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Climbing Summary
Rogers Pass, Aug 22 - Sept 05 2003

• Aug 22 - Lookout Mountain
• Aug 24 - Asulkan Pass
• Aug 26 - Rogers-Sifton Col
• Aug 29 - Avalanche Peak
• Sep 01 - Rogers Massif Traverse
• Sep 04 - North Face of Sifton
• Sep 05 - Tupper Crest with Fred Beckey

This is a summary of climbing done in the Rogers Pass area in British Columbia, Canada in the summer of 2003, between August 22 and September 5. It was written two and a half months later and I believe everything is accurate, but there is the possibility of things being remembered incorrectly.

Background

The summer of 2003 was one of the worst, if not the worst, wildfire season in British Columbia in modern times. Communities surrounding Kamloops were on and off of evacuation orders all summer long. As my trip began a fire near Kalowna blew up and out of control overnight and promptly destroyed numerous homes and caused the evacuation of thousands. By the time the trip ended communities near Cranbrook and the Moyie River were being evacuated. About the time I drove up there the military was called out in the largest deployment in the province since flooding in the 1930's. A voluntary backcountry restriction was put into effect in mid-August, which meant that they were requesting everyone to stay in parks and along highway corridors but were not requiring it. Just before Labor Day weekend the restriction became mandatory and it was prohibited to enter crown lands via forestry roads or on foot with the exception of those park areas deemed safe. Glacier Park in Rogers Pass had two complexes of several fires each, but both were in areas rarely accessed. (Most climbing activity is in the Hermit, Sir Donald and Asulkan ranges from the highway.) One result of all of these large fires was that the entire province was blanketed in smoke all summer. Visibility was limited, the air smelled of smoke, and it had ash in it. When I returned to Oregon the back of my truck still smelled like old smoke.

Lookout Mountain, August 22

This is supposed to be a good short warm-up climb and I had never done it, so it seemed like a good idea. From the end of the trail atop Glacier Crest it is a short hike/scramble over to the northern base of Lookout, which is more of a ridge with a highpoint than a very distinct summit. The climbing is very pleasant 4th-5th class with mostly sound rock if you choose your way well. (My opinion is that anything the guidebooks call 4th class through about 5.4 is pretty much the same, as it usually depends on routefinding on a small scale. Exposure is inevitable.) The old guidebook claims the crest is solid but that the rock on the sides is poor, but I often found it was more solid to bypass small highpoints along the ridge on the side than it was to climb directly over them. At the base of the last steep step there is a truly horrible section which takes quite a bit of exploring and analysis to find a way through, and then a lot of care doing it. Easy climbing but rotten rock and a lot of exposure. From the summit I walked back to another unnamed bump between Lookout and Youngs Peak which offered a great overview of the area.

The way back is to hike out onto the Illicilwaet Glacier to the east and walk down it. Most of this section had little chance of hidden crevasses so late in the summer and there was a corridor which was pretty simple to negotiate between the marginal crevasses (and rockfall) along the edge of Lookout and the crevasses further out onto the glacier. The glacier has retreated a great deal in recent years and there is now a long polished apron to descend between the end of the ice and the valley bottom.

Hikers get up to the base of the glacier ice from the end of the Glacier View trail and there are cairns, probably for this reason. Unfortunately the cairns are poorly placed and misleading when coming from above and they led me towards the Pearly Rock (i.e. wrong) side. Partly due to the cairns I figured there was some way to cut over to the Pearly Rock trail, or to the Sir Donald trail down lower . However, it turns out that there is a gorge with a raging river in it blocking the way! After descending steep and wet heather slopes beside the gorge I ended up in the valley bottom with no trail just about at dark. A shallow moraine can be followed for a while but when it peters out the only option is to beat your way through thick slide alder, which is prime bear habitat (for both Brown and Grizzly bear).

After a few miserable and arduous hours I found my way back to the west and stumbled onto the Glacier View trail. The smoke was so thick during this dense bushwhack that I actually got sick several times. Whenever the alders were shaken up by my travel I could see either pollen or ash shaken loose from them in the air (highlighted in the headlamp beam) and it was in these areas that I felt sick. There could be several contributing factors and I'll never know for certain, but it seemed that some combination of ash and pollen on top of physical exertion was responsible.

Asulkan Pass, August 24

It had rained lightly one or both of the previous two nights and cleaned out the air. Not enough rain to change the fire situation but enough to restore the views to excellent for a couple days.

