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Port Douglas, BC
Canada
430 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2012 : 4:18 PM
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June 2
Before leaving town for a few days, had to go out for a walk with the boys...
Quick little blast up the east ridge of Nak to summit, looped it up to Yak then down through bowl, back out to HWY... 7:30am-1:00pm
snow, limited visibility, cornice collapse x 2. climb up the east ridge...
Lots of thundering of the resulting cornice failures through out the day...skier/climber beware...
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Chilliwack, BC
Canada
825 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2012 : 7:09 PM
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Nice pictures Adam!
Finally smashed it!! 
It was a great group today...Thanks for everything Wayne, Adam, Brandon and Ron!
Cheers,
Kelly
  
  
  
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Edited by - kellylegros on 06/02/2012 8:54 PM |
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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
13436 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2012 : 8:20 PM
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Looks like you all had a hoot full of fun.
Well done.
K |
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Chilliwack, BC
Canada
98 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2012 : 10:14 AM
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You guys did get out, good job. Haven't had the best of luck with the weather have we.
What happened to Foley, access not the best.
Mark |
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Chilliwack, BC
Canada
825 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2012 : 11:22 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by highfalls
You guys did get out, good job. Haven't had the best of luck with the weather have we.
What happened to Foley, access not the best.
Mark
Hey Mark,
We certainly aren't as lucky as last wknd w/ weather.
The access to foley was perfect. We should do this trip very soon. After walking up the road we found that it would be drivable all the way to the parking area because the snow didn't start until there 1152m...however the gate was locked...we were arranging to get the key but opted to head north for clearer skies...unfortunately we still ended up in blowing snow...hahaha...oh well...good training exercise.
Missed having you out with us.
Kelly
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Chilliwack
1266 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2012 : 12:09 PM
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I love it when you have a plan (Foley) and end up in a totally different place! (Nak).
Great trip guys! |
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Chilliwack, BC
Canada
825 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2012 : 1:37 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Kanike
I love it when you have a plan (Foley) and end up in a totally different place! (Nak).
Great trip guys!
Thanks janice. Yeah, Nak was actually "Plan D"...There were 2 middle mtn considerations that we crossed off by process of elimination.
Kelly |
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Port Moody, BC
169 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2012 : 5:55 PM
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There were some really nice pictures of your trip. This one quite dramatically (for me at my armchair) shows the steep snowy terrain.
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Edited by - erratics on 06/03/2012 5:56 PM |
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5887 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2012 : 6:05 PM
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| The exposure doesn't look as bad as I thought for Nak. Good going! |
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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
13436 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2012 : 7:19 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by erratics
There were some really nice pictures of your trip. This one quite dramatically (for me at my armchair) shows the steep snowy terrain.
That is really steep, this is where you want the snow to have some strength in holding up everyone's weight wihout collapsing and sliding down.
K |
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32 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2012 : 9:49 PM
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It was my first trip in the Coq area and it did not disappoint. Thanks to Kelly for putting it together. Nice to meet you Adam and Ron, and good seeing Wayne again. To bad for the poor conditions, I bet the views are good from up there.
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canine loving, machete-toting bushwhacking lake seeker, Indiana Jones hat-wearing off-road 4x4 guru
Surrey Hole, BC
Canada
6768 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2012 : 10:14 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by KARVITK
quote:
Originally posted by erratics
There were some really nice pictures of your trip. This one quite dramatically (for me at my armchair) shows the steep snowy terrain.
That is really steep, this is where you want the snow to have some strength in holding up everyone's weight wihout collapsing and sliding down.
K
Pic looks over rotated by quite a bit |
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Surrey, BC
Canada
119 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2012 : 09:55 AM
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| holy crap. |
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Port Douglas, BC
Canada
430 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2012 : 11:08 AM
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holy crap is right when I read Ron's Trip Reports~! These are awesome, who would have thought you can make it so academic and dramatic, super wicked! His writing deserves awards, and honorable mention...therefor all his hard work must be posted. He is truly the official author of kelly's Hiking Club Trips!
Rons ReportInitially, I received Kelly’s invitation to climb Foley on Tuesday night but this had morphed into a trip up the west side of Harrison Lake by Friday morning, which I hesitantly accepted that evening. However, the destination morphed further after we met up in Agassiz at 05:00 Saturday morning. This was decided after I had reacquainted myself with Wayne and been introduced to Kelly’s latest climbing buddy, Brandon, and after Adam arrived to complete our team of five.
