Amazing, Inspiring....Really?

Well about a month ago I arrived in Whitehorse to start preping to go into the mountains for the mid section of the NOLS Yukon Semester. This semester is 79 days in length and is composed of 3 sections: Hiking for 30 days, mountaineering for 24 days and whitewater canoeing for 25 days. One of the coolest things about it is that you are out for 54 days straight learning how to travel and live in the wilderness before coming back to the front country. I was fortunate enough to get to fly in, by float plane, to meet these students to walk, eat and climb our way through some of the most spectacular terrain in the world.

After spending 3 days in Whitehorse preping we loaded the float plane and headed for Big Duff Lake, southwest of Whitehorse, in the Coast Mountains. We landed and in 45 minutes the plane was flying back toward Whitehorse with the hiking instructors and all the garbage from the past 30 days. We being, Roger, Liz and I, started to get the students moving and introducing them to there new gear: mountain boots, crampons, ice axe, rock gear, snow and ice pro, glacier rig(short and long prussic, 2 lockers and 2 non lockers), helmet and 4 season tents.

Once the students had their new gear we went over our route and had a relaxed afternoon of eating and going over goals and expectations for this section.

Over the next 7 days we taught snow school, walking in crampons, roping up, glacier travel, glaciology, conflict resolution, rock climbing and team haul. We also did a few peak ascents and had students leading on rope teams. Those 7 days where jam packed with fun and great weather.

Glaciology class.

We planned for a 3 day window for the Helicopter re-ration and unfortunately with got socked in with weather on the 14th of July, the last day of the ration period. The following days where filled with sleeping, conserving energy, tolerating the fact we had no food and all 17 people having their fingers crossed for a break in the weather. On the 17th the weather broke for about 3 hours which was enough to get the chopper in. After a quick and well run re-ration be the students everyone started eating, energy started to pick up, motivation to get moving and start more climbing all pick up again. We taught arresting as a rope team, snow pro/anchors, mechanical advantage and Z-haul crevasse rescue after we receive our ration.

Arresting on a rope team

 

Could you ask for a better start to a mountaineering course? No not really good weather for window's to climb and teach, then get hammered by weather and have to hunker and not eat for a few days....... hmmm mountaineering anyone. All I can say is those 13 students had a powerful few days.

As people's energies started to come back we packed our bags and headed into the meat and potato's of this mountaineering course. By this time they had the skills to rope up efficiently, travel out front on the rope teams probing their way across the glacier and navigating in harsh conditions.

The area we moved into allowed us to ice climb, travel through steep snow, rock and ice terrain, and climb some peaks. Myself and 4 students went for a stab at Mt Redemption 2435m. This climb involves navigating through some large cracks up to a saddle and then climbing a steep, 40 degree, snow ramp to the ridge and a boulder scramble to the top. Unfortunately we had to turn around due to weather.

Redemption is on the left and Battlecat Buttress on the right.

The Castle on the left and Greyskull on the right.

The next day was blue bird and our move to The Castle/Greyskull area was spectacular! Nice work Pat for leading us through the Firn Zone! The camp was suppose to be or next re-ration but due to the 2 day cleanse :) we left our 3rd re-ration where we started ration 2 and planned on back tracking.

This campsite could be the most beautiful and inspiring spot I've been! We had 3 days of great weather and got to climb Snow Dome, The Castle and go exploring up and down the glaciers. On the last few days before getting back to our 3rd ration Liz, Sarah (the proctor, an instructor that works all 3 sections of the semester) and I wanted to take some students for another crack at Redemption. So we organized a team of 4 students Dave, Cam, Chester and Pat. We got started at 4am with a plan to meet Roger and the rest of the group at the ice fall before heading up to the food cache. The climb was amazing with a quote like " this is the most amazing thing I've ever done in life". After getting back to the glacier we still had 7km to go to get to the rest of the group..... mindless walking is what was needed and mindless walking is what we did. The walking ended around 8:30pm and the 16hr day didn't seem that bad as soon as the bellies where filled with the last of the foods ration. The next day we ascended up to the last food drop.

Pretty much one of the best kitchens in the world

Good times!

Sorry Abby had to do it... deep into the NOLS Glacier Travel Curriculum 

Liz leading up the snow ramp on Redemption.

