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25 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2012 : 09:28 AM
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Myself and Mike went out on a 1 day, car to car attack on Garibaldi's NE face.
To start it off here, we turned around about 300ft from the summit as weather was moving in. Shortly after turning we narrowly avoided whiteout conditions up on the Warren Glacier and summit block. We took 6hrs from the car to get to our turn-around point right below the summit.
Here's the TR.
Parking: You will not be making it to the proper Brohm Ridge parking area. The Furthest you'll make it, regardless of vehicle size right now is 1 to 1.5km down from the gate, and around 700-1000ft lower than you'd like to be. Consider this if you are planning car to car. The gate was actually nowhere to be seen as it's completely buried. Parking at the gate this year won't happen until August if not September. LOTS of snow up there.
Conditions: Conditions for travel early in the AM were FANTASTIC!!! Considering the time it took us to make it to 1hr below the summit, we were cruising. Absolutely 0 postholing on very firm Styrofoam type snow. And there is ALOT of snow up there. The elevation gain and loss due to the mounds of snow on Brohm ridge will drive anyone nuts on the way down (oddly didn't feel it as much on the way up). Aggregated amounts are probably an additional 1500ft on top of what you'd normally do.
If you are going car to car, please consider the fact that the glacier, and travel back from the summit will be in completely slushy crap snow. No hold at all on the slope traverses that are on Brohm, and makes for SLOW travel.
Snow was nice and firm until about 10am where things started to soften up a bit. This of course was right as we approached the NE face. If you go out, do yourself a favor and bivy it out on Brohm ridge's sites. Got room for 4-5 tents at the moment.
Warren glacier was clear and free of cracks except for the biggest ones, which of course are very easy to navigate around. This posed absolutely no danger what so ever, but as safety precautions, we ran it roped up. There is large icefall and avy debris from the North Face Seracs on the way across the glacier, one of which you walk right through the base of the debris cone. Again - something to consider with timing as it does and will come down.
Summit block is good, but the normal route up to the final ridge cannot be taken at this time. There is a large cornice overhanging the ridge right over the normal route up. Personally, I'm not a fan of climbing under that big of a cornice when the heat was rising as it was. The bergshrund to me can easily be navigate around on either side, the left side being better if the cornice has fallen. No rocks above the ridge, would simply be a quick easy slope to summit.
*The biggest obstacle on this route right now is the overhanging cornice. Not a good place to be, and you would not want to be under it at all.
As an alternative, and one we had decided on doing until we noticed the weather moving in on us is to climb to the ridge left of the cornice and Bergshrund as a direct line as close to the rock buttress as possible. This would be quite an enjoyable option and limit your exposure, but would slightly increase the difficulty.
Notes:
If you time your climb up here right, you'll have phenomenal early morning snow travel. Bivy it up at Brohm, early alpine style start, and it's an easy up and down.
The cornice is likely to drop within the next week. If it's gone, it's in the bag. If it's there, give it a pass.
Took us 11.5hrs car to car to do what we did. Getting the summit would have likely added 2-3hrs to that.
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Edited by - K7Climbing on 06/25/2012 8:55 PM
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North Vancouver, BC
Canada
1602 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2012 : 9:03 PM
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Only two posts and they are both great trip reports. 
I look forward to reading more of your trips. |
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North Vancouver, BC
Canada
330 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2012 : 9:12 PM
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Great trip report - tons of good info and enjoyable to read. Takes balls to back off where you did. Live to climb another day.
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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
13442 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2012 : 9:13 PM
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Well documented report, with good info.
K |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
1111 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2012 : 06:34 AM
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| By normal route do you mean the far right of the bergshrund? |
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Squamish, British Columbia
Canada
1005 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2012 : 12:10 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by thecamel
By normal route do you mean the far right of the bergshrund?
The "normal route" from Alpine Select is to go to climbers left as far as possible and follow that ridge up to the summit.
So in the picture above, you go up to just below the schrund then traverse to the left all the way to that rib then go up behind that cornice and up to the summit. It's a viable option when the schrund is impassable. I'd be close to jogging as I passed below that cornice though. |
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25 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2012 : 3:27 PM
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Thanks for everyone's comments. My trip reports will always be this detailed - that I promise.
Climbers left is the normal route up to the ridge yes. Problem with that is the looming cornice of course. There was one real nice snow bridge up there directly under the cornice that would allow easy access to the ridge.
Option 2 was to climb the full face directly as far left as possible but right of the rocks, skirting the bergshrund to the left.
Next trip is an Altitude training climb on Mt. Shasta in California this weekend. Going to go figure out how I react to 14k before stepping on Rainier's liberty ridge in a month.
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Edited by - K7Climbing on 06/26/2012 3:29 PM |
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Garibaldi NE Face (June 25 car to car)
