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89 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 8:53 PM
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Gerry and I decided some time in August to make an attempt to Slesse this month via the ''regular'' Southwest ridge. We both had last week-end free so that was it!
We decided to take two days for our attempt. The first day up and camp below Slesse. The next day, we would make our attempt and head back down. A simple plan, quite reasonable, a bit too reasonable even, as climbing Slesse via the ''regular'' Southwest ridge could be done in a day without any problem (albeit a strenuous day). We actually met on Saturday a party from BCMC that were just doing it.
So, what could we do more or add? Well, out of question a harder route as I am not a technical climber. Time to pull the map then. Hohoho, there you go, a nice ridge going from Slesse, through Parkes, Crossover, MacFarlane, and then all the way down to the road via a nice trail. Why not add Pierce on the way? So, that was the rough plan, which Gerry agreed on. The problem is that it never went beyond the rough plan. Normally, I would do a bit more study and research, look some pics, but for some obscure reasons, I did not. I just relied on the map. A ''mountaineering route'' was indicated on it from MacFarlane almost to Crossover, so that should a fairly easy ridge. From that point to our camp site below Slesse, it was merely\ 2.5K with very limited elevation gain: a real ridge walk! Yeah, it should be a nice add-on to our Slesse attempt! Well, that is what I was convinced about.
On his side, Gerry suggested we could do a bit of trail work on the way up the first day. I said why not. We had plenty of time so why not give back a bit to the hiking/mountaineering community. I do not it myself very often, but I take the chance here to thank all the people that give their time for this obscure activity: trail clearing. I do not mind bushes, but I do not mind nice trails too! Sincere thanks.
So, Saturday, we parked mid morning at the Chilliwack road and headed up Slesse Creek FSR armed with shears (hope this is the correct translation). Working as a team, Gerry cutting, me pulling branches away, we did a bit of work on the trail all the way to where it starts climbing. Here, we dropped the shears (taken back by the BCMC party I mentioned above on their way back), loaded with 12 liters of water and headed up the trail. It was really hot that day. We were not in a rush, so we took a lot of breaks. We met the BCMC party that was going down after their successful attempt. I asked what kind of gear did they use. The answer was one sling. I was quite relieved as we really did not bring very much (hum, hum, rough plan...). Knowing the skills of the BCMC member that lead the 5.6 pitch, I thought we might need a bit more, but we had more so ok. They left and we settled camp, spent the rest of the day looking at the amazing views at the Borders Peaks, Slesse, and our ridge (that indeed did not look too bad from our vantage).
Life is life, and when we woke up Sunday, it was very overcast. We could not see anything above 2100m. Oh well, armed with MacLane's description of the route, we headed up. The description of the route is quite concise but was good enough to find our way in poor visibility (also with the help of some cairns). We finally got up to the bottom of the 5.6 pitch. Looked quite interesting! I led it and indeed, I used one sling! At the rap station, we still could not see very much. We made a route mistake and went right instead of left, which brought us in unexpected fourth class terrain. No big deal, as we finally got to the summit. Sky cleared up a bit, and we had some nice views. Cool! The way down was uneventful, and we arrived at camp around 11H30. We started at 6H45, it took us exactly 3H to go up and 1H45H to go down. We quickly packed up and at 12H15, we were on our way to Parkes.
We first aimed at the col between Parkes and Slesse, and from there we followed the ridge. The ridge was not very flat, quite bumpy, and involved a bit of route finding. At that point, it was totally overcast, quite cold, and windy. Oh well... We soon arrived very close to Parkes. First surprises of the day! My expected pleasant ridge walk was totally destroyed :) First, there was no way we could downclimb to the col between Parkes and Crossover. Second, there was no way we could continue the ridge from there. We would have to do a circuitous route on the west flank of Crossover. One thing at a time. Repel first! Some signs and arrows indicated a rap station to which were wrapped a couple of slings. Ouch, looked quite exposed! We found a gully, and in the middle of it, another rap station. I guess there is the rap for the climbers and the rap for the scramblers :) We choose the scramblers' one and soon we got to the col between Parkes and Crossover. So no way to get back on the ridge. Trying to contour and stay high looked semi promising. We chose the safest solution, which also involved more work: going down all the way to the basin below Crossover, which would imply 500m of climbing scree slopes back to Crossover. A bit of downclimbing and two raps (60m each), we were there and enjoying walking up scree. Fortunately, Gerry had done this route before, and although the weather had improved a bit, it was still not possible to see the peak. We got to the top a little bit after 5PM, way later than I was expecting.
Second surprises of the day! Where was the easy ridge to MacFarlane? Yes, further up, it looked easy, but just below our feet, it did not at all. We dropped down and started to contour on the east side every small bump. That was obviously slow moving and a lot of route finding. We were getting closer to the easier ground, but here we made a mistake. We still had a couple of gullies to go over. At that point, the ridge was easy, but we already had lost faith in the ridge so we decided to drop down, contour and go up. Bad plan, which involved some bush war, but it worked and we got back to the ridge at 7H15PM. 1H of day light. Obviously, at that point, we had given up the idea of MacFarlane and Pierce. Our best bet was to pick the well established hiking trail coming down from MacFarlane before dark.