Summit of Redemption.

Traveling up to the cache was challenging due to some heavy winds, sideways rain and low vize. Once there the weather really kicked in! So a strong team effort saw all the tents get put up without blowing away, the re-ration sorted, and everyone happy with hot drinks and food in their tents.

We tried waiting out the storm and after 2 full days we needed to leave to have time to make our pick-up.  After getting over the first saddle weather to the east started lifting and we where able to get off the ice and start the 3 day walk out to the Haines highway.

From the base of the glacier it was about 38km to the road and we had 3 days. If you've spent sometime mountaineering especially longer trips you know when you hunker in your tent you eat more food right.... so these 3 days food was rationed in each tent/cook group so everyone would be able to sustain the long days as best they could. And you often do the most walking at the end to maximize your climbing time.

On the second day we got into some terrain that took full advantage of the 40 metre contours. So this slowed our movement and had us camp early. That night Roger scouted further and found a route to the ridge but with the cloud cover couldn't see into the valley. We planned for a team to get up at 6:30am to scout and mark a route to the top of the valley. Chester, Will, Roger and I headed out and found a good route to the high end of the valley and as the others came down at 7:00am we scouted further and found a line that lead down out of technical terrain into the dense alder/dwarf birch and willow valley bellow.

The bush slowed our progress and we had to move our pick up to the next day, a day late, to everyones dismay of course. Fortunately this crew knew that hardship and having good tolerance gets you further then complaining and we set up camp for one more night (should I mention we walked in a bog for most of that afternoon and into the early evening then had to combat camp in it).

We had 10kms of bog and bushwack before an old dirt road, 5km, lead to the highway. The morning was slow moving through the rest of the bog and the bush only let up slightly until a game trail showed its face. We followed it for the best part of 8km and arrived at the old road at 1:30pm. Students and Instructors alike where very happy and another lift in energy come into our team. At 3:30pm we made it to the bus and Bri (an All Star by the way) had both breakfast and lunch waiting for us. One thing these students didn't do was waste food, burnt or not they ate it. So needless to say they ate everything that was presented to them.

Then it was on the road to Whitehorse for showers, evaluations, and getting the students ready for there whitewater canoe section on the Hess River.

I'd like to through out there that some of theses students, before this trip, had never slept outside before and have grown to a point of pushing beyond a point they have ever known. All I can say is nice frigging work team!

The Team.....

Right to left: Derek, Chester, Laura, Will, Sarah, Roger, Jeff, Pat, Abby, Laurel, Brian, Dean, Stefan, Liz, Dave, Cam, Skookum Gus, and Me

Little Known Treasures.... Van Island

The only real sun we saw..... Rugged Mountain on the left and looking in to sea of clouds to the west

After having some wonderful adventures in my kayak it was time to start climbing, spring skiing and getting into the mountains. Being on Vancouver Island makes these things very easy!

Vancouver Island is located, for those that don't know, on the southwest coast of Canada. The island itself is roughly 1000km long and 350km wide. It is home to some of Canada's largest and oldest trees and is the birth place of western logging.

While I have been on the island I have spent most of my time at Strathcona Park Lodge, located on highway 28 between Campbell River and Gold River just on the edge of Strathcona Provincial Park (BC's First Provincial Park and it is celebrating its 100th year).

Being at the Lodge is great! Wonderful people, great food and easy access to getting out climbing at the local Crest Creek Crags, into the mountains for some good spring skiing or alpine climbing.

I was really wanting to get out and ski the Kings Peak glacier so I asked around and my buddy Scotty Ballhorn was keen so we packed some food and headed out the next morning. It was blue bird weather with stellar views of Mt Colonel Foster, Elkhorn Mountain, Rambler Peak and many others. We summited at around noon and when we got back to our skies at the col the snow was pretty much perfect so we headed down. Some awesome turns where had and we got to ski right back to our shoe's with only a short stroll back to the car. All in all Kings Glacier is a great day ski trip if you're in the area!!

