Bear Creek Spire (13,713') - North arete (III, 5.8)

Bear Creek spire was one of the first mountains I climbed, back in 2015 I climbed the easy 4th class route (Ulrich's route) with Garrett. The whole time I remember eyeing the beautiful North Arete, and ever since it has been on my alpine tick list. After communicating with a psyched climber on Mountainproject, I finally got the chance to climb the route this past weekend.

Annotation of North Arete of Bear Creek Spire

 I met up with Kevin Friday night after work at Saddle Bag Lake, where we both bivied in our respective cars. Saturday morning, we headed to the Mono Ranger station, grabbed an overnight permit and then drove to Rock Creek. Since we were still pretty early we hit up some of the great sport climbing in the area. After samling a few enjoyable routes, we packed it up and drove to the super crowded trail head. Around 1 PM, we started the hike into the Little Lakes valley. 

Heading into the little lakes valley

 

Little lakes with Bear Creek Spire in the background.

 

Look out for the mule train!

After a couple of hours we reached Gem lakes and left the main trail into the talus and ancient glacial moiraine towards our base camp at Dade Lake.

Heading up the talus above Gem Lakes

 Around 3:30 PM we reached Dade Lake, so set-up our base camp and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Dade Lake with Bear Creek Spire in the backgorund.

 

Base camp.

Once the sunset we headed to bed. I didn't get much sleep as the wind was howling all night. A couple of climbers started out of camp around 5:00 AM (turned out to be Peter Metcalf, founder of Black Diamond), and we had a more leisurely start and left camp at 6:00 AM.

Starting out in the morning. Photo credit - Kevin J.

 It took us about in hour of approach on the talus, and we were at the base of the arete just after 7:00 AM. Peter and Joe had just started up the first pitch, so we waited a bit for them to clear the pitch. They were fast and efficient (no surprise there!) and stayed just ahead of us the whole day. Kevin launched up the first 4th class pitch, then I took the lead for the next few technical pitches. 

Kevin at the first belay

 

Looking up Pitch 2 - 5.7 crack. That's the founder of Black Diamond up there!

The climbing was mostly easy mixed in with some steep 5.7-5.8 moves on cracks and wide flakes systems. I found the moves on P3 (5.8) to be fairly awkward but I fought through.

This was followed by three pitches of easy 4th class and low 5th class. Kevin led the last of these pitches, bringing us to a large ledge at the base of the routes techincal crux, a steep 5.8 offwidth. 

Looking up at the crux pitch.

 I led through the crux pitch. I vacillated for a while below the crux, placing probably too much gear, but once I committed the move turned out to be easy and really no big deal. Its all a head game sometimes. After the crux pitch, there were multiple pitches of low 5th class climbing and we joined the ridge system. Kevin and I alternated leading these pitches. They were very easy, but the route finding was somewhat complex. 

Kevin on the ridge

By-passing a tower on the ridge. Photo credit  Kevin J.

We moved around a tower, then joined Ulrichs route finally reaching the summit ridge. A quick 5.6R mantel and the summit was ours!

Almost there! Photo credit - Kevin J.

Kevin on the summit block!

We rappelled off the summit and chatted with Peter and Joe for awhile. We down climbed the south slopes (class 2) and then dropped down a gnarly 3rd class chute to eventually reach the talus field below the peak.

Rappel

Bottom of the gnarly 3rd class chute

We were back in camp 10 hours after leaving. Not too bad. We packed it up, and hiked out to the trailhead. I said goodbye to Kevin and drove all the way home.

It was a full value weekend in the mountains. The route was casual and very aesthetic, highly enjoyable. I'm looking forward to more trips in the hills before the snows come.

Labor day weekend - Eastside

I had a great weekend of sport climbing on the Sierra Eastside for the labor day long weekend.We had an awesome chill weekend of camping, climbing and hiking. Our friend Michelle came, along with her dog Bart. Of course Penny was our ever-present crag dog. 

We sampled a variety of crags, getting in a good mix of climbs. 

First-up, the Gong Show wall in Rock Creek. Vertical granite sport climbing was the name of the game. First we warmed up on a easy 5.9.

Me leading the warm-up

Then it was off to a crimpy and technical 5.10b, -- my specialty. I was grinning ear-to-ear.

Technical face

I love this stuff!