Plan never goes as planned :) On our way to upper Pierce Lake, we suddenly got just in front of a snow slope going down to the lake with huge moats and a very awkward way to go on the snow slope. We had no iceaxes, no crampons. It is kind of hard to explain, but we used the moat as a bollard, crawled on top of the slope, rapped down. It was not pretty, but it was definitely not the time to do a single mistake. The consequences would have been quite disastrous. We hit the trail just after it got dark, just after 8PMish.
Not saved yet though! we lost the trail a couple of times between the Upper and Lower lake, and lost quite some time trying to find it. From the Lower lake, it was no problem, it was cruising mode, and we got to the road. 2 more K and we got to the car. It was 1H30AM. We were on the go for almost 19H, with very few breaks. Ouch! Not even I would mention how tired we were. I was actually so tired that I forgot to take back my fuel cap at the gas station.
Morality: do your homework!
Pebeto
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Edited by - pebeto on 09/10/2012 9:35 PM
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Squamish, BC
Canada
68 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 9:24 PM
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| Alexis - I can't read this without pictures. Buy a camera. |
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Squamish, British Columbia
Canada
1007 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 9:27 PM
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Holy mother of Jesus Alexis 
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89 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 9:27 PM
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You should be trained to read boring papers :)
Gerry took pics. I am going to ask him to send them to me. |
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North Vancouver, BC
Canada
330 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 9:42 PM
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| Holy mother is right! Gripping story, well told. |
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Ladner
Canada
628 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 10:03 PM
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Slesse has always been pretty high on my list, so when Alexis asked me if I was interested the answer was a quick yes. I've always had a particular fondness for this area if the Chilliwack Valley so I was also in agreement on the traverse option, however a little more homework on our parts would have helped immensely.
I didn't take very many pic's on this trip as most of our climbing day was spent in the clouds.
  Mt Slesse from camp
 View towards Parkes from camp
   Climbing in the clouds
   Crossover Peak
  Saw two giant Pacific Salamanders
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 | Mr. B
Intermediate Member
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Popkum, B.C.
Canada
629 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 10:15 PM
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Action, Drama, Suspense and a happy ending! This movie has everything except pictures!
But that's OK! Nicely described trip. |
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 Outdoors addicted flyfishing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking car crooner and resident motormouth
Da'Wack, BC
Canada
5372 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 10:20 PM
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Crazy stuff.
I think I got a good view from above of that snowslide you described; the weekend before last. I wouldn't have wanted to travel down it. (Even purposefully) |
Edited by - exscape on 09/10/2012 10:21 PM |
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Kootenay Bud
2695 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 10:22 PM
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| There's just no morality in mountain climbing these days.... |
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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 - 09/10/2012 : 11:54 PM
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Wow what an effort & struggle to get it done.
K |
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Vancouver, bc
Canada
1009 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2012 : 12:17 AM
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| Looking forward to a "what I did on my summer vacation" presentation at the next BCMC meeting. Yikes! Great story! |
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Fowl photographin, animal lovin, thread trollin, dry bag humpin, canoe canoodler
Vancouver, BC
Canada
4037 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2012 : 02:27 AM
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| Doing a 'Gerry Trip' is never boring. Ya brought him back alive and that is what counts..! Think you could help talk him out of another insane late season climb and come out fer an ocean trip instead this month? |
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89 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2012 : 06:45 AM
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Thanks for the pics Gerry and all the leading and trail finding in the dark! How many
eyes do you have?
I thought first that these things, i.e., salamanders, were scorpions, and I almost
ran away, hahaha....
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Burnaby, BC
Canada
1293 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2012 : 07:23 AM
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Another great and action-packed read!
Really looking forward to the next episode of adventures of pebeto. |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
145 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2012 : 11:56 AM
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| I guess one advantage of not doing much research is that it is more adventurous. Depends what your goals are. (And results in a very entertaining trip report.) Congratulations both on summitting Slesse, and completing a challenging route back. |
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5887 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2012 : 1:04 PM
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| Any day outdoors is a good day! 19 hours on the trail, phew. |
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89 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2012 : 1:38 PM
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Hi Alastair
We found your name on the summit register. Went with Peter and Silke?
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Surrey, BC
Canada
140 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2012 : 7:12 PM
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| Anyone know the condition of Bypass glacier? |
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89 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2012 : 7:20 PM
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From our vantage and the map I have under my eyes, we could not see the actual bypass
glacier, only the bottom slope, which was clear. HOWEVER, the N. Slesse glacier
was still there and Sunday, we saw two HUGE chunks rolling down to the basin further
away. Very impressive!
Please, Gerry, confirm these infos.
Pebeto |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
1009 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2012 : 7:23 PM
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| glacier is gone |
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Surrey, BC
Canada
140 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2012 : 12:14 AM
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| Excellente thanks guys. |
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Slesse and bad planning
