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 | Dru
Mountain Grammar Police
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 Sardonic sandbagging scoundrel, Cascade Climbers lobotomized spraymeister, space blanket flyer, new millennium vulgarian betaboy and friend to all squids
Climbing, a mountain
Canada
∞ Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 8:52 PM
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I don't really remember when I cottoned on to the fact that there was a unclimbed couloir forking left out of the Priest-Coupe up to the summit of Rexford. It was somewhere in the period 2004- 2006.
2007 is the first time I tried it. Jesse and I set out for a winter ascent at midnight by the light of the full moon. The snow was crap and we turned around in Centre Creek somewhat short of the third bridge and got back to the car at sunrise.
I made at least two other attempts solo in winter. On one of them I turned around at the second bridge feeling out of tune. On the most recent attempt I had good snow conditions but a moonless night, crossed the creek too soon and spent a few hours wandering the slopes further north of where I should have been, below the Illusion Peaks, before the sun rose and I figured out I was off route.
Failure is important. Failures are the opening chapters of the novel of your success.
When I was flying around in John Scurlock's plane in 2008 I had an excellent view.
  
Can you see the line? You don't get this view from many places. North Nesakwatch Spire gets in the way or the line is hidden in profile behind the shoulder of the northeast ridge.
In 2009 when Marc-Andre, Jesse and I made it to the high basin on the east side of the Rexford Group it was rock climbing season but we did get the approach all figured out and had some excellent views of the north face couloir across the way from our route on South Nesakwatch.
I haven't had much luck with or time for new routing the last couple of years but I didn't forget about this line either, nor did other people. Shaun and Alastair and one of Al's friends made a try early this winter and got as far as camping below the route before waking up to rain and slogging out.
In the meantime Shaun and I (mostly Shaun's initiative) had been talking to Maxim. Open up any alpine guidebook to southwest BC and you'll run across Maxim's name, but he's probably better known as a paraglider and designer. He also sold me my first rock rack in 1991, but that's hardly an objective qualification.
Anyways, to cut to the chase, Al and his friend Greg climbed Slesse's North Couloir last weekend (a classy line and one we had all been talking about):
http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/1069262/gonew/1/TR_British_Columbia_Slesse_Nor
Conditions in the mountains were obviously excellent and we all wanted some. On Saturday I was fired up to go charging in there but Shaun prevailed with his suggestion of him, Maxim, me and Sunday. So I went to Squamish on Saturday and climbed with my bros, only not too hard because I was keeping some gas in the tank for Sunday.
Got home from Squamish at 9:30 PM. In bed by 10. Up again at 2:15. Met Shaun at Max's place at 3:45.
We dropped off Shaun's truck at the Rexford trailhead at 4:45, Maxim's truck at the gate at I don't know when, clownacted three of us onto Max's quad, parked the quad in Centre Creek when the road alder got too thick to drive through, and started hiking. We crossed the creek on a log at 7 AM and Max and I had our crampons on by 7:20. Shaun had a sprained foot and he worried perhaps that the crampons would hurt his foot so he just kicked steps in boots, all the way to the schrund at the bottom of the Priest-Couple Couloir that splits Nesakwatch Spires from Rexford.
View from the third bridge not long after sunrise
   
Going up!
The main gully below the Spires was full of solid avalanche debris all the way up so we never had to resort to the bushwacking shenanigans to bypass waterfalls that J, MA and I had to deal with going the same way in 2009.
Maxim was in the lead pretty much all the way to the bergschrund. Shaun was mostly in the middle but did a bit of kicking steps. I mostly hung back and drafted in the other guys kicked steps. I'm lazy that way sometimes, especially when I'm out of shape. 
Approaching the bergschrund.
The forecast for the day was for mostly cloudy but no rain. It had been bluebird when we set off but marine clouds were quickly blowing in as we kicked steps up to the face.
Fluffypuff building near Williams Peak.
At the schrund we put on our harnesses and got the gear out and ready but left the ropes in the packs. The schrund was open but bridged by avvy debris on the right side. We crossed it on this solid debris and began climbing the Priest-Coupe Couloir to where our intended line veered off left a hundred and fifty or so meters up. There was a deep runnel in the P-C and every so often some sun would melt the snow on the sunny South Nesakwatch Spire side of the gully and it would fall into the P-C and come whistling down this runnel. So despite the runnel offering solid snow and fast climbing we mostly stuck to the softer snow and ankle-deep steps out left.
   
Once we cut left out of the P-C and into the north face couloir proper, the angle steepened a bit and the line got much narrower. After climbing for a ways we decided to start belaying, mostly because Max found a convenient rock with a good crack for gear. Shaun took the first lead which went up the runnel in this gully past a step, chimneyed past a snow mushroom and onto a gentler slope. I got the second pitch, which moved left at a discontinuity in the couloir into the left-hand line continuing to the summit. Max took the third pitch but after climbing for a few meters, said it was easy enough to simulclimb. So we simuled to the summit ridge.
     
All this time the cloud had been blowing in. Probably if we'd been on the summit when we were actually in the climbing part we would have seen a spectacular Brockenspectre. From below it was not as impressive. Mostly gray.
We topped out on the couloir to find an easy snow ridge stretching for 50 meters or so to a bump... the summit! (Time of arrival, 2PM) Complete with the cairn and Doug Rexford's memorial cross, both of which face south and so had melted out.
We weren't so lucky with the summit rappel anchor. We only found a bit of frayed webbing under the snow. In the summer this short step is no big deal to downclimb but in the winter with crampons on we wanted to rappel. Fortunately we found a good crack and fixed some nuts. Max had some interesting bail webbing. It was a simple piece of string that looked like those $1 parachute cords you can buy at Crappy Tire that will break if you look at them. But in Max's case it was surplus webbing from some sort of space probe parachute, like one of the Mars landers or something, that he had sewn himself and that was essentially unbreakable. Pretty cool thing to leave behind on a mountain, repurposed for climbing safety, i m h o.
 
