Trip Reports
Clark-Vienese Traverse
I stood at the base of Clarke’s east ridge pulling
and coiling the blue end of our rope just after Jesse had called "off
rappel" We had just completed the Viennese-Clarke traverse and were an
hour behind our turn around time. The yellow end of the rope was just
leaving the col when Jesse asked, "Where's the rack?" We looked at each
other. He'd left the entire rack two 50m rappels above us. I did a
quick assessment. I could have still just reached the rope. I knew I
could protect myself and quickly get up to the top of our last rappel.
From there I figured I could climb to the second rappel without a rope.
I told Jesse that this was my intention. He realized it would probably
mean a night out for both of us without food or sleeping gear. We
estimated the cost of the rack and then Jesse offered to buy our way
out of the situation. It didn’t take me long to agree, and so
we coiled up the rope and headed back for Colin who was waiting for us
at Nursery Pass.
This was our annual, low concept, self-propelled trip. We had eight
days to bike to the Chehalis climb what ever we could and then bike
back. Since our 2005 trip had taken us to and from the Tantalus range
with very little success, we had low expectations. But just like last
year we planned to climb lots of peaks and left plenty of room for
downgrading as necessary. When we set out in September 2005 we had
planned to climb Tantalus and Dionne by way of Alpha and Serratus. We
were very far off the mark. On day four we bailed off of the East Ridge
of Serratus and abandoned our last three objectives. Still, we had felt
good about climbing just Alpha by bike from town and so this year we
were ready to settle for just climbing our first objective: Grainger.
As usual, one week before the trip started, our lucky charm Colin
Punchard walked into my bike shop. Colin has always brought our trips
good luck and good weather. Whenever Colin comes on a trip we summit
and the weather is perfect. Colin only goes mountaineering once every
few years when he bumps into me and asks if I’m going to go
into the mountains. He always swings the time off somehow, on short
notice, and despite his physical limitations - resulting from drinking
and smoking - he makes it to the end of every trip in excellent style,
a smoke constantly dangling from his lips.
Day 1
Early on the morning of August 28th Jesse, Colin and I left from my
place and biked down Hastings to the Barnett Hwy and on to Coquitlam.
We stopped occasionally for food and caffeine but eventually made it
out to the Sasquatch Inn about 100km to the East, at Harrison Mills. We
feasted, drank and then headed up the Chehalis forest service road,
which starts right from the Inn. We had planned to make it to the end
of Chehalis Lake but the going was tougher than we had thought and we
didn’t quite make it all the way. We bivouacked up high beside the lake in total darkness feeling a little
defeated by the last 35km.
Day 2
We woke up to cloudy skies and a great view of Chehalis Lake. We were
soon at the head of the lake where the main road crosses the Chehalis
River above the lake and our route branches off left into the woods. By
then the rain had started and so we ducked under the bridge to make a
breakfast of coffee and porridge. The rain didn’t last long
and the under belly of the bridge made for good buildering
opportunities. Overall a worthwhile stop over. Soon we where heading up
the branch (called the Chehalis FSR also) with no rain at all.
On our way up the road from the bridge towards Statlu Lake we passed a
group coming out in their 4WD. We stopped to say hi, curious to see
what they had climbed. After a quick greeting we were asked where we
were heading to which I replied "Grangers South ridge." Which was met
with "That's a classic." Back to me, "What did you guys climb?" Answer,
"Tuning Fork, on Mount Bardean." Like we didn’t know what
mountain the Tuning Fork was on.
After we moved on up the road Jesse excitedly said that he thought it
was ‘Frimer’ in the passenger seat. “Why
didn’t you say hi?” I asked. Jesse said that he
wasn’t certain that it was him at first. Also Jesse knows
Frimer better than Frimer knows any of us. Frimer is of course Jeremy
Frimer of some renown locally, most recently from the cover of the MEC
catalogue. But Frimer is also, and more importantly a character that we
have created in our stories and gossip. It started years ago. Just from
reading a few of his articles we had produced a complete profile of
him. The articles (of which I have read only one) were a tiny seed for
us. From reading some of his articles we created a character known to
us as ‘Frimer.‘ The one, and possibly the only,
thing that makes the Jackson-Addy team gold in the hills is that we can
babble on about nothing all day, much to the amazement of other
rational people around us. The ‘Frimer character’
as it exists today may bear little resemblance to the actual Jeremy
Frimer, who knows. I hope to never get to know Jeremy because it would
shatter our character development for years to come. So, seeing the
actual Jeremy Frimer on this trip was a great bonus. It set us up for
hours of character development and analyzing. Colin was bemused.
