Jason Kruk - blog

Patagonia 2010 Part Three!

2010-04-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

The majority of the alpine brothers and sisters returned with tales of defeat from the mountains. Our trailer park decided we needed a bit of a blowout to let off steam. We threw a 'gringo trailer trash' asado with the help of Eduardo, our friend and owner of the hostel and trailers.

Segal in gringo trailer trash costume… wait, this was taken weeks before the party!?.

The buzz among the party was of good weather. Everyone was scheming, making plans for the next window. I was unsure of what to do. Hayden was leaving the next day, and I was trying to decide exactly what to do. I had sworn I never wanted to climb the Supercanaleta ever again. We were sideswiped while cruising a pretty moderate route by today's standards, I couldn't help but feel bitter about the experience. As much as I wanted to just let it go, clean my hands of Fitz Roy, I couldn't. I needed to go back.

I didn't have to say much to Hayden before realizing he felt the same way. Immediately, Hayden got on the phone and initiated the painful process of extending an international flight 36 hours before departure. Thankfully, his parents went to bat for him over the phone back in the US. Now all he had to do was borrow enough gear to make up for what he had just sold!

For this try we decided to approach from the north via Paso Quadrado. We would be bringing everything with us this time, intent on summiting and rappelling down the shorter Franco-Argentine route on the other side of the mountain. It was a committing plan, only intensified by the fact we were planning on bringing only one rope. Descending back down the Supercanaleta with one rope would be so brutal, we never considered it an option. We were going up and over the mountain. Inshallah.

We started soloing up the couloir at 2:00 AM, and were at the first pitch of technical climbing before dawn. We climbed swiftly and sure, we wanted the perfect ascent this time.

Goulotting on the second try

HK high on the route

Rime time fun

A very fun pitch near the end of the technical climbing. I only wish this pitch was longer…

Cumbre! Me and HK soak it all in…

My excitement thinking we had it ‘in the bag’ was cut short by the realization that the fun part was now over, and we still had to get down. The summit of Fitz Roy is an intimidating place to be with only one rope.

On top, Hayden and I hugged and screamed into the wind. We had just sent the route in 11 hours ‘schrund to summit! We lingered for a couple minutes and then started to descend. We had very little margin for error on this notoriously tricky descent, but with key beta from our friends Neil and Joel, we nailed every one of the 30-plus rappels. Five or six hours later I rapped over the bergschrund just as it was getting dark. Touching down on the glacier I dug my headamp out of my pack and waited for Hayden. We were elated to climb up and over the mountain in the light of day. Our stove and bivy gear unused.

I had time for one more quick mission before I had to be on the bus out of town. I teamed up with Whit Magro from Bozeman for a lap up Aguja Poincenot. Whit had never been to the top of this cumbre before; I had. It was my first Patagonian summit: Will Stanhope and I endured a three day first ascent epic up the west aspect of the beast. Whit and I decided to climb the standard route up the east side, the famous Whillans-Cochrane (WI3 5.9 M4, 700m).

Whit cruising ropeless up fun mixed ground

Psyched on top! Absolutely bluebird out.

A nod to future projects - I'll be back. Wink, wink…

It was a casual, comfortable day. Whit and I topped out in three hours 'schrund-to-summit. We had tea back at Paso Superior, and boot skied down to Lago de Los Tres in 20 minutes flat. It was a fun route, a perfect end to a great trip. My love affair with this range is not over yet, I already have another trip to the range planned...

Special thanks goes to MEC, an organization never afraid to help small teams complete their dreams in the hills. I am very thankful to have access to all the best gear for these trips, please check out my sponsors' websites, click the links on page right! Thanks also to Petzl USA, for surely they make the finest ice climbing equipment for alpinism.

Patagonia Interlude: Tour de Bloc Western Boulder Regionals!

2010-04-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in Patagonia updates... I have been working hard in Vancouver instead of updating my blog. Hard to do both when you are an apathetic writer at the best of times...

I just returned from a long weekend in Kelowna, BC. I was setting and generally helping out for the adult regional bouldering championships being held there. The venue: Beyond the Crux climbing gym, my personal vote for the best gym and climbing training facility in Canada. I always jump at the opportunity to go hang with Mike and April Shannon, owners of the gym. Truly great people, they sure do know how to throw a comp and ensuing party.

Not only did I set, but I MC'ed the final round, busting out my best one-liners as the competitors did battle with the problems. Of note was the outdoor adventure theme. Competitors on the third problem had to literally swing across the gym over a pit of inflatable sharks with lazer beams. To top out number four, climbers had to successfully make Billy Bass the talking fish sing.