So, it was to be the Coquihalla with the decision on a peak once we got there. Consequently, we sorted out two vehicles, parked the other two up and set off for Hope. By the time we had stopped in town for coffee, lunch and breakfast items it was after 06:00 on a grey, overcast day with no obvious prospect of sunshine.
Expecting better weather in the Coquihalla, we actually discovered it was worse but at least it wasn’t raining when we arrived.
We stopped initially to survey Markhor Peak near Needle Peak but the thought of a long hike in with no real views depressed us sufficiently to head up to the Falls Lake exit and turn back south for a circular route up Nak and bagging Yak if it was possible on the way round. The visibility didn’t offer much for a long ridge hike so we would keep it short and simple to have Adam back in Abbotsford in time for his supper appointment.
We parked the minivan at the westbound pull-in at 07:05 and decanted into the back of Adam’s truck for a short ride up the pipeline route until stopped by snow. While we four passengers were bouncing around in the truck bed, Adam claimed to have spotted a moose crossing the snow and heading downhill into tree cover. Anyway, after kitting up for the hike in, we walk up to the alleged crossing location and I
confirmed moose tracks and took a couple of photos that gave a stride of 33’’ or 85cm suggesting an adolescent, as the adult trotting stride is some 43”-45” according to Murie (Petersen Guides).
At the high point of the pipeline route, we needed to turn left and head up through the trees to the open slopes above. According to Adam, this would be the hardest part of the whole day – he was sorely incorrect in this prediction! However, we exerted some energy making our way through the wood and uphill and despite the cold air temperature (4°C at the highway), I climbed with just the long sleeved vest and lightweight summer pants. I did have my new OR Gaitors to try out and they seemed to be performing well over the Mont Blanc mountaineering boots.
We climbed quickly on relatively firm snow with a foot penetration of around 10cm. Wayne strode off ahead carrying his touring skis in a “A” pattern on his pack and a I observed that neither he or Brandon carried ice axes. Kelly and I had poles and an axe while Adam had two technical axes.
Once out of the trees at around 1600m some half hour later, we looked up and saw... nothing as the cloud was still obscuring everything above 1500m.
I could tell from the contour form on my GPS that we were in line with the Nak’s southeast ridge but this was not Adams intended ascent line. Accordingly, we cut right until we were in a bowl on the east side of the ridge and from where we could further ascend the snow slopes to the northeast ridge. As it was slightly cooler here, I pulled on a fleece and noticed the others had layered-up too.
Climbing further northwest, we skirted obvious evidence of avalanche activity but it did not appear too recent.
At first there were a few blocks, some shattered conifers and then a much bigger snow block standing twice as tall as Wayne. This block looked like shards of cornice from the ridge we were walking parallel to but no-one was that too concerned at that time. We kept on ascending and at 09:00 reached a point at 1900m where the grade steepened so that another 20m higher we were facing a mix of snow, rock and shrubby trees.
Adam surveyed the options and did not like the moat or bergschrund now confronting him with a cleft down behind the snow that was more than two metres deep.
There was bridge of snow a little to the right but we weighed up the prospects of having to extract someone from a fall into a deep hole and decided not to proceed there. Looking across the slope now, the only route avoiding the bergschrund was over to the left (south west) where it looked possible to reach the rock where the gap was trivial.
Above the immediate rock problem facing Adam, appeared to be gulley options with shrubby trees for additional hand holds.
This was the point where Adam first said it was only 40m to the top and where we quietly disbelieved him. The rock confronting us was of a dark slate type not the granite of Yak but it did present blocky, sharp handholds and some cracks for feet. That said, the surface was wet and there was residual snow in places. Adam led off and it was clear we would have to employ true rock climbing techniques with our foot placement especially critical in order to reach up for some hand holds (or conifers).
Starting up that first pitch needed a spread legged stance with the edge of the left foot pushing off a narrow shelf to get the right foot high enough for a decent stand. Already, this looked like a fully committed ascent.
As Adam and Wayne made their way up, I followed Kelly and Brandon, who was doing well in his flexible boot. I was grateful for my full shank Mont Blancs at this stage.