Scotty skinning up the Kings Glacier

Elkhorn's North Face from the Kings/Queens Col

Scotty taring it up

After Kings Glacier I was really motivated to get into the South Gully of Colonel Foster so after talking to Bill we arranged an alpine start from the Lodge and headed to the Elk River Trail for the hike in. We started walking at 4:30am got to Landslide Lake at around 9:30 skied across the lake and where looking up at the 1100m East Face of Foster..... an incredible alpine wall with a number of different routes up it. The South Gully is off to lookers left and is a beautiful line. We decided, with the conditions we had not to go up the Gully and instead went and skied some other terrain close by. It was great to get up and play around Foster again! Can't wait to get in to climb it!!

Foster from Landslide Lake

Bill gearing up with Foster in the background

Bill getting in some turns

Shortly after our adventures on skies it was time to get out climbing at Crest. The climbing at Crest is really fun sticky basalt with a variety of climbs, 300, ranging from 5.5 to 5.13. Most climbs are sport with a few quality traditional lines and a lot of routes with mixed protection.

Bill climbing at Skid Row Wall

Gen climbing a 5.10a at Skid Row

Me climbing at Skid Row photo by Bill Phipps

Bill doing the all natural first acsent of his new route Flight School 5.10+ photo by Genevieve Bartlam

Me getting ready to top out on a 5.10b crack photo by Bill Phipps

Gen climbing the crack

Gen pulling through the crux

With all this climbing and skiing happening my mind was racing about which island mountain range I wanted to get into and explore. There was thought of traversing from Elk Mountain to Arnica Lake, Elk River Trail to Phillips Ridge or head up to the Haihte Range and climb there. 


The Haihte Range won pretty easily because I had never been there before and have been trying to put partners together to get in there over the past few years. The range is smaller then most ranges on the island in terms of height but being only a short distance from the west coast of the island and there glaciated character give them a much bigger feel.

Mike and Gen starting to gear up for the walk

Gen making lunch

Me, Mike and Gen planned for 4 days up in the range and our main objective was to climb Rugged Mountain. Rugged is the highest peak in the range and though the routes are short they pack a punch of exposure and big alpine feel. 

Day 1 was bushwacking up an old clear cut and hiking through big old growth to the alpine.... though it was pretty wet spirits where high and we made good time. We slept just below tree line for shelter from the weather and got up early the next day to get to Nathan Col to set camp and make an attempt at Rugged.

Just a glimpse into the bushwack

When camp was set and we decided to go try Rugged. The route we climbed was the Original East Ridge AI2, Low 5th class, 250m (II). This route was awesome lots of exposer and mainly steep snow climbing. When on the summit we looked at and signed the summit log, which was dated back to 89, and had been the first people this year, that had signed the log, to be on the summit. Once back at camp we cooked a big dinner and made plans for the next day. Make an attempt at Ya'ai Peak.

Mike and Gen hiking up with Ya'ai Peak in the background

We got up around 7am made breakfast and headed out. At around 11am we turned around due to some odd feelings and later where bummed we didn't keep going. Fortunately the mountain will be there for a few more years.

Camp, the Gendarms, Merlon, and Ya'ai

We headed down the next day and braised ourselves of a harsh bushwack that turned out to be pretty mellow. On the drive out we stopped in the small, 180 people, town of Zeballos found on the northwest coast of the island. Zeballos is a logging fishing community and often in the summer has goods dropped of by boat. If you get a chance to get to Zeballos be prepared for a 40/50km winding logging road drive and with some amazing views!

Gen and Ya'ai

Thanks to all my climbing, skiing and mountain partners all these wonderful adventures wouldn't have been as fun without you! 

For more information on mountaineering, skiing and alpine climbing on the island check out islandclimber.com, wildisle.ca or look for Island Alpine and Turns and Tours at MEC. Both these sites and books have excellent info on getting into the mountains, skiing and rock climbing on Vancouver Island.

Blue Sky + Warm Temps + Snowmelt = Sweet Boating!

Shayne running the falls

Blue sky, warm temps and snowmelt had me driving from Starthcona Park Lodge to Courtenay for another run down the Alpine section of the Browns River. I met Shayne and Joe at the base of Mt. Washington and we had for an afternoon run. 

With the warm temps we had higher flows which made the run even better. We put-in at but 5/6km up from the take out bridge and started down. 

