Buchan Bay (Okanagan Mountain Park)

Crappy weather in Rogers Pass kept us closer to home this weekend. Eager to get some exercise we made a short overnight trip to Okanagan Mountain Park. We did a similar trip last June except that this time we stayed at Buchan Bay rather than Commando Bay.

Wild Horse Canyon aka The Fire Swamp was much drier and less buggy than last year. There's some great potential for rock climbing along the canyon walls although the approach would be a little gruelling.



We must have seen about 20 grouse. They would explode out of the undergrowth and scare the life out of us every time. If they just stayed still we would never see them. It took about 4 hours to get through the canyon and onto the open plateau above the lake.



Alpine umbrellas were occasionally called into action.



Dinner was enjoyed under the tarp as we watched the sun go down on the opposite side of the lake. The next morning dawned clear and warm.



We had a nice swim, chatted with the neighbours, packed up, and returned home by late afternoon.

Lunette Peak

A couple of weeks have passed since we climbed Lunette Peak. With my rose-tinted glasses at the ready I can finally begin writing this one up.

Google killed the service that originally hosted the photos in this post. Now they don't click through to larger versions. Here's the album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1JcjfvQSr4zrvWU29

Calling Lunette a 'peak' is pretty generous since it's really just bump on the south ridge of Mount Assiniboine. However it is listed as an official 11,000er so some amongst us must needs climb the darn thing. That being said I'm very glad it is on The List because it's worth climbing this peak just to visit such a beautiful place.

Our trip began with a lovely hike along Assiniboine Creek that included a groovy log crossing complete with hand rail.





After a few hours we reached Lunette Lake and had the first views of our ultimate objective. The lake is a worthy destination in it's own right.



From the lake we made our way through steep brush, across a couple of avalanche paths, ground our way upwards over nasty scree, and finally arrived at this superb bivy site perched on a mossy plateau 6 hours after leaving the car.



The next morning we ascended from the bivy site over more awesome scree before donning crampons for this long and thankfully snow filled gully.



Exiting from the gully the expansive west face opened up above us.



It was here that we first encountered cairns marked with prodigious quantities of flagging tape. Initially we were grateful for the help, but soonthere were so many cairns festooned in bright pink tape that we became dismissive of them. We joked about what type of climber would place flagging tape every 20 metres. Little did we know...

Up we went, winding our way along rubble strewn ledges, until reaching the snowfield that lead up to the Assiniboine-Lunette cCol.



Here the threatening weather finally took a turn for the worse. At the col the wind was howling and the light rain turned into a driving snow that quickly soaked through our pants and gloves. This was definitely a low point. We knew we were close to the summit but the dripping wet rock and swirling snow confounded us. We wandered back and forth for quite a while trying to find an easy way up.

After a good hour of this the wind began tugging at the mist. It lifted just a little bit before settling back thick and heavy. Then in a matter of minutes the clouds lifted completely, giving us just long enough to find the now obvious way to the top.





We didn't dawdle. A few quick photos before rapping off the summit block back down into the mist and the rain. Once off the snow it was amazing how quickly we lost our way in the featureless wet scree. Now we begged to find more of the flagged cairns which we had rejected with disdain on the way up.



Well, it wasn't quite that dramatic I guess, but we had our moments.



Each cairn we stumbled across was treated like a long lost friend before we eventually got below the clouds.



That's about it except that SWINE MARMOTS ATE MY PACK!

Cresting the final rise before the bivy site we looked up just in time to see two enormous marmots beating a hasty retreat. Pots and pans were strewn about and my pack had been dragged out from the vestibule into the pouring rain. The buggers had just about severed one shoulder strap and generally had a good gnaw on the rest of it. This sorely tested 20 years of vegetarianism! But with the tarp up, soup in our bellies, and with a good dent made in the wine (Ross you are a hero) all was eventually forgiven.



To sum up, Lunette Peak itself is somewhat of a chore, but if that's the excuse one needs to visit this beautiful area, it's well worth the effort.

Truda Peak Southeast Spur

Up to Hermit Meadows on Saturday afternoon. It was a scorching day and we were soaked to the skin by the time we arrived. Dave and Gerald shared a tent while I had brought just my sleeping bag and a tarp. Usually the nights are cool enough at this elevation for the mosquitoes to die down overnight. Not this time. I swatted and thrashed and sweated until it was time to get up at 5:00am.



We hiked across the glacier to have a look at the South Ridge of Truda as seen on the right skyline in the above photo. The upper ridge looked very nice but the bottom part looked a little scruffy. Instead of messing around we decided to have a quick look around the corner at the southeast spur as the guide book calls it the "cleanest and least problematic route" on the mountain. Kicking steps up the perfect snow we had to agree.



After the snow the route becomes a typical Selkirks 4th ridge with big blocks covered in flaky black lichen.



We topped out on the pointy summit at 11:00am.



As we nibbled at our lunches Dave dug out the summit register.



Reading through the sparse list of entries I was pleased to come across this page from 1989.



Ron Mason is the father of Simon, a very good friend of mine from Montreal, and I've know David Toole aka The Undertaker for many years. I was chuffed! Small world.

We descended via the Truda couloir.



And made our way back to the tents to wrap up a very fine day in the mountains.

Bostock Pass to McGill Pass

This was basically a reconnaissance trip to explore the head of the Bostock Valley with the possibility of climbing the west ridge of Mount McGill.



David Jones guide book describes several approaches to Mount McGill. None are particularly appealing. We chose to hike straight to Bostock Pass and then bushwhack east along the ridge crest towards McGill Pass.