We brought our bikes to near the bottom of Nursery Valley where the
road is washed out. This is about 10km from the bridge. Most of this
road is loose and uphill and so we walked a lot of the way. Since I had
been on this section before I was getting questioned about whether it
was worth dragging the bikes all the way up. I reassured the others
that 10km of downhill for free was going to be worth it. We ditched our
bikes near the stream at the washout. We continued up the road to where
the trail breaks off at the first switch back, towards Grainger. Gerry
Kollmuss recently cut and flagged this route and we easily found his
flagging. Unfortunately I think he did it when there was still some
snow cover, for us the bush was thick and the flagging was hard to
follow. Colin was just behind us swearing most of the time. I tried the
old Zen trick with him of forcing him to face the possibility that this
would continue for days and days. The theory being that faced with such
an impossible concept the mind finally lets go and stops struggling.
Let me say that Colin doesn’t give in that easily. Between
him and his mind I think he comes out on top, fighting all the way.
We made it not too far but almost to the alpine below Grainger. We
found a scree slope that ended bedside a grassy area bordered by a
river with a waterfall; it was idyllic. We had known that the weather
was supposed to turn bad for a day or two and so we figured we might be
tent bound the following day. We set up camp and loaded up on water
from the river.
This is when we really started to appreciate Colin’s shopping
ability. Colin had been antsy the day before we left and so to calm
down he went shopping without us. We had planned to shop together on
the way out of town, but when he arrived at my place the night before
we realized that he already had most of our food. He had gone to Famous
Foods and stocked up on lots of gourmet items. He’d bought
lots of dried fruit, dried coconut powder, olive oil, tomato paste in a
tube, curries, noodles, nuts, organic coffee and sugar. Jesse and I
usually buy all of our groceries quickly and based on weight not any
sort of consideration for taste. We feasted that night and had some
tea, and then hit the sleeping bags.
Day 3
It had rained all night and showed no signs of letting up. We stayed in
the tent for the entire day. We went out to get water and for washroom
breaks only. All three of us were stuck in a two-person tent playing
Mind Trap and Trivial Pursuit. The whole day the rain kept hammering at
the tent walls. We also played a twisted version of Asshole (a card
game) that we made up over the first few hands as Jesse taught Colin
and I to play. Jesse took a great deal of pleasure in using the phrase
'Wipe asshole!' when he won, which he did often. It got to him after
awhile because he saw how Colin and I were less comfortable with
abusing our power. I was going stir crazy after playing for an hour or
so and started yelling like a cross between Al Pacino in Scent of a
Woman and Emeril (ìBam!). We did ok for one day but I
don’t think we could have lasted for a second day.
Day 4
When we woke up it was damp and misty but we could tell that it was
going to burn off soon. We packed up some food for the day and headed a
short distance to a clearing below Grainger. We filled up on water in
this meadow and enjoyed the sunlight. We hiked up the right side of the
valley onto a ramp that lead us to a stream that we crossed just below
a waterfall. We then hiked up some sparsely vegetated slopes just to
the right of these falls and up into the final scree below the peak
where Alpine select shows a bivy spot. I always get freaked out on
these lower grassy wet slopes because they are slippery and steep and
the ropes are in the pack.
We easily gained the ridge and soon after hit the crux of the climb off
to the right side. I climbed a short crack and then exited to the right
into a chimney to easier ground (5.7). From there it was mostly 4th
class and some low 5th to the summit. On the summit I took a drag of
Colin’s cigarette (something I got used to doing during the
entire trip), we ate some lunch and I took photos of the Robertson
screws on the summit cross. Colin had brought a jar of pickles for us
to share on the summit.
Day 5
The next day was meant to be an easy day: we would walk to Nursery Pass
and rest for the Viennese-Clarke traverse. Instead, we spent most of
the day off trail bushwhacking, cursing and then ascending a
significant bit of elevation (4000ft).
On the way in to Grainger I saw a strange plant just off the trail. It
looked like a really big flower with a fat stalk. I didn’t go
check it out until we were leaving the valley and heading up to Nursery
Pass. Colin and I hiked over from the trail to check it out as we had
both been thinking about it over the past two days. It looked exactly
like a fireweed plant except it was much taller (8 feet) and had a flat
broad stem. The stem actually looked like a ribbon made of many fused
plant stalks. For the rest of the trip I looked at every fireweed plant
to see if I could find one with similar characteristics but found none.
There were hundreds of plants in this area that I could see from the
logging roads but none near as big or flattened.
When I returned I asked Nola for Dr. Jim Pojarís email
address to ask him about it. He wrote the book ‘Plants of
Coastal British Columbia.’ Nola knows him because she took a
class on Rainforest Ecology with him and also sometimes works with him.
He knew right away that it was fireweed and that it must have been in a
clear-cut. He thought it was likely a mutated plant from the herbicides
used to keep down the vegetation while the newly planted trees have a
chance to get growing.
When we made it to the pass, the sun was setting and we quickly set up
camp. It had taken us all day. Colin entertained us after dark by
giving us a tour of the night sky, as he is an expert. He told us about
star distributions, galaxies, satellites and space junk. It was great
to find out that there are people that get paid to track space junk!
Also I never knew that the only stars we can see are all in our galaxy.
Day 6
Colin decided to leave the traverse for Jesse and I as he was tired and
knew we would move slower as a group of three. Jesse and I set out just
before sunrise. We roped up on the initial section from the small
snowfield just above the pass to gain the ridge of 6500. We were on
Viennese by 10:00am after a traverse pitch just below the summit and
one up the south face to the top. We rappelled down one pitch and
scrambled to the top of Recourse by 12:00. It didn’t look
like we could make it to Clarke by 2:00, which was our turn around
time. I asked if we should just skip it if we weren’t going
to make it anyways. Jesse was keen on moving forward either way. I
agreed to go ahead and see where we stood at 2:00. We had finished the
two technical pitches by 2:00 and scrambled happily onto the summit.
Jesse and I shared a pickle each and saved one for Colin. We then
rapped down, abandoned our rack, as mentioned above. We then headed
back to see Colin. We walked back over Recourse and then down beneath
the south side of Viennese and up to the ridge between Viennese and
6500. We walked over 6500 and then down toward Nursery Pass. We
rappelled the last pitch down to the snowfield just above camp. We got
back to the pass just before dark. Colin was happy to see us and gladly
ate the last pickle. We split a cigarette and hit the sleeping bags.
Day 7
We woke up very content and a bit smug, as we knew we just had to walk
down to the road and bike downhill to the Pub. It turned out to be
another heavy over estimation and we struggled on the relentless up and
down of the 40km road. We were elated to finally get back to the
Sasquatch Inn. We had spent the previous hours frustrated by the length
of the road as compared with our expectations. When we arrived, just
before we got inside, a man greeted us on the front steps.
“Two-dollar burger platters today boys.” He was
looking above our heads and not focusing on anything in particular. I
laughed openly at him as I assumed he was just screwing with our heads.
He almost got me for a second though. We went inside and ordered some
beer and burgers; a veggie burger for me and meat burgers for Jesse and
Colin.
I then went outside to call Nola and let her know that we were back out
and safe. The same man was on the porch outside still and again passed
on that the burger special was on. He added, “I’m
going to get six of ‘em” Still he gave no eye
contact.
When I got back to our table the waitress was just bringing our drinks.
She let us know that she had changed our order to accommodate for the
$2.00 burger platters. Shit, it wasn’t a joke at all. She had
taken our order and rebuilt it around the burger platter special.
Instead of a cheeseburger with fries, it was the burger platter
special, add cheese. Instead of the Hawaii burger and fries, it was the
burger platter special, hold the tomato and add pineapple.
Unfortunately for me the veggie burger didn’t apply. I was
just lucky they had one at all. The guy from out front came in and
ordered his first burger platter just then. I guess he was pacing
himself. After dinner we hit the forest behind the restaurant and
crashed out.
Day 8
We had 100km of flat road riding to do until we were back home. We took
every opportunity to take it easy and enjoy the ride and take in the
local fare along the way. We managed to stretch it out for a full day.
In Maple Ridge there was a major traffic jam that we biked along past.
It was super hot out and the poor drivers were sweating and frustrated.
We were cool and enjoying the day right beside them. Jesse and I
noticed that Colin was not with us and so we headed back to find him.
He had a flat and no way of fixing it as I had used all his tubes. We
pulled into a driveway and sat in the shade to fix his tube with my
patch kit. The owner of the house was out in his yard enjoying the day
picking some fruit when he happened upon us. We apologized for just
taking over his driveway but he wouldn’t accept.
“Non-sense, you’re free to hang out here as long as
you like.” He then brought us some fresh picked apples and
pears and spent awhile chatting with us. It made getting a flat tire
worthwhile.