as being more difficult. Enjoyed getting a close up view of Bob's pinnacle |
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Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13594 Posts |
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Archibald from the North ~ May 19, 2012