I had never explored much of the Asulkan Range aside from climbing the Afton/Abbot traverse one year, and I had never been to the fairly new Asulkan hut. So I decided just to hike to Asulkan Pass for the views and familiarization, and especially for closer views of the NW "Ice Face" on Youngs Peak and of the Dawson Range to the south.

The trail as far as the hut is very good. Beyond the hut there is no trail but it is above treeline and easy to find the way. The actual pass is approached over the Asulkan Glacier which has some crevasses, especially towards the center. Staying to the left and approaching the pass from that side allowed for an easy route with minimal risk.

The views of the Dawson Range are incredible. I have now become determined to do a traverse of it on a future trip, which is one of the great historical classic routes in the region. (Along with the Rogers-Hermit Traverse and the Victoria Traverse near Lake Louise.)

At the hut I met a couple climbers preparing to do a long 5.6 route on Rampart the next day. They had the new guidebook (which I'd had difficulty finding). It turns out that both the old and new book have their own advantages and disadvantages. The new one has new routes, and where it goes into enough detail it is more accurate in terms of the conditions of glaciers and routes across them since they have retreated greatly since the old book was published. However, the old book still goes into quite a bit more detail on many routes. For the route on Rampart it outlines the nature of each pitch whereas the new book just indicates where it goes and that it is 5.6. The other climbers wrote down some of the notes from my copy of the old book.

Rogers-Sifton Col, August 26

I think I ended up doing this hike because I got a late start. One of the climbers who had done Rampart was supposed to meet me mid-morning and I waited until lunch before I gave up on him. I wanted to get a look at what I could see of Mt Rogers and of the North Face of Mt Sifton, which had been sort of a goal for several years.

From the Col the North Face of Sifton appeared to be totally out of condition. A low center section which would have to be climbed on a full ascent was bare in spots, a large section of the upper right face sitting above that was bare, and the lowest sections are strewn with rocks. However, I think this view was largely misleading based on may later observations when I did climb the upper face later on the trip.

Avalanche Peak, August 29

I had never done this mountain before, and from the parking lot and facilities in the pass it just sort of sits there grabbing your attention. Especially an obvious snow couloir facing north which you are looking directly at. I had to believe this had been climbed, and indeed it has been - it is in the new book. The approach described in the book is to go straight up the section of Avalanche Crest which sits above the Park Warden compound and the road south of it. To get to the base of the couloir it turns out that you really need to traverse the upper slopes of a large gully. (I believe this is the head of what skiers call NRC gully or, one directly adjacent to it.)

I decided to climb the west ridge, which is also not in the old book but in the new one. I followed the Avalanche Crest trail to its end and stayed on the ridge the entire way. It is possible to traverse to the right of the ridge and gain it higher up, which is what the new guidebook describes. The full ridge, as I did it, had a lot of very pleasant climbing which I would call mostly 4th class with a few bits of low 5th class, and the typical Selkirks exposure. I had wondered if it is possible to traverse around to the snow gully up high but it did not appear feasible. The gully leading to it (NRC?) has a large cliff bounding it along the west ridge, and up higher where it might be possible to make a traverse the rock is very poor. While the couloir itself was in condition the proper approach looked grueling and is probably best done in early season conditions with consolidated snow in it.

The views of the north side of Mt MacDonald, the Avalanche Glacier, and the east ridge of Eagle are impressive. The descent down the south side is supposed to be 3rd to 4th class and easy, but coming from above there are a few areas where it drops off steeply towards the bottom. Angling back towards the west ridge was successful.

Traverse of the Rogers Massif, September 1

This is one of the historic and classic traverses of the range, first done (and guided) around the turn of the century in the days of the CPR Swiss Guides. It is a long day which puts a premium on efficient movement with almost constant exposure. Guiding this route would put a guides short-roping skills to the test. Aside from being a classic I also wanted to check out the north face of Mt Rogers and the approach to it.

I wasn't entirely comfortable crossing part of the Hermit Glacier and the slopes leading to Col Major solo. There were some remnants of a recent track there and it probably isn't that bad, but I opted for the 1896 route up Rogers (following a SW talus slope from above Hermit Meadows until it merges with the SE Ridge). This results in more of a true traverse anyway. After merging with the SE Ridge it is supposed to be possible to go out onto the snow slopes and quickly ascend to Col Major. According to the old guidebook, anyway. It was certainly not a very realistic option on my climb, and I followed the rocks of the ridgeline all the way up to a point between the col and the summit of Rogers. This was a typical Selkirks ridgeline route, involving 4th and occasionally low 5th class climbing. As usual the actual difficulty probably varies within that range depending on small scale routefinding choices.