A great weekend was had all around. We kidnapped Gary, the thirty-year-old birthday boy, taking him to a surprise party at Mike and Apes'. A bonfire, tractor races, and wood-splitting contests ensued...

I don't think the movie I made last year about Mike ever witnessed widespread release, so I am posting it here. It documents Mike's general amplitude regarding the sport of climbing, and in particular, new bouldering first ascents. The problem, the Pant Pisser, is located in the Kelowna Boulderfields above Mike's place.

The Pant Pisser from Jason Kruk on Vimeo.

The absolutely thrilling recap of my Patagonia trip is coming very soon, I promise!

J

Patagonia 2010 Part Two!

2010-03-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

Hayden and I adopted the tactic of 'if the weather looks marginal, we take our gear for a hike up the glacier'. That is to say: if it cleared, we wanted to be poised to strike at the base of the route. So we packed our gear and hiked in to high camp, prepared to auger in until we got up something. Our first goal was going to be Exocet on Cerro Standhart.

Our alarm went off at 2:00 AM, Hayden's 19th birthday! We blasted some Notorious BIG and pounded coffee to get psyched up. No one mentioned the fact that it was raining and the winds were nuking, we were going hiking...

Hayden hiking below the east face of Cerro Torre. Most of the trail breaking was knee-deep wallowing.

We were laughing at ourselves pretty hard the whole day, conditions were terrible. Still, we pushed on in the high winds and sideways rain.

Hayden and I at the 'schrund. We're bailing...

Descending back to camp in the Valley...

Thoroughly defeated, we crawled back into our tent to wait out the rest of the weather. Our most recent forecast indicated that tomorrow was supposed to be poor, but there was potential for a two day stretch of no precip and low wind the day after. We wanted to go as big as possible during this window, so we decided to try the biggest route we thought was possible in current conditions - the Supercanaleta (WI4 5.10/M5 1600m) on Cerro Fitz Roy. The mountain was covered in crazy rime ice, with the top resembling the summit mushroom of Cerro Torre more than the usual rocky top of Fitz. It would be tools and crampons the whole way, exactly the type of route we were looking for in these cold conditions.

We rested and packed our bags the following day. Two ropes, 3 screws, a single set of gear, stove, and my proto two-man bivy sack. At around 6:00pm we started hiking up the Torre Glacier to the base of the snow leading up and over Sitting Man Ridge. We found great snow conditions which made this usually poor approach to the north aspect of Fitz Roy seem like a good choice. We descended the couloir on the other side of the ridge to the base of the route as it was getting dark. Hayden and I crawled into the two-man 'love sack' and brewed and rested until our 3:00am alarm.

The Supercanaleta on Fitz Roy!

Hayden near the start of the 1000m couloir, lots of calf burning to go.

The route starts with 1000m of ice up to AI3. We soloed together in the dark, our little worlds illuminated by the bubble of light from our headlamps. Surely this would be scarier in daylight, with thousands of feet of exposure beneath your legs.

We reached the top of the couloir and the start of the 22 pitches of mixed rock climbing just after daylight came upon us. The first pitch was one of the hardest of the day. Unconsolidated snow clogged the corner, making for hairy stemming in frontpoints, thin sticks in the icy crack, and good tool hooks on the righthand wall. I threw a couple gloved handjams in the crack above, plugged in a high cam, and dry tooled out right to a thin vertical ice smear which led to the top of the pitch. Hayden followed and ran the rope up to the base of the next pitch, a short vertical waterfall leading to a couple rope lengths of easy ice and thin goulottes (narrow ice runnels splitting rock). As I swung into the start of the pitch, I got really excited. We were sending Fitz Roy! I passed the next belay, yelled at Hayden to take me off, and went hypoxic swinging and kicking up the moderate ground as fast as I possibly could. The rope came tight on Hayden and I screamed down to him to start climbing. We simuled for a couple rope lengths and I stopped to belay on the righthand wall.

The start of the waterfall pitch.

From here, the route heads up and right linking amazing ice runnels and goulottes - perfect granite mixed climbing. Hayden took over the lead, and together we simulclimbed several pitches to the ridge. I dug my frontpoints in carefully and torqued my crampons into the cracks hard, making sure I was solid following behind Hayden without a belay.

Hayden linking amazing ice runnels.

Thumbs up on the ridge. Note amount of rime ice...

On the ridgeline proper we stopped simuling. The rock was heavily coated in rime ice, sometimes several feet thick. The climbing was still of very high quality, the rime making things just interesting enough without things ever getting too desperate. We did make some blunders though, the rime totally obscuring the easiest line in a few places, forcing Hayden up a particularly heinous pitch, which I followed free at around M7/8.

Rime, rime everywhere!

Really good granite mixed. Dreamboat.