Yeah it kinda sucked. After a few hours we had a first look at a still very distant Mount McGill.



We realized that our hearts weren't really into climbing some obscure peak today so instead we had a nap high up on the ridge in the warm afternoon sun. The Western Anemone were in full bloom.



The nap was a good choice because the next part of the day sorely tried our patience. First we continued on to McGill Pass.



Next, since one of the possible approaches to Mount McGill is to head straight up directly from the hiking trail, we decided to do this in reverse and drop straight back down to the trail. Then we would know if it was worth coming this way next time. What a mistake. We thrashed for ages through some of the nastiest thickest alder and devil's club you can possibly imagine. When we rejoined the hiking trail some time later we were hot, sweaty, scratched, and generally in a bad mood.

Live and learn but as always it was just nice to be outside.

Cathedral Mountain, Yoho

I love crossing streams at 6:00AM. Oh yeah. Freezing water gripping your nards like icy tongs really makes you feel alive! And don't let all of that screaming fool you. Ha-hah. Acting!

Alas I hang my head in shame. Cold water is my nemesis. Cold, rushing, waist deep water even more so. Combine that with an early start and I'm having a rough morning. This is Ross and Deanna crossing Cataract Brook (sans all the screaming).





After such a rude beginning the day did improve. We found a faint path to the Cataract Brook trail and immediately picked up the climber's trail leading up into the alpine. From there we wandered over scree and patches of summer snow towards the glacier.



There were great views of Huber and North Victoria and the other peaks surrounding Lake O'Hara.



But it was several hours before we got a look at the upper slopes of Cathedral.



And a couple more until we were post-holing along the snowy ridge below the summit.



But we got there in end, 9 hours and 1600 metres after leaving the cars.



Thankfully the return journey took only 4 hours including re-crossing the river.

This was a great day out in some impressive terrain. Researching the peak beforehand we were surprised by how little information there was, and the information we did find was confusing. So here's the scoop:

You need to cross Cataract Brook. This used to be easy because the Cataract Brook Trail to Lake O'Hara is on the west side of the river and there was a bridge. Today the trail is no longer maintained and the bridge is gone. Instead walk up the Lake O'Hara road for ~3.8km and access the river at an obvious open area at GR455960. There are km markers on the road so it's easy to estimate how far along the road you have walked. Once across you'll find a faint trail slightly up river. It's not obvious at first but quickly becomes a well beaten path leading away from the river. After 10 minutes the path will intersect the Cataract Brook Trail at a large boulder. Just behind the boulder is an obvious trail that follows a water course straight up. The trail emerges at a small scree field. Work your way up and left until below a cliff band. There is a fairly obvious trail. Follow this up through a sparse larch forest into the alpine and it's obvious from there.

Takakkaw Falls

Probably the wackiest rock climb we've ever done. The route has you climbing within metres of raging waterfall and ends with a short, wet, and dark cave pitch that tops out at the very crest of the falls.

We met Brian, Shannon, Deanna and Ross at the Tak Falls campground on Friday night. Brian was on his way to Yellowknife and this was our first chance to meet his lovely partner Shannon. The next morning we made the short hike up to the base of the climb.



The local goat populace gave us some bemused looks and the babies elicited much "oohing" and "aahing" from us in return.



Brian had climbed the route once before so we made good time and linked pitches 1-2 and 3-4.



At one point Ross tried to put in a new direttisima but we convinced him that this was an Unwise Choice and he lowered back down to the belay one camming device lighter.

Thankfully the wind was in our favour and the rock stayed dry but the falls constantly reminded us of its presence with it's thunderous background noise.



I had expected that the cave pitch would be much like other "cave pitches" that we'd climbed through before; a short grunt through a tight squeeze and voilà we'd be on top. I hadn't quite grasped just how cave-like the cave pitch actually would be. The start seems innocent enough.



Soon I found myself forced onto hands and knees in a rapidly constricting, wet, and very dark tunnel. My headlamp flickered a few times just to remind me how long ago it had been since I'd replaced the batteries.



The roof got lower and lower until the only way to move forward was to crawl on our bellies like worms with the boom of the falls vibrating through the rocks. Finally after what seemed like ages, although it was probably no more than 10 minutes, we popped out into the daylight at the top of the falls.



How cool is that? Not the cleanest pitch of rock climbing it must be said.



There is actually one more pitch of climbing above this point but given the size of our group and the darkening clouds we reversed our way back through the cave to begin the rappel gong-show. In fact it did start to rain and thunder shortly after we hit the ground.

Overall the climb is rated at 5.7 but really there's only one short section at this grade and that is well protected with bolts. In fact there are bolts all over the place with well established belay anchors. It's a great day of almost-alpine climbing in a fine setting.

Mount English

Mount English last weekend with the ACC.



We drove up on Saturday afternoon, removing a few obstacles along the way.



To where the logging road ends at 1600m.



Tents, dinner, beer, fire, bed. Pretty much in that order. Except with more beer.



We got an early start the next morning hoping that the snow would support our weight. Before long we were above the trees and working our way across old avalanche debris up to a col on the west ridge.



From the col we scrambled over loose and shattered rock before post-holing the rest of the way to the summit.



We had some fine views of the peaks south of Revelstoke.



And came across this mass of ladybugs swarming all over the sunny rocks.



They were everywhere, providing a stunning contrast against the dark lichen coloured rock.



A fun day out and a great early season destination.