Once on the snow above the SE Ridge the summit of Rogers was a simple snow climb away. There was one fairly steep slope but it fell off the climbers left, away from the long North Face.

From the summit of Rogers I returned to where I had first gained the snow and continued along the crest of the Massif from there. Grant, Fleming, Swiss and the three Truda Peaks all sort of blend together and offer consistent 4th - 5th class scrambling with fabulous views and many sections of significant exposure. The view down the north side of Swiss and the Truda peaks into Hermit Cirque is impressive - a vertical face which drops thousands of feet. The "imposing NE Ice Face" of Swiss which is mentioned in the old guide is indeed impressive. Unfortunately it was more loose rock than ice. At the right time of the right year this could be a truly excellent climb (with difficult access) but it seems that in general the ice has retreated from this face just as it is retreating on most glaciers.

I didn't like the looks of the Truda Couloir off Swiss (the standard descent), although a few days later I spoke to two relatively inexperienced climbers who did use it. I also wanted to do as close to a complete traverse as possible and was still even considering Hermit Peak. So over the three Trudas I went. As the old guidebook correctly states, there is some absolutely horrible rock in a few places and at least one section of the descent was very tricky and dangerous due to the combination of loose rock everywhere and great exposure below.

It became clear at some point that Hermit was not realistic unless I wanted to be returning in the dark, probably from the base of Hermit onward. So I reached the col below Truda and descended the SE Spur to the Hermit Glacier, crossing it to return to Tupper Crest. The descent from Tupper Crest can be tricky in the dark since the cairns can be scattered and hard to spot in low light and the terrain tends to steer one to the left (descending). I ended up using the path in places but loosing it in places and was glad I had not attempted Hermit and ended up in the dark descending the crest. From Hermit Meadows down to the highway is a good, if steep, trail and I returned to the pass somewhere around 9-10 at night.

North Face of Sifton - September 4

After resting on the 2nd I decided to pack all my climbing gear, light bivy gear, and some food up to Hermit Meadows for a night or two. I arrived in the evening on the 3rd and slept out on one of the tent platforms there. I was planning to try the upper part of the North Face of Sifton by gaining the snow part way up from the Northeast ridge, and then to possibly attempt the North Face of Rogers the following day.

On the 4th in the morning I set out for Sifton. I decided to try some new alpine boots which are leather and much lighter than plastic ones, with more ankle flex. They turned out to be pretty comfortable to hike and scramble in considering they are moreor less ice climbing boots, but there was more scrambling up the ridge than I had anticipated as well as a long descent and with totally rigid soles they were not the ideal boots. The ice on the North Face could have been done in my lighter leather Boreal boots since it wasn't as difficult as it looked in advance.

The face itself offered excellent climbing. There is a point where the snow and ice meet the NE ridge, and this area is flat with plenty of spots to sit down and put on crampons, tighten boots, etc. From that spot it is possible to diagonal out onto the face and climb up and to the right to come out at or near the summit. This upper part had no bare rock above and thus minimal risk of rockfall. (The old book makes no mention of the NE Ridge but it is pretty typical fare for ridge climbs in the area - 4th and low 5th class with exposure. The rock was generally sound on most sections.)

From the summit I opted to descend the west ridge, which was a lot of scrambling and not especially quick or appealing. Especially at the end of a day wearing the rigid-sole boots. It may be more expedient to go directly down to the glacier on the WNW of Sifton and cross it until an easy scramble over the tail of the W Ridge to the Grizzly-Sifton Col can be made. As far as I can remember this looked feasible from the summit area but when I considered it part way along the West Ridge the way down to the snow was steep and very loose or rotten. So at that point I felt it was safest to remain on the ridgeline.

Tupper Crest - September 5

On September 4th in the evening I decided I'd had a long enough day and would pack out to the road in the morning. As I was resting and thinking about dinner two other climbers arrived. I watched them as they first appeared in the distance and saw that one was hunched over and very very slow, and looked older. It occurred to me fairly quickly that perhaps this was Fred Beckey. I'd never yet run into him in the mountains but he was legendary for continuing to climb and ski in his mid-80's. And for just showing up in an area and causing an informal phone chain to get going until a partner is rounded up. Fred pioneered many hard routes in the Selkirks. It was indeed him, with a partner named Jim he had rounded up in Revelstoke in hopes of climbing Mt Tupper by the standard route.