Hayden loving it…

A tight fit.

This is where things started to fall apart. Lost in the rime, I tried to do battle with a particularly gnarly mushroom of overhanging snow on the ridgetop. With no way to get through and no options presenting themselves to us, we reversed the pitch, searching desperately for the line amongst the rime ice. My camera ran out of batteries… We spent about 6 hours climbing up and down, left and right, trying every conceivable variation to no avail. With no food or water left (we left our Jetboil stove at the base of the route), we had no choice but to bail, mere pitches from the end of the technical climbing and the summit of Cerro Fitz Roy!

Rappelling the route through the night was one of the more unpleasant things I have ever done, taking about 12 hours to reach our bivy at the base of the route. We brewed up and napped for a couple hours at the base, then shouldered our packs and hiked back around Sitting Man Ridge to our camp in the Torre Valley. We were completely choked. I honestly felt wronged by the mountain… Never before had such a cruiser mission turned into a total shut-down! Hayden and I vowed never to climb the stupid Supercanaleta ever again!

Back in town, Hayden was busy selling all his gear, he was due to fly back home to Colorado in a couple days. I was looking forward to wrapping up a couple undone bouldering projects and generally having a leisurely last week or so in town, maybe even fly up to Bariloche to hang out with some Argentine friends for a few days.

As luck would have it, the weather was about to get good, again...

Click here to go to Part Three

Patagonia 2010 Part One!

2010-03-10T17:09:00.000-08:00

Finally back in Canadar after nearly two months in Argentine Patagonia. Below is some thoughts on the amazing trip...

I left Vancouver in early January to alpine climb in Argentine Patagonia. I had already put time into this range, establishing one new route and two first free ascents during the 2008 season with Will Stanhope. This year I was hoping to build on that success and establish another long rock freeclimb. I brought along the two best team mates I could think of for the job - the talented Americans Jon Gleason and Matt Segal. I was confident, given a decent weather window, we could achieve our goal. As it would turn out, the only thing one can be confident in is the amazing bouldering to be had just above town.

Matt and Jon. We voted ourselves 'best sunglasses' out of any team in the range...

We had spent a month in town, occasionally hiking to high camp when I was idealistic enough to think we might get a few hours of good weather in. Every attempt would end in snow. It sure did seem to be snowing a lot up there. Several of our friends, all seasoned vets of the range, hadn’t left town all trip. The Huberbuam came and left.

Great bouldering weather in town but nuking in the mountains...

Crossing the Rio Fitz Roy enroute to the Torre Valley. Foolish attempt #1...

Gleason approaching our first of many fun 'snow camping trips'.

Summertime in Patagonia. We should'a brought skis to shred the gnar out on the icecap.

I got lots of good hiking shots that first month, usually hiking away from the mountains...

Another attempt/snow camping mission.

At least we had the bouldering. We started checking the meteogram forecast for town, trying to predict the good bouldering windows of crisp temps and slight cloud cover. At night we’d thrash ourselves on ‘Coach’ Josh Wharton’s ridiculous power problems on the little plywood wall in the rec centre. I was approximately twice as strong as I needed to be to climb any of my dream routes in the range.

The Gato Negro V9/10 - one of the better problems in Chalten and world class anywhere!

The sport climbing near town is also quite fun. Here is SLC crusher Ben Ditto on an 8a+.

With so much snowfall, the mountains turned into giant popsicles.

Time was running out for Matt. He had to leave early. We still hadn't managed to climb anything in the mountains. Finally, the meteogram weather forecast looked promising for most of one day, so we hiked in again to have a go at the smallest, easiest summit in the range, the De La S spire.

The standard route from the Torre Valley starts with a stiff 2000' approach to a low-angle snow/neve couloir. From there a couple easy mixed pitches leads to 4-8 pitches of easy rock ridge. Easy, right? Conditions turned out to be a bit more mixed than anticipated, so for speed, I led the entire route. Matty and Gleason were glad to have a Canadian along for the frosty bits. We topped out to strong wind gusts and incoming weather over the mountains and wasted no time in rapping and reversing the route.

The S was a good reminder that nothing in this range comes easy. Matt left, our cumbre on De La S wetting his appetite for more alpine hits in the future. I decided I no longer wanted to try out of condition rock routes. Instead, I wanted to focus on some of the amazing ice and mixed lines that were back in condition. Jon wasn't interested, so we amicably parted ways. Too bad, as Jon is a top notch dude, and I wanted nothing more than to go 'ballistic' with him in the mountains...