We wandered over to the false summit and found the summer rappel webbing there and made one big 60m rappel straight down to gain the West Ridge ledges. We walked along the ledges, took off our crampons too soon, did some interesting or dicey iced scrambling, then plunge-stepped down the usual short couloir at the toe of the west ridge to gain the bivi basin below the Spires.
Looking back at the summit in clouds
Shaun crossing the basin in a whiteout.
Below the basin the clouds parted and we had generally magnificent glissading to halfway down the summer trail. Below the bottom of the rock wall section the snow depth transitioned from 2 meters to zero rather abruptly and we walked the rest of the way down the trail. We arrived back at Shaun's truck at 5:45, w00t, and were back at Maxim's drinking a celebratory beer by 6:30.
 
Heading down.
We had a pretty good time overall. It was nice to climb this route finally, good to get out in the mountains with friends, the conditions were awesome, and really cool to do a route with Maxim because he's done so many other great lines locally. The best part though? Maxim went back the next day on his own to get the quad back from upper Centre Creek. Every other time I've climbed Rexford group peaks east-to-west there's been a horrible logging road slog at the end of the trip. No such for me or Shaun this time.  |
Edited by - Dru on 05/30/2012 09:08 AM
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Manitoba's misadventurin' bushwhackin', dog sloggin', dehydratin', beer drinkin' biggie - who's eager to peak bag Mt Currie in a dress
Squamish
5048 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:05 PM
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Excellent. Good job guys!
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| LeeL
Advanced Member
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Extreme ski tourin, mountain bikin addict who hikes at least once a year
2506 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:08 PM
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| That looks like a reasonably steep ski line Dru but I think I'll let Mike and Andy have it. |
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Satirical photoshop junkie who frolics in the mountains of the Chilliwack River Valley
Chilliwack, BC
Canada
6908 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:11 PM
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| Very cool TR Dru and great that you were able to bag it this time. I didn't know Max was still around in Chwk. He had the honours of leading a tandem-glide off Cheam for my Dad's 50th a number of years back. |
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Burnaby, BC
Canada
462 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:11 PM
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| Congratulations on this ascent! Pictures are awesome. |
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80 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:12 PM
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| Thanks for this beautiful TR. Would you mind to post what gears were used. TIA |
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| Dru
Mountain Grammar Police
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Sardonic sandbagging scoundrel, Cascade Climbers lobotomized spraymeister, space blanket flyer, new millennium vulgarian betaboy and friend to all squids
Climbing, a mountain
Canada
∞ Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:15 PM
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| A couple of nuts, a couple tricams (placed red and blue), two of the old Flexible Friend-replicas Max had made for Extreme Mtn Gear back in the late 80s, and a one and a two camalot. We had three ice screws and one picket which we carried gently up the route so they wouldn't feel unloved, but there was nowhere where placing them would have made any difference. |
Edited by - Dru on 05/30/2012 11:09 AM |
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Burnaby, BC
Canada
345 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:26 PM
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| Congrats to you and your team Drew. Well written and documented climb. This will be part of the North Cascades mountaineering history. |
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304 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:27 PM
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| :rawk: |
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Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada
558 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:29 PM
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Really great work! And a quality TR too!  |
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canine loving, machete-toting bushwhacking lake seeker, Indiana Jones hat-wearing off-road 4x4 guru
Surrey Hole, BC
Canada
6784 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:34 PM
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Geez, kinda boring and lacking pics eh?
Looks like a very rewarding day for sure, all the ingredients to plan another 
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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
13453 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:38 PM
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A classic Dru spectacular.
Well done. |
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bandana wearin', pole huckin', view lovin', dog herdin', 4x4 navigatin', lake huntin', butt-slidin' bridge crosser, who enjoys postholing with an overnighter pack
Surrey, BC
Canada
4649 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:40 PM
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| Awesome job guys ! Congrats |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
1111 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:42 PM
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quote:
Failures are the opening chapters of the novel of your success.
...is this yours? Regardless...it's now mine...
Seriously though, sweet report and congrats. |
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Burnaby, BC
Canada
535 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:43 PM
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Solid Bro!
A killer 1st ascent to cap off a Bomb weekend. |
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Abbotsford, BC
Canada
1005 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 9:49 PM
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| Nice coup! Its amazing what an out of shape climber can rally to!The quad was good sense! |
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3505 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 10:11 PM
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| Sweet! Thanks for the TR... |
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Van, BC
Canada
2790 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 10:20 PM
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Bloody impressive work :)
-Ryan
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360 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 10:30 PM
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| Nicely done Dru! I'll be looking for your couloir the next time I'm out that way. |
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Outdoors addicted flyfishing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking car crooner and resident motormouth
Da'Wack, BC
Canada
5372 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 10:44 PM
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quote:
Failure is important. Failures are the opening chapters of the novel of your success.
Well said, well told and well plaid (or well played...dang smartphone!) Dr Dru.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your report. |
Edited by - exscape on 05/29/2012 11:48 PM |
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Port Douglas, BC
Canada
430 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 11:40 PM
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| good one, I like it... |
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Topic |
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Mt Rexford - 1st Asc. North Face Couloir