We got the occasional respite to gather our composure as we inched our way up with Kelly just in front of me. The conifers were soaking my pants but I put my Gortex jacket on before this section so most of me remained warm and dry. I also swapped my Gortex overmitts for Eddie Bauer Ascent gloves with sticky palms
Initially, I was wearing my Gortex rain hat but after being clipped by a small stone dislodged by Brandon, I quickly donned my climbing helmet and within five minutes sustained a baseball sized rock blow on the front centre.
At that point, I was sheltering under a rock pitch that was the crux of this route to the ridge. The higher Adam, Wayne and Brandon climbed above us though, the more I had to dodge rockfall. Meanwhile, Kelly was contemplating the slippery rock ahead and started to move up. I stayed where I was, in against the rock to avoid missiles but the next missile was Kelly.
When his left foot slipped off a hold, he made an unexpected vertical re-adjustment of about two metres, sliding down to find his feet immediately behind me but not before worrying me that we were both about to be peeled off the face.
I wasn’t looking back much as I knew we couldn’t back climb this without a rope but I think we’d have fallen fifteen metres to the steep snow slope and then slid all the way down that slope to the avalanche run out debris a couple of hundred metres below that. Kelly was a bit shaken but, oddly, the incident sharpened my resolve to get going up the climb.
I avoided the route the first three had taken, by climbing up through the shrubbery that was well rooted with some redundancy.
Above this pitch, Wayne was warming his hands, standing next to a securely rooted three- metre high conifer, the largest we had seen for some time. More than once, I wondered if with would get “cliffed” out on this climb by being unable to climb or descend but if we had to call for help, here at least was a safe location to hunker down and wait. Wayne moved off before me, just as Kelly’s head re-appeared below me.
I followed Wayne’s route, traversing on a snow pitch to a mixed rock and shrub gulley to the left.
Our calls to Adam as to whether it got easier had been met with silence so we hoped that meant he simply couldn’t hear us and not that he didn’t want to respond. Whether there were any more technical rock moves in those last fifteen metres, I can’t now recall, it was lost in a blur of adrenaline-fuelled concentration. What I did remember was seeing a 150cm high cornice blending into the white cloud above me. It was apparent, the others had not cut their way up through it so I looked for tracks to the right and moved back away from the snow barrier to edge sideways though the shrubbery .
A few metres to the right, the cornice had either broken off or never developed as the thick snow layer sloped steeply away from the ascent. Adam had clearly kicked five or six closely spaced steps up the snow to ease our way and as I peered “chad-like” over the rim, the others took my photo. To my enormous relief, the ridge beyond was benign to the extent of being almost flat and hte trio was standing there in the lightly blowing snow that had added to the fun towards the top of the climb.
It was only later that I realized those last forty metres had taken 80 minutes according to my GPS marks.
We later compared notes on the category of climb we thought those 40m had been. My initial reaction was a Grade 3 though even Adam and Kelly said Grade 4 that I normally wouldn’t do without a rope.
Certainly there were a couple of moves where extreme concentration was needed and, fortunately, it was too murky to see what the true drop was below us. I suppose if you considered the back-climbing feasibility then this was one route I absolutely would have not attempted and would have readily called for SAR first. Also, this was not a route I would have led so kudos to Adam for blazing the way up. Perhaps the strategically placed vegetation just added a slight sense of security without which this was clearly a Grade 4 plus. Finally, if you reviewed at the effort and time needed to win those forty metres, the loose rock hazard, the snow, the cornice and weather conditions then I guess Grade 4 was more appropriate.
Anyway, I was then up on the safe ridge and Kelly appeared a few minutes later completing our group. We then ambled over to the summit, marked by four low concrete cylinders that had been the legs for some long-gone installation, for a celebratory photo. Stunted trees at the summit were rimed on the westward side where they faced the recent snow-laden wind. As we were all a bit cool, we didn’t stay round for long but set off westward towards the Nak-Yak col.
The slope down was gentle and there were traces of a trodden route from the Yak direction where the ground was bare of snow. As we couldn’t easily follow this trail though the low trees when the trail was hidden by snow we took a more direct line on the north side of the vegetation. I pointed out that the snow could be as much as fifteen metres thick here and we were only that distance from the north face and the precipitous drop towards the Falls Lake basin.
As we moved back to a route inside the tree line, a loud rumbling started and continued to sound like a jet aircraft over to our right. I wasn’t exactly sure what had broken off but Wayne believed the whole north cornice had just taken a ride down the face - we didn’t go back to investigate.