What to climb now? My original objectives would be out of condition for the rest of the season. How could I make the most of my remaining time? Over muchos grande Quilmes cervezas I drunkenly declared I would lead every pitch of the classic ice route Exocet on Cerro Standhart with anyone who was willing to jumar behind me. 'Uh huh', everyone rolled their eyes at my youthful bravado. The only one to take my bait was Hayden Kennedy, the 18-year-old son of American alpine climbing legend Michael Kennedy.

Hayden and I were psyched, and the weather was looking like it was getting good...

Click here to go to Part Two

Sometimes you need to forget...

2010-01-06T18:51:00.000-08:00

Alpine climbing is a stressful game. Generally, you are uncomfortable and scared. I spend most of my time absolutely hating it. It has its obvious rewards and some truly special moments, but most of the time I just end up asking myself why? I guess it's a blessing and a curse then that I am so drawn to it.

I cope. I diversify my life, meaning when I am not alpine climbing, I am really not alpine climbing. It's good to focus on other things to to shorten the amount of time it takes to remember how tired/scared/uncomfortable you were the last time you went to the mountains.

One such passion of mine is dance music. Making, playing, and dancing to music is one of the furthest things from climbing that I can think of. I generally don't pigeonhole myself and classify what dance music I like into a certain genre. I like to hop between genres and just play anything that makes you move.

I was really happy and excited today because I am leaving for Argentine Patagonia on Friday. So happy and excited that I felt like having a dance party by myself in my room. I started playing music with Ableton Live on my computer and on impulse pressed record, then mastered what I had recorded a little. The resulting 20 minute mix is super cheesy but pretty fun, with new and old favs. Bmore, Carioca Funk, and everything from Annie to the Bloodhound Gang. Listen here:

If you want to download it, click here

The Final Countdown

2009-12-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

It's only ten days until I depart for Argentina. I love the pre-trip process of planning, packing, ordering gear, everything. Vancouver has to be one of the best cities in the world to be based in for expedition climbing, it really has it all. These past few weeks of city life have been about training, preparing, family, seeing old friends and making new ones.

I was poking through photos and video from the '08 trip to the range with Will Stanhope. Wow, fun times. The experiences we shared mark some of the most intense times of my life. Here is a couple candid shots of Willy in the thick of it all:

Patagonia Nightmares from Jason Kruk on Vimeo.

My partners this year, Matt and Jon, have never met each other. Both are bad to the bone - I am sure they will get along famously. Matt is a professional climber, 5.14 trad monkey, and strong little mofo. Jon is a Patagonia veteran, former Yosar dude, and a MOG (Man-of-Girth).

Segal's $400 haircut in the Utah desert

Gleason saving lives in Yosemite

This is the playoffs

Thanks

2009-12-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

After Yosemite, I drove straight to Boulder, Colorado, to meet up with Matt Segal. I was excited to be in town the week of the Adventure Film Festival, an amazing celebration of mountain culture with many good friends. This was an especially important year - we all miss Micah, Jonny and Wade and I was honoured to be able to celebrate their lives with family and friends and the Colorado climbing community.

After the festival, Matt and I drove out to Indian Creek for some splitter training. I was excited to be on a stress-free rock climbing trip, something I haven't done in a few years. Over the weekend, half of Boulder seemed to come and join us for a truly special Thanksgiving dinner in the desert. The Turkey tasted even better than at home (sorry Mom) and everyone contributed their favourite side dish. There was so much food you could only sample one bite of everything before your plate was overflowing! The following day Phyllis and Jon Copp Sr. literally drove for hours around the desert trying to find us on their way back home to southern California. We convinced them to spend the night out in the desert with us. Jon brought out Jonny's guitar and played around the campfire. Renan was ever present with his camera and took about 3000 photos, editing them into a beautiful video on his drive home. Jon Copp's rendition of Take Me Home, Country Road provides the soundtrack:

Indian Creek t-day from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

Back in Boulder I got the news: Will Stanhope bailed on our expedition to Patagonia that was coming up in a month. At first I was quite bummed as Willy is definitely my best partner and we seem to be able to pull off amazing stuff together. But I immediately asked Matt Segal if he wanted to go. After 5 minutes of phone calls to the North Face, Matty was in one hundred percent. Then I managed to convince Big Jon Gleason to be a third. I am really happy now with the team we have lined up for our objective.

Segal toasting the booking of our plane tickets with a bottle of Basil Hayden's Bourbon.

I forgot to mention how much fun it was to shoot guns in the Utah desert with Pete and Jose... I'm a nice Canadian boy so had never done this before...

It was so, so hard to leave Boulder, and when I finally did I accidentally ran out of gas somewhere in Wyoming. That was a cold, cold walk...