It turns out that it had taken them 8 hours to get to Hermit Meadows. (A typical time is about 2 hours.) I took my dinner stuff over and sat down by them and we all attempted to get dinner started. This is when I discovered that Fred is near deaf. (He still presents slide shows - I have no idea how. Many years after this he accepted an award at an Outdoor Retailer show and there was no indication of hearing or speaking problems. But on this trip communication was difficult much of the time.)

Their MSR whisperlight stove wouldn't work and the conversation consisted largely of Fred repeatedly calling it junk (among other things) and saying he was going to replace it with something and complain to them. After much effort at getting it working we all used my Svea in turns. I had brought more than enough fuel, and they also had some that the MSR wasn't going to burn. (I got rid of my own original MSR a long time ago. Although soon after this some of their models featured a return to the time-tested svea/optimus style burner. The classic burner may not be capable of a simmer, being limited to only a roar, but it is extremely reliable. Efforts to allow more of a simmer never seemed to be to go too well.)

I decided that there was no reason I couldn't climb the following day, especially since it would probably be my only chance to ever go on a climb with Fred Beckey. Jim was happy to have another person along, and happy to learn that I was carrying a VHF radio with Parks frequencies programmed for emergencies (only). I think that after the 8 hour hike up with Fred in his 80's (and near deaf) Jim was a bit concerned. Throughout the following day Jim displayed incredible patience and communication skills.

We set out in the morning and before long it was clear that Fred has one speed, up down or across. Which is slow. (From a climbing perspective - but not necessarily in general for somebody in their 80s). I mentioned this to Jim and we concluded we were unlikely to make the summit, but we figured we would go as far as we could and insist on turning around at some point. We also began to try to plant this possibility in Freds mind. He didn't like the idea too much and we were concerned that getting him turned around would be extremely difficult.

When we reached the crest Fred cached most of what little he was carrying for retrieval on the way back. He kept insisting that Jim and I should do the same instead of carrying everything up and back, but we were both doing fine and neither of us like to do that if we don't need to. About that time Fred also began worrying about harnesses, even though we wouldn't need them for a while (and probably not at all if turned back at a reasonable hour.) I hadn't really thought about a harness and probably hadn't even carried one up to the meadows given that I had anticipated only solo alpine climbing. But I had done this route before and was familiar with it and comfortable on it and could have tied into the rope directly. This harness issue did give us a way of stressing our feeling about turning back if necessary. With a lot of shouting into Freds ear over the wind I managed to convey to him that I might not be able to continue all the way with them anyway due to time constraints. This elicited no response from Fred but Jims reply to my inquiry of what he made of it was that Fred was absorbing this information. In retrospect it may have been the point at which he accepted this reality, even if he did not yet let on.

We managed to get up along Tupper Crest to the start of the technical climbing. This last bit which we did involved some scrambling on rock of varying quality, depending on micro-routefinding which we didn't necessarily all do the same. For a guy in his 80s Fred was pretty amazing. While it may not have been as much as he hoped to achieve I doubt many other people his age would have gotten that far. I can only hope that I will do so well later in life. And after the trek up there he was clearly at home and in his element on the rock. Along he went at precisely the same rate he did anything else, no slower.

At the base of the steeper technical climbing we stopped and I think Fred knew we couldn't make it further. We didn't say anything for a while but just rested while Fred took some photos and made notes. Jim asked him a bit about the long hard routes he had done first ascents of on the South Buttress. Finally Jim spoke to him about the need to turn around and to our relief he accepted that without argument, only some muttering about "how do the guides do it" and "they must start early". (In reality we had gotten a good start and a couple more hours still would not have sufficed. And guides also turn around with clients if they need to, they don't always make a summit.)

On the way down we spotted cairns for the trail and initially stayed together. We stopped to rest a few times, and Fred was beginning to complain about his back. Finally we took a long break and Jim and I exchanged contact info so that I could head down quicker and leave a phone message for his wife, who was expecting him back early in the evening. I wanted to wait until we were all in motion again, and it took two attempts and about half an hour to get Fred back in motion. At that point I rushed ahead, repacked in Hermit Meadows, and hiked down to the road. I got a ride up to the visitor center. (I prefer to leave my truck there rather than the trailhead for security reasons.) After leaving a phone message, grabbing a coffee, changing and reorganizing I was driving towards the town of Golden at dusk. I saw Jim at the trailhead stretching as I drove by but Fred was still on the trail.

All in all it was an interesting and enjoyable day. The chance to spend a day with a legend like Fred is a rare privilege, although his poor hearing was a disappointment and this kind of climbing was probably getting to be too much for him at this point in life. The weather was fine, and I had great conversations with Jim who I look forward to skiing with on a future trip up that way sometime.