Until that point, the snow on the mountain had appeared very stable and avalanche activity looked many days old. While we were on a wide ridge with a relatively gentle slope on our left (east) side, we were not particularly concerned.
Moving further west and out of the wind, we started to climb to the intermediate top via a modest snow ramp some fifty metres or so higher, taking us up half of the height lost from Nak whose top was at 2000m.
The route took us down to a second col beyond which was the climb up to Yak that was shrouded in cloud. On our left was the snow bowl above the Yak slabs. As the sun brightened behind the cloud, I pulled on my sunglasses and couldn’t quite make out the snow feature above us on the climb to Yak. However, as we got closer, a massive cornice some three metres high barred the way above us. It seemed to have developed from the short southeast ridge on Yak but formed a wall between that ridge and the ridge from Nak.
I wasn’t at all keen traversing under that cornice to explore a line up Yak’s southeast ridge. The only alternative was a long ramp nearer the north face of the mountain but we could not see the line up clearly so collectively agreed to get the hell out from under the cornice and head down the bowl towards the highway. This was a fast romp that Kelly slid down on his butt so before long we were above the Yak slabs and contemplating a way around. Kelly explored a route to the south through the trees but Adam quickly decided to go north around the slabs making as much use of the remaining snow cover as possible.
The route down was generally straightforward with a couple of low rock bands to negotiate. We had great views back to our right of the slabs with snow melting rapidly on their dark surface forming rivulets under the snow. Our plan though was to contour north, but to lose as little height as possible as we figured we were only 100m vertically above the level of Adam’s truck a kilometre distant. This route took us through trees and over mixed snow and rock sloping at moderate gradients. Finally, we saw from the GPS we were only 200m from the pipeline route so cut down to the clearing clambering over one last fallen tree and emerging halfway between the truck and the highway. A glance at my watch showed it was only 13:00.
I munched into a cheese sandwich and reviewed what we had achieved in a very long morning, while we waited for Adam to bring the truck right to our location. Dumping all our kit and three bodies in the truck bed, we bounced off down the pipeline back to the highway. Adam needed to get back to Agassiz but the remaining four of us, inspired by Adams tale of the moose, decided to find our own moose – the Blue Moose Cafe in Hope where we enjoyed soup, coffee and cakes.
Distance 6km, vertical ascent 800m in 6 hours |
Edited by - Marduk on 06/07/2012 11:50 AM |
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2421 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2012 : 1:17 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Aqua Terra
Pic looks over rotated by quite a bit
Agreed, unless you guys are leaning way out. |
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Port Douglas, BC
Canada
430 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2012 : 2:21 PM
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lets take a quick a look here...ummm...nope..first of all who really cares, second of all, its a go pro picture, hence- fish eye lens look, it makes things look dramatic...second of all, kelly is standing on a ridge of snow on a small cliff below a moat looking down at the rest of us...but thanks for the concern everyone....now, back to our nerdy nature adventure pictures. quick update on what snow does to low angle slabs and exposed faces of mountains= creates benches and steeper grades due to loading...etc
another 'all star' moment for clubtread. Kelly, please dont rotate your pictures... or how about you just dont ask me to go on your hiking trips anymore...its over, we are breaking up.
quote:
Originally posted by peter1955
quote:
Originally posted by Aqua Terra
Pic looks over rotated by quite a bit
Agreed, unless you guys are leaning way out.
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Kootenay Bud
2695 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2012 : 3:35 PM
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| Well, well done, I think. Although it does sound as if y'all were right at the edge of your ability. |
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5887 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2012 : 3:53 PM
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Love it! Nikki and I tried Outram last week and we found the same thing, crazy steep snow  The snow can go anytime soon, I'll be happy for that |
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Port Douglas, BC
Canada
430 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2012 : 4:16 PM
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I dont think they were ...they had lots of room to play ...they are progressing nicely! Plus they didnt get mad at me, so i think they were all good...
For only $199.95, I can deliver a fun safe experience for any ability!~
quote:
Originally posted by sandy
Well, well done, I think. Although it does sound as if y'all were right at the edge of your ability.
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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
13436 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2012 : 8:31 PM
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That is one awesome report by Ron. Makes for dramatic interesting reading...
K |
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Nak