It's good to be home in Vancouver. I was really excited to get ice climbing and skiing upon my return, but conditions were perfect for rock climbing and little else. Conditions were so good I even went up to the roof pitch on Freeway to check out a hard project with local badass Jer Smith. That was a bit optimistic as although it was clear, winds were gale force and tried their very best to blow us off the mountain while chilling us to the bone. Needless to say we didn't send, and I had nightmares of Patagonia for days after.

December bouldering at it's finest! Magic!

Coastal ice was slowing creeping in so on thursday I got out with long time Canadian ice climber and sender of Everest, Michael Down to see what we could climb. We stopped at Carl's Berg on the Duffy. It looked climbable, but certainly not in its classic WI5 shape. I was keen to try though, and found lots of steep and technical aerated ice with little pro for the bulk of the pitch... It was a good first pitch of the season for me... sort of...

Full value on Carl's Berg

The Most Fun

2009-11-06T15:45:00.001-08:00

Will Stanhope and I made a one-mission hit to Yosemite Valley at the end of October. Upon arrival in the Valley we immediately packed our haul bags and jugged and hauled to Heart Ledge. Our plan was to set off the next day and intercept our bags after climbing the Freeblast and continue on the 42-pitch Golden Gate route (A. Huber, VI 5.13-).

I was climbing this route totally off the couch, having done zero real climbing since my trip to the Bugaboos in August. Most of my summer was spentwalking around the Canadian Rockies training for my alpine exam - not conducive to hard rock climbing. In the months of September and October I worked exactly 40 out of 43 days with many 12+ hour days. In the week prior to the trip I got two days of training in at a climbing gym in North Van. Otherwise my life consisted of rigging rock and roll shows, slaving on film sets, or doing safety for the vertical dance troupe Aeriosa.

Hot day time temps meant redpointing in the sun was out of the question... at least for us... Early pre-dawn mornings were standard for trying the hardest pitches, while most of the day was spent hiding from the sun under the portaledge or climbing and hauling the easier pitches. I was really, really happy with our effort. Will managed to send every pitch and I failed only on the final 5.13 - the A5 Traverse - on our 7th day and exactly 6 falls off the very last move! Heartbreaker!

This route is totally amazing and without question one of the most fun experiences of my life! Now I am fit from crushing my body for 7 days on a bigwall and ready to learn how to climb hard again this fall/winter!

Willy on his first try on the henious 5.12+ down climb pitch. I figured out some trick beta, and about 60 tries later the lanky kid managed to send the scrunched crux.

This is why El Cap freeclimbing is the coolest thing ever!

Willy on the 5.13- 'Move Pitch' at sunset.

Kinda worked! Joes O's on the portaledge. Day 4.

Worked again. Willy demonstrating how NOT to clip in on the Tower to the People.

Tonight!

2009-10-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

Willy and I just rolled in hot to Terrebone, Oregon, after training hard in Kelowna, BC. Ktown's Beyond the Crux climbing gym is without question, Canada's premier bouldering and training facility. Will and I went there for some final tune-ups before a mission to Yosemite. We trained under the strict tutelage of Mike Shannon, owner of BtC.

Tonight we are giving a slideshow at the new climbing gym just south of here in Bend, anyone who can make the trek over should help us out with the keg...

A different kind of success in the 'pine

2009-09-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

I just returned from 10 days of time in the alpine... more accurately, exam time in the alpine. The ACMG assistant alpine exam was held in the Rockies and Rogers Pass this year at the end of August. Luckily, I was grouped for the duration with two strong candidates: Josh Briggs of Canmore, and Jeff Bellis of Revelstoke. In addition to being good guides, these two happen to be world-class shit talkers, which helped to keep the mood light during the stress of the exam process.

Day one saw me lead the relatively complex descent off Unnamed Peak in the Lake Louise group. This was without question my hardest lead of the exam, and is known to have been the cause of failure for a few brother candidates in years past. The glacier was in lean, late August conditions and involved lots of lowers down the ice, chossy short-roping, and a couple of rappels. It was good to get this over with, as the rest of the exam was cake in comparison!

The last two days were so enjoyable they were almost sweet bonus exam days. We moved camp from the southern Rockies to Rogers Pass - home to fantastic quartzite ridge climbs. After dealing with the 'sub-deal' rock quality of the limestone, it was a real pleasure to haul-ass up a couple thousand feet of quartzite buckets and splitter cracks.

Sketchy log-crossing on the way to the Neil Colgan hut via the Perren Route

Josh in the hot seat on Mt. Little

Crosby in action during a crevass rescue scenario

Step cutting evaluation below the hut

Jeff on a mock rescue pulling me out of a slot

Topping out the ice face approach to the west ridge of Mt. Fay

Seracs on the Chouinard Route on the north face of Fay

Examiner Rich Marshall looking down on us candidates...

