Experts Choice

This past summer Chris has been busy putting some new routes up at Experts Choice. Sunday we went up there to climb them so here's my take on these climbs. I'm not sure if he's named them or not but i'll be as descriptive as i can. The above picture is the first route we did. It starts right in between Local Decision and Long Decision and basically goes straight up the face and stays right of the roof above Chris and joins onto Local Decision. The picture shows Chris right at the crux just below the roof. We placed a bolt (the only one) just above him which protects the crux well. The route has good rock, protects quite well but takes thin gear and has some interesting moves and we figured a 5.8.

Chris, if this route needs a name how about "Split Decision".

Once up on Raspberry Ledge we moved over to the new rap rings at the start of Crispy Ambulance. The next route we did is about 3 or 4 meters to the climbers left of Crispy Ambulance. It climbs up the face to where the angle eases off and and right to intersect Crispy Ambulance. Here you need a small cam. Head straight up (Crispy Ambulance angles left) and head towards the roof above you. This is the crux. Stay left of the roof pulling on small holds on a steep face. The angle eases off just before the top station. I really enjoyed this route. I would give this route 3 stars. It went at a 5.10a. We used one small cam and the rest was just quick draws.

This next route is about 6 or 7 meters left of Crispy Ambulance. It starts almost directly underneath a small roof that is about 10 meters above the start of the route. You will come up under the roof on the right side and go over it or around it on the left side. There is a bolt at the lip of the roof on the left side. Above that is just fun climbing to the top station. This was my favorite route of the day. Definitely 3 stars and a 5.10a. All bolts.

We then moved over towards Split Clevage. This picture was taken from the rap bolts on Crispy Ambulance and Chris at the start of the route. It heads up an obvious weakness to the face above. The route is steep and pumpy with small holds and very sharp rock. Lots of friction. Again the rock was excellent. I think we used a couple of nuts on this route and the rest was bolts. The picture below shows Chris at the start of the crux. This route was about 45 meters long and ends up right under the huge roof on Slit Clevage. There is a rappel station half way (25 meters??) down to Raspberry Ledge. It went at a 5.10c.

Unfortunately, the last route i didn't get any pictures of but we started started at the 1st rap station from the last route i just described. I'm not sure if this is where the route was supposed to start or not. Chris will have to verify that. From where we started it headed up an arete onto the face above and ended up at the same top station as the last route. This route was very steep and i admit, i had some troubles with it but the rock and the exposure are excellent. I would say this was a tough 5.10c. No gear needed, just quick draws.

Our whole day was done with one 60 meter rope. One 30 meter rappel off the rap rings at Crispy Ambulance will get you to the down with a very short scramble to the bottom.

Crypt Lake

Anyone interested in hiking into Crypt Lake on Saturday??

Blair

Winter??

After watching Aimee's skiing video and then posting my own from Oct 23 2004, i just had to post this one. It was taken Oct 16 2004. Just 7 days earlier and yes we were in search of ice and snow even though we both knew nothing would be there we still had to take our ice gear for a walk.....

Ready for snow???

We cannot contain the excitement at our house - summer is over and winter is on its way to Southern Alberta. To celebrate both the change of seasons and the purchase of a new Mac we quickly edited a little video. The quality of film from a handheld camera isn't the best, but hey - It doesn't take much to get me excited for pow after a long hot summer :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0OUlrJNK74

Mount King George

This past weekend Jason Wilcox, Kevin Barton and myself climbed what is suspect is the rarely climbed McNab/Congdon coulior on the East Face of Mount King George (11226'). It felt really good to swing the ice tools again. Here are my pictures and some of Jasons pictures:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3309&l=15f0d&id=1450014394

Blair

Anderson Peak

I received Jim's pictures on Thursday so i just updated my Facebook site

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055&l=d6f69&id=1450014394

Blair

Anderson Peak

Here is the link to my pictures from Anderson Peak:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055&l=d6f69&id=1450014394

Blair

Rock climbing or scrambling

On Saturday Dave Mulder and i headed to Experts to do some rock climbing. After spending Friday nite consuming numerous beers and Tequila chasers, our motivation level was rather low. The rock at Experts looked to wet to climb so i decided on the spur of the moment to scramble Bertha Peak to salvage the day. All i had was my approach shoes and both of us had light jackets. We finally left the truck at 11:10 am. Not exactly your typical alpine start. We made it to the lake at 12:20 and stopped for a quick bite. It sprinkled a little on the way up but the trail was very wet. We decided to head up the rock steps which are right above the East end of the lake. The only problem was we had a little bit of bushwacking to get to the rock steps. By the time we got through the bush we were both soaked and my shoes were filled with water. I figured we would both warm up as we climbed the rock steps which we did but we never really dried off. When we got to the hanging valley at the top we were in the clouds and i wasn't really sure where the summit was (i didn't bring my map) so we sat down for another quick bite and maybe some of this cloud would dissipate enough to see something. It didn't take long for us to chill off but the clouds did thin out a little bit. It looked to me like the peak was on the back side of the cirque which meant we would have somemore bushwacking or take a long detour around. As the clouds thinned out it started to snow and blow. I contemplated just scrambling up the shoulder we were on but as cold as we were i decided to heck with it. We would'nt be able to see anything anyways. We headed back down through the rock steps and once again through the bush just to give us another good soaking. I was sure glad when we got back to the truck. When i got home that evening i got checking my map and i realized that the shoulder we were standing on when we turned around was the peak and we were only 200 meters below the summit......Oh well, just another day in the mountains.