The first major drop is pretty full-on with the river channelizing creating a 3m falls with a large cave on river right and a rock, at the base on river centre/right..... don't go right! We portaged this last weekend and took a better look at it this time and ran it left of centre. It was sweet! 

Shayne entering the Cave Rapid

Boofing the Cave Rapid

After the cave drop we had some boggy and come to the first double drop which is really fun. Starts with rolling right around a rock with a left boof landing and maybe 4 strokes and boofing the next drop in the centre... so fun! 

Then we floated down to the 7m waterfall! Man this drop is just so fun. The icing on the cake for me is after you boof the heck out of it you have continuous class 4+ 300m then it mellow's out to class3-4 for the rest of the run.

The first 60-100m after the falls

Joe about to boof the heck out of it

After taking some time for photo's at those 3 sections of rapids it was around 4pm and Shayne had to be in Nanaimo to pick up Carrie at Departure Bay Ferry Terminal at 7pm and Joe was suppose to be at the base of Mt. Washington to meet Gill at 5pm ish. So we bombed down the rest of the run, which is the balk of it, in about 20 minutes. When we got to the bottom all 3 of use said "Man we should have a steep creek race down this thing!" Maybe next Puntledge fest. Long story short we got to the base of Mt. Washington at 5:30pm, so not to bad, Shayne made it just in time to get Carrie and we all headed to Joe and Gill's for food and the hockey game....... yeah Canucks!!!

Thanks to Shayne and Joe for the sweet run and for Dave Prothero for scouting this classic a few years ago.

Van Island Boating and Other Adventures!

Shayne Vollmers running the 7m falls on the Alpine Browns

Sweet drop!!

Since climbing in Sinks Canyon I've been pretty busy doing an assortment of things, a few being: working another canoe course for NOLS on Desolation Canyon, attended the NOLS Faculty Summit, paddled the lower Owhyee River, drive to Vancouver Island, paddled the Cameron River, Ash River (both near Port Alberni), Pamela Creek (outside Gold River), Puntledge River (in Courntenay) and was part of the FD on the Alpine Section of Browns River (outside of Courntenay) and went to Horne Lake for a few days of climbing on steep limestone.

For those of you that haven't been to Vancouver Island to paddle you should it have numerous steep creeks of very high quality and when the play run on the Puntledge River is running it is a must do.

A few keys components to paddling on the island are: get a Vancouver Island Back Roads map book from a gas station, be prepared to bushwack a lot, drop into committing canyons and wood being in pretty much every river.

Areas of high quality are:
1.Gold River with numerous runs including Pamela Creek class 4-5, Quatchka Creek class 4, Ucona River class 4-5, Upana River class 4-5, the Upper 4+, Middle 3+ and Lower Heber River class 4-5 and the Gold has numerous sections from class 3 to 4+.
2.Port Renfrew having Harris Creek class 4-5, Lens Creek class 4-5, San Juan River class 4-5, Granite Creek class 4-5, Hemmingston Creek class 4+ and the Gordon River that has numerous section from class 3-4+. For more information of Vancouver Island Rivers check out www.bc-ww.com.
These are the 2 places your going to get the best bang for your buck.

A few classic's that are a bit off the beaten path are the Cameron River class 4, Upper Nanaimo River class 4-5, Kokish River class 4-5, Alpine Browns River class 4-5 and the classic Island multi-day run is the Bedwell River class 4-5.

For people looking at rivers that are less committing the Cowichan River in Duncan is a fun class 3 run, the Nimpkish River class 3+ in Woss, the play run on the Puntledge River class 4, the Lower Ash River class 3-4 as well as different section of the Gold and Gordon Rivers.


Hope this is helpful and see you on the river!

 Folks hanging out at the camp ground at the Puntledge River Festival

 Joe Box at the put-in for the Alpine Browns 

 Dave Prothero running the first drop on the Alpine Browns 

 Dave telling you how awesome it is! with Mac behind

 

 Shayne running a fun double drop with Joe watching

 Dave running the double drop

 Me running the double drop Photos by Mac Schafers

 Horne Lake from the parking lot

 A shot of the huge cave Horne Lake is known for. Eric is climbing in centre right of photo.

 Owhyee River.... so beautiful!

A little to serious..... 

Me running the 7m falls on Alpine Browns Photo by Shayne Vollmers