Jeff sending the crux pitch of the Gmoser Route on Mt. Louis

Briggs on the Perren headwall on Mt. Louis

Jeff gives Marc a hip belay while descending the awesome northwest ridge of Sir Donald in Rogers Pass

Here's a short video of a couple fun moments on Mt. Fay and Louis:

ACMG Alpine Guide Exam '09 from Jason Kruk on Vimeo.

Bugaboo Free Mission

2009-08-08T18:08:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a very successful trip into the Bugaboo mountains with Matt Segal and Will Stanhope. New free ascents were the objective - a tricky conditions-dependant business that can all come apart with the absence of a single key foothold or wet splitter crack. Luckily, things came together and we added two significant all-free routes to the range.

We began the trip based out of the Eastcreek Basin on the west side of the range, camped below an inspiring 'rocketship of granite' the Minaret. The hallmarks of this area are the imposing west faces of the South, Central, and North Howser Towers. The South is home to the ultra-classic Beckey-Chouinard, a 20-something-pitch 5.10-. The North Howser plum is the great All Along the Watchtower, a 900 meter all-free 5.12- first freed by Topher Donahue. The west aspect of the Central Howser wasn't climbed until 1999 and has only two routes up it, both multi-day aid-job affairs. The features on the route Chocolate Fudge Brownie looked the most promising for a free passage as we squinted through binoculars, and we would succeed in freeing the line via a 3-pitch variation at V 5.12+.

The North Vancouver/ Miami variation to Chocolate Fudge Brownie

I recently dropped my camera off Mt. Fay in the Canadian Rockies, meaning I had an excuse to get a new Canon G10. I used the shots and video footage from it to edit my very first movie. Check it out:

Central Howser Tower Freeclimbing from Jason Kruk on Vimeo.

After the Howser mission, we popped back over the col to Applebee camp for the remainder of the trip. Will, Hazel, Matt and I decided to try the still un-free Sendero Norte on the east face of Snowpatch Spire. Dry conditions worked in our favor and Will managed to pull through the tips finger crack crux at 5.12+.

Does this look like alpine climbing? No helmet or shirt on the crux pitch of Sendero Norte (V 5.12+)

ACMG Alpine Guide Training

2009-07-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

The guide training course for the alpine program was in the Rockies in early July this year. Of course, I didn't turn down work until the day before the start of the course. My last day on the coast consisted of a day of work with Will, dropping my new friend Sandra off at the airport, then back to work - this time to de-rig an enormous show at GM Place. I was up early the next day to pack, then I swung by my buddy Sonnie's new home. He needed a ride to Canmore to teach a youth climbing camp. Off we went in a straight-shot to the Rockies.

The course was based out of a campsite near Banff. I lucked out and got two of the best instructors in the business - Colin Zacharias and Marc Piche. For most of the week I was paired up with Kris Irwin, a rock-solid dude and fellow hooligan, so spirits were always high.

Kris lowering Colin off Castle Tower

Crossing a river at 6am on our way up the mighty Mt. Lorette in K-country

Kris on some righteous rockstone partway up Lorette

Lowering Kris and Colin down some glacier ice on the Icefields Parkway

Kris posing between glacier slogging on Mt. Huber

Kris and Olivier doing what I tell them on Mt. Victoria

The rock is soo good here I hardly miss the granite...

Icefall navigation

More icefall nav

An unnamed instructor being placed supine during a rescue exercise on the last day

Twin One Couloir

2009-04-19T11:11:00.001-07:00

Work had sidelined me from skiing for a few weeks, but I had a few fine days of climbing on Squamish's sacred rockstone.

A contract finally ended, meaning I could get after some spring coulior skiing! I met Craig and Alex in Whistler for a day mission to the Duffy. Our original plan was to ski Mt. Howard, but our view from the Vantage col gave a spectacular perspective of the Twin One Coulior on Mt. Matier.

Craig and Alex break for lunch after the descent, visible behind.

Time for Traverses

2009-04-09T16:25:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how much winter terrain can be covered by a skier in one day. This winter I have been training for skiing loong endurance days in the mountains. I am really motivated to push my limits to see how far and how fast I can possibly go. As a teenager I was really into ultra-distance running. In-a-push ski traverses give me as much satisfaction as running did, except now the downhills are way more fun!

Here are a few photos for you to get psyched on spring ski traverses:

Yaar...

2009-03-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

Valhalla Powder

2009-03-02T21:16:00.001-08:00

I think the Selkirk mountains were created with skiers in mind...

I just spent the end of February skiing in the Kootneys and working at Valhalla Mountain Touring.

Simon ripping 'em for the descent

Paul and Benny breaking trail across Shannon Lake

In the 'pine above Shannon Lake

Hueco in February?

