Before we crossed the border up north into Canada we decided that it was time to splurge and get a hotel room in Bellingham, Washington. We took the afternoon and perused the downtown where I ended up purchasing not 1, but 2 new pairs of climbing shoes. One pair of La Sportiva TC Pro's and La Sportiva Tarantulas. I had blown a hole in my beloved shoes and there wasn't going to be a convenient time frame to get them repaired. Climbing shoes aren't something that can just be replaced. It's a long term relationship that is formed between you and the shoe. It takes months before you can begin to allow another pair to be "ok" but usually never as good as the beloved pair you've climbed hundreds of routes in.
Showers and television kept us busy for the next few hours until we ventured out and found a brewery downtown where we had some very tasty salads and listened to a live band. The next morning we finished our errands and headed towards the border. Typically the Canadians make it as painful and difficult as possible to enter their country, but to our surprise the border patrol gentleman asked us relatively few questions and motioned us on our way. We took a day or so to get to Revelstoke where we gassed up at the pretty penny of about $6 per gallon. Once we left this town we had to push the turtle 45 miles up a gruesome pass to where we would spend the next few days climbing.
The weather wasn't looking stellar so to avoid the next day's afternoon thunderstorms we decided on a very early hike in to our camp. We began our hike at about 5AM and the plan was to scurry up the trail, set up camp and get some climbing done before the weather turned sour.
We got to camp around 7AM and much to our surprise every other single group up there was frantically packing their things and heading to the trailhead. Hmmm...odd? Just as we finished throwing up our tent, a big dark ominious cloud moved in. We sat around for about a half hour to see how the weather was going to play out. The thunder started booming and terrential rain set in. So much for us getting an early start to avoid "PM" showers! Hunkered deep in the tent we both fell fast asleep for many hours as the storm did its thang. Around 11, we pulled ourselves from the tent and figured it was nice enough to climbing. Being lazy and relaxing seemed so much better than putting effort into much of anything. The rest of the day purely consisted of napping and whishing we had more foor to gorge on :) We couldn't stay lethargic forever so we planned a very large and involved route for the morning. As per usual, the AM was frigid and full of crankiness but off we went. The Route we were aiming to do is called the Swiss Peaks Traverse which encompasses 5 prominent peaks of the area.
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| Peaks of the Swiss Traverse |
We slogged over the Rogers glacier and then up the scree slope to gain its ridge. Once at the base of the mountain we threw on our gear and pitched out 2 easy 5th class sections. This may be coldest I have been yet on any of our climbs this trip. My hands were brutally fragile that even after the warmth returned to them they remained extremely painful for a good hour. The reach the top of our first peak, Rogers, it involved some mixed rock scrambling with snow ridge climbing. The absolute neatest thing we have done on the trip was the descent from this peak. There is a snow arete that forms the summit block and to get down you have to walk along an exposed knife edge snow ridge.
Once we had reached the col of Rogers and Grant we stopped for a cup of coffee and a snack in the sun! The weather wasn't looking awesome and we still had 4 peaks to go. for the sake of speed we decided to start simul-climbing. Towards the end of the 3rd peak my foot slipped while down climbing and had mild heart failure as I peeled off the mountain. Luckily, my right leg got caught between a snow patch and the rock catching my fall but leaving me dangling upside down. From what could have been a bad accident for the both of us, I walked away a little shaken up and a scraped ankle.
In the mountains, judgement calls have to be made based on many factors. At the moment we needed to decide if the weather was going to hold for us to push through the last 2 peaks of head back to camp now. Below us at the time was a very low angle snow coulair that we could easily retreat on. We opted to call it a day and begin our trek back to camp. The coulair descent began with 2 rappells with lots of elevation to still descend. Much to our surprise, the "low angle" coulair ended up being the steepest snow that we have encountered yet on the trip! Some 2 hours after downclimbing steep snow and ice we had reached the start of the glacier.
It turns out that the weather actually ended up being rather nice but no regrets to come off the traverse as the descent was an adventure in itself! Back to the van and on to the next climb.
We yet again had grand ambitions of doing another 3 peak traverse the next day. This one would logistically be more challenging as it started and ended in different locations which means carrying all our climbing plus overnight camping gear with us over the 3 peaks. To reduce pack weight we chose not to bring a tent as the weather looked perfect for the following days. For our first night there were 2 camping options: In the basin below the peaks or directly in the saddle between two large mountains. We chose the second option for the asthetic-ness of the camp site and in the morning we'd literally be able to wake up and climb with no approach! Clearly this was the less popular option as we were the only ones camped here vs 5 or 6 parites in the lower sites.
We found a great bivy site that was nestled up next to a large boulder with a nice wind wall on the other side. We carefully arranged our beds to maximize the warmth with the gear we brought. Next to our site was a bear box to store our food but I thought better of that and instead decided it would double as an emergency shelter.
Just as we were settling in for the evening and headlamps were being turned off, I spotted something move above our heads. Greeting us was a big furry tailed rat! Immedietly I became very very concerned that he was going to eat my nose off during the night. To top off my terror, his fury friend came out to join him. Great, not only am i panicked about one, but now I have 2 to battle. Meanwhile Sam was working his way to deep slumber completely un-bothered in the least. Literally every half hour I'd violently burst awake, turn on my headlamp and sit on rat patrol for a few minutes. Of course I'd wake unintentionally wake Sam up and he'd angirly curse be and demand that I quit being so paranoid. Again, trying to drift off into a light sleep and forget that they might eat my face off, Sam suddenly gave a voilent jerk and squirmed around. Quickly turning on my headlamp, low and behold, there was a rat sitting on his face!! This certainly did not put me to ease and throughout the whole night I'd periodically patrol for rats so we could contine a life with our rat eaten noses.
In the morning our motivation to do a 3 peak traverse wasn't there so instead we decided that we'd climb one of the peaks straight out of our campsite called Uto. The whole climb was easy 5th class so we solo'd the whole thing as well as soloing and rapping on the descent.
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