The heat started to beat down, so we moved into the shade and sampled a beautiful 5.10c.I flailed for a bit on a 5.11b before calling it a day. We headed back to the desert for some relaxing camping.

Penny loves camping!

The next day we got up early and headed to Al's garage, an area of volcanic sport climbing. It was super nice and shady in the morning which was great. I led a fun 5.9 as a warm-up. The route was abit sporty with some not quite run-out bolt spacing.  Then Teresa and Michelle sort of siege led it for awhile, each of them digging a bit deeper to overcome those scary exposed bolt spacing!

Teresa on the sharp end.

I headed up another 5.9 and had a major wasp attack! My ears were stung, so like a hero, I bailed immediately. WE climbed another route, then the sun beamed in, and we headed out for the day.

Right before being attacked by wasps

Michelle on the sharp end - a fun and tricky 5.10a

After climbing for the day, we headed up to Saddle bag lake for a nice hike with the dogs.

Michelle and Bart enjoying a break in the alpine above Saddlebag lake

My little family.

We met up with Mitch for dinner in Mammoth, then back to the desert for another night.

The next day we headed to the Matrimony wall, which involved steep granite sport climbing. Super-fun!

Leading some fun 5.10 moves

Teresa TRing a tricky steep 5.10

Overall a great weekend. I am looking forward to climbing on the eastside again soon, and climbing with Michelle again!

Glamping in the desert

Mt Conness (12,590') - North ridge (II, 5.6)

I tickled my alpine itch this weekend by heading up highway 120 and climbing the North ridge of Mt. Conness with Mitchell. Mt. Conness has been on tick list for a long time, but I was thwarted twice before, despite the route being very easy. The first time, was back in 2016, I went up with Mitchell and Garrett, but a combination of fresh snow, lack of crampons and some mild AMS resulted in us not making onto the route, but rather climbing Shepard's crest instead. In 2017, I went up to try the West ridge with Michael, and it snowed that time as well! 

This time the weather was perfect and the whole thing was a casual affair.

North ridge of Mt. Conness

 

Now the fun begins! - Photo credit - Mitchell Quiring

Mitch and I hit the trail from Saddlebag lake around 5:45am. We made good time, passing another party on their way up to the ridge. We then ran into a solo climber named Todd, who happened to be a friend of Mitch's! So we became a group of three. We trudged up the loose class 3 gully to gain the beautiful North ridge. We soloed the whole thing, and I did it all in approach shoes. It was really a great scramble on perfect white granite.

Mitch and Todd on the ridge

 

Mitch and Todd having a chat. - all around a mellow outing

 

Scrambling on the ridge - Photo credit - Mitchell Quiring

The only real difficulty on the ridge is a 5.6 down climb, we by-passed it by rigging a rappel, the only time the rope came out of the pack.  

Rappel to avoid the down climb. Todd just down climbed it.

After the rappel, there was a few hundred feet of low 5th class/4th class slab climbing to reach to summit. Fun and easily done in my approach shoes.

Views of Toulumne meadows from the ridge

 

Summit slabs

Then we relaxed on the summit for a good hour, enjoying the sun. It was a leisurely 4 hours from the car to the top. A short, casual outing. We then descending along the east slopes following a good trail through some lovely lakes and meadows to the Sawmill campground. 

Pretty

 We were back at our car by 1PM. Since we were so quick on Conness, Mitch and I hopped in the car and drove 45 min up to Lembert Dome, and blasted off a quick climb to the summit of the dome - Northest book (II, 5.6). 

Squeeze on the Northwest book of Lembert Dome

 

Two peaks in a day!

What a great day in the mountains! I decided to head home, knowing that Teresa was a bit lonely. I'll be back on the East Side next weekend -- for some more climbing!

Canadian Rockies - Lyell Traverse

Kyle and I headed to the Canadian Rockies for our annual climbing trip. As always, the Rockies delivered the goods!

Views in the Rockies

This year, we did not really have a solid plan, but instead decided to sort of wing it. Kyle picked me up in the airport in Calgary and we made our way to Canmore. We spent a night in the luxurious Alpine Club of Canada hostel. Great climber accommodations at a reasonable price!

Alpine club luxury!

 

Views of the Three Sisters from the hostel

We met up with Bryce and Sunny, both former Thunder Bayians who now live a nomadic life style based out of Canmore. They are both MDs and accomplished alpinists who have climbed all over the world. Bryce was psyched to get out with us, and with a little gleam in his proposed a three day adventure onto the remote Lyell glacier. Seemed like a cool adventure, so we piled into Bryce and Sunny's Nissan Xterra and drove a couple of hours from Canmore to Golden, BC. Then onto some logging roads for another 80 Km or so before turning off to the "approach road"

The first crux of the day was getting past the large washout on the approach road. We all got out of the car, and Byrce sized up the difficulties with an expert eye. "It will go" he boldly proclaimed. 

Sizing up the washout

The truck was almost flipped but we made it across! Kudos to Bryce's 4WD skills! After a couple of more truck river crossings we made it to the parking area. We stashed some beer in the creek for after and wrapped the truck in chicken wire to protect it from the critters.

Apparently the XTerra can drive across things like this. Who knew?

Well protected vehicle

 Then started bush-whacking up, eventually picking up the trail leading us onto a bench then towards the glacier. The hike in was about 12 KM, and gained about 6000 feet, I think it took us a total of 8 hours to actually reach the hut on the glacier. 

The approach itself was beautiful and fairly exhausting.

Starting the hike in. Fresh and psyched

 

Which way do we go?

While we hiked in Sunny reflected that we were having a true Rockies experience so far. We were in a remote area, 4WD roads, route finding on the approach all we now needed was a river crossing and a thunder storm.

Next up - river crossing. One of the log bridges was out so we had to ford the river. No problem. While Kyle and I looked around futilely for a way across, the veteran Rockies climbers just strode straight into the river and walked across. Well, good thing I packed extra socks!

Bryce crosses the river

Just below the moraine to the Lyell glacier, we arrived at a stunning bench with a beautiful alpine meadow and waterfalls cascading down a 2000+ foot cliff. Spectacular, words and pictures really don't do the place justice.

Waterfalls galore!

Taking a break in an alpine meadow

Once we reached the moirane the thunder storms arrived. We huddles for shelter under Bryce's tarp while the rains passed and eventually reached the Lyell glacier. 

Traveling across the moirane

Glacier travel

The glacier was pretty mellow, and we arrived at hut just before sunset.

Arriving at the hut

The hut on the Lyell glacier

I was feeling pretty crumby by the time we arrived at the hut. Maybe a combination of exhaustion and mild AMS. I hit the hey pretty early, lucily I felt fine and good to-go by the morning.

The red door

 We had a fairly leisurely start and headed out to climb the Lyells. We dropped back down to the glacier and then made out way through some crevassed terrain towards the peaks. It ended up being MUCH farther than any of us thought, and took a good 4 hours of glacier travel to reach the base of the first peak!!

Kyle and Sunny - on our morning travel on the glacier

Bryce examines the Lyells off in the distance. We had to traverse all the way around to reach them

Avoiding a large crevasse

We arrived at the start of Lyell I, a straight forward snow and ice climb to a 3rd class rock ridge. The crux was pulling over the bergschrund. Sunny took the lead on this one. It was not long before we were on the summit.

Sunny and Bryce on the summit ridge of Lyell I

Kyle is happy to be on the summit

View from the summit of Lyell I

 We retraced our steps down the rocky ridge and then headed over to Lyell II. It was a short easy walk up snow slopes and glacier to the next summit.

Looking towards Lyell II.

We looked over to Lyell III, which was supposed to be easy. It certainly did not look that way from the top of Lyell II! The route looked like steep seracs might block access to the summit ridge.

Lyell III- Sercs guarding the summit

Summit of Lyell II

We headed down Lyell II, towards the third peak. We tromped up the snow slope to the base of the serac. After an aborted attempt to climb a ice step directly, Bryce found a nebulus way up following a snow ramp through the ice.

ramp to the summit

 After a short snow ridge we reached the top of Lyell III.

Kyle on the summit

Summit view from Lyell III.

We enjoyed the sun for a little bit, then headed back down the summit ridge.

Heading down

Bryce is apparently a master at spotting tat, and sure enough he quickly identified a slung rock that we could use to rappel back over the ice cliffs. We backed it up with some new cord, and then rapped back down to the snow slope below the serac.

Rap station

Clean rappel over the serac

The day was getting on, and Lyell IV looked out of shape, so we decided to pack it in and begin the long trudge across the glacier back to the hut.

Heading down

After a long slog back across the glacier, including some tricky navigation though a maze of crevasses we made it