2009-02-11T20:58:00.000-08:00

I can't go... I'll be neck deep in BC interior powder, but this looks FUN:

I am heading to Nelson, BC for the Coldsmoke Festival and have been training on the humble north shore mountains for the ski mountaineering race held there. Wish me luck, hopefully I don't suck. After that I am doing a ski guide practicum with my good friend Evan Stevens at Vahalla Mountain Touring.

Dreaming of Granite...

2009-02-06T23:16:00.000-08:00

Cannabis Wall (5.13- R) FFA - August 2008 - Rich Wheater photos

sigh.....

Where's the Snow?

2009-01-25T20:26:00.001-08:00

Out for a day mission to the Duffy with Ross Berg on Saturday. The snowpack had been getting nuked by a weeks worth of inversion, but we were committed to finding something, anything, to ski...

It was my first time driving by Whistler since I have been on the coast and I really couldn't help but laugh. Where was all the snow? The hill was looking very bare and I wasn't sure what was in store for us further north. I hadn't heard of anyone really skiing anything in the alpine recently. We pulled in to the Cerise Creek lot to clear skies and decided if the snow sucked, we should try and at least get on top of something. I had to be back in Vancouver that evening, working, for the Lil' Wayne concert. The north aspect of Mt. Vantage looked appealing due to its proximity and the fact that maybe we could find some sheltered snow that hadn't been affected by the sun.

Ross trying to decide what mountain to ski off

Skiing through the biggest surface hoar crystals I have ever seen, some were 10cm big!

Ross and a single crystal

Snow-wise, surface hoar has an unusual, albeit, delightful taste and texture

Cumbre! Ross trying to decide if we should ski the big line off the top.
We ended up picking a conservative line, found good snow, and had a great run back to our car. I dropped Ross off in Whistler and made it back to the big city in time for a 45 minute nap before the concert. What we need now is some snow!

White Winter Hymnal

2009-01-14T22:28:00.000-08:00

I found myself back in Canmore at the start of January for the ACMG ice training for the alpine guide program. Historically, I haven't done a ton of ice climbing, coastal winters are usually more conducive to skiing than climbing. This year I got VERY EXCITED to climb ice and haven't touched the sticks save for one furious morning of vertical with ski fiends Ross Berg and Andrew Wexler.

Rogan's Gully during the ice training

Olivier playing the 'client'...

Examiner Todd Craig showing us how it's done

The mandatory days on ice really got me motivated to get out and swing my tools on some hard Rockies classics. Luckily ice crushers Jesse Huey and Ian Welsted are perpetually stoked on this crazy sport and were game to indulge me. The silver smear of the Sea of Vapours suddenly appeared on the Trophy Wall high above Banff, calling out to be climbed. No one had ventured up there yet to climb it this season, it's always fun to try for the first ascent of the year.

Weaving around avalanche terrain on the approach to the Trophy Wall

Me starting up the first pitch

Ian following pitch one

You gain a couple thousand of vertical in the approach so when you step onto the ice it feels like you are on El Capitan - the exposure is intense. Here is Ian starting the second pitch.

The second pitch proved to be HARD, with Ian soul searching on the sharp end for two and a half hours (!) Here's Jesse not psyched on our freezing hanging belay...

The 'Sted doing battle on the most engaging ice I have ever followed... Rime ice, drytooling, and hooking on weird, pasted-on ice blobs...

On the crux pitch. After this pitch we could see that maybe 80 feet of hard mixed climbing would lead to cruiser WI5 to the top. Unfortunately, a late start, careful management of avalanche terrain, and the route's difficulties all contributed to slow progress. It was getting dark.

A bruised, but safe, team already psyched on round two!

I kept postponing my return to the coast, keen to give the route another go. It wasn't in the cards for me unfortunately, but I hope Ian and Jesse get up the thing! Before I left Jesse and I had some great days out together, and I am already itching to get back to the Rockies. I am glad not to have to drive anywhere for the time being, however...

M-ing at Bearspirit

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T11:20:00.001-08:00

Snow Study and M-ing with the 'Sted

2008-12-24T01:37:00.000-08:00

I just spent eight days in the comfortable Kokanee Glacier Cabin out of Nelson, BC completing my CAA level 1 avalanche operations certification. Each day we'd tour out to talk terrain and dig pits, while evenings were devoted to classwork and lectures. It was great to be immersed in snow science for a week without distractions. The week's temperature hovered around -25°C which made for brisk early morning trips to the weather plot.

Our ship into the backcountry

The beautiful 'hut'

Full snow profiles

Dan on the axe

It was a very comfortable learning environment, indeed, with satellite wireless, gourmet fine-dining, and enough great people to never have to worry about cabin fever! Thanks to all my classmates for being so cool.

It was sad to finally leave. I swung by my friend Ian "the 'Sted's" place in Nelson to find him knee-deep in debris from a home reno project. 'Never buy an old house just because it has character,' he told me. Ian was still keen to go climbing, though, so we drove to Golden to search for pillars. We ended up hopping on the Asylum, a modern mixed route I had always wanted to try ever since I saw it in the Beyond Gravity movie. In the light we could see that the crux dagger hadn't come in very close to the rock. I was unsure if we had the cajones to send through this section. Only one way to find out, though!

The 'Sted at the base of the Asylum.

A sender of wintery faces the likes of the Eiger Norwand and the Denali Diamond, the 'Sted was rock-solid on the thin, scrappy mixed pitches.

Thin pillar action.

Funky, thin ice.

The 'Sted attempting the crux pitch. We failed here due to Ian's tiring forearms and my paralyzing fear the fierce dagger we were gunning for would come detached with me still clinging to it.

The 'Sted warming up cold hands before the crux pitch

Happy holidays!

Kicking and Scratching

2008-12-08T11:10:00.001-08:00

Just spent a couple weeks in the Canadian Rockies and Montana kicking and scratching my way up frozen waterfalls..

Nemesis on the Stanley Headwall

Jen leading out of the cave on Nemesis

Bozeman hardman Nate Dogg on the slog up to the awesome Responsible Family Man in Hyalite Canyon

Yosemite

2008-10-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

I spent the first two weeks of my trip to Yosemite this fall working on a project I would ultimately fail on, a new free route on the right side of El Cap. After receiving a hot tip from our buddy Alik, Will Stanhope and I worked on freeing the Waterfall Route (an old A4), eventually committing to a wall-style attempt from the ground. We would turn around on our second day, unable to surmount unstable death blocks and friable rock. Here's some photos from our try:

Here's a photo that Tom Evans took from El Cap Meadow:

After our defeat it was time to relax and have fun... as best as you can in Yosemite. This means laid back bouldering and a lap up Astroman with Will and Jen.

Bugaboos

2008-08-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

This August I spent several weeks in the Canadian Rockies and the Bugaboos. The summer has been full of work and some weeks it was hard to stay motivated and get out and climb for myself. Evening sessions were common. Will Stanhope and I became interested in a project that would be both a lot of fun, and easy to try after a day of guiding. We wanted to break the speed record on the Grand Wall, set over a decade ago by Guy Edwards and Sig Isaac. On our second try - and my second time up the route this year - we broke the 1:44 record with a time of 1:13.33.

Drinking celebratory pilsners we had stashed after the climb.

Surprised by my fitness, I was off to see what I could do in the Bugaboos.

Most of my efforts of the trip was directed at this beautiful piece of stone, the mighty East Face of Snowpatch.

It's amazing how close to camp this awesome face is - no alpine start is needed! Day one saw my talented soon-to-be mountain guide partner Jen Olson and I on The Power of Lard, a German route on the Tom Egan Wall, the right side of the East Face. The last pitch is one of the most amazing splitters I have ever seen. The Germans originally rated this pitch 5.13c and named it the Endless Struggle. With no expectations, just a willingness to try really hard, I onsighted the pitch. I can't claim the 5.13 grade though. Despite being 9a crushers, the Germans must have been very inexperienced crack climbers.

Jen following one of the many quality pitches.

Jen then went back to Canmore to pick up Ines Papert, while I hung out in basecamp.

Talking shop with Jon Walsh and Cory Richards in Applebee.

There was a huge crew in Applebee so finding awesome partners was never a problem.

Will Stanhope even showed up for a quick hit with Chris Brazeau. Always prepared for the bad weather tent sessions with a copy of Chatelaine.

The Bugs is designed for hot-lapping it seems, so I couldn't help but huck a lap on the Snowpatch Route and the NE Face of Pigeon. The latter resulting in a traverse of Pigeon and a super fun day out in the mountains.

Jen and Ines showed up that afternoon and we made plans to try Divine Intervention, a new route on Bugaboo Spire's east face.

Ines leading the first block.

I ran into Crosby Johnson and together we hatched a plan to free a route on the left edge of Snowpatch's east face. The route started on the original Beckey route but then aimed left to beautiful virgin pillars. Crosby was a good friend, but we had never actually tied in together. It was an honor to rope up with him for such an adventure.

Crosby following a quality 5.11 corner on the route.

It was a pretty amazing trip, the Bugs are a very special place. It is good to be back in Squamish now though. The temps are good and I am very psyched on my latest project: freeing the old aid line Cannabis Wall with Will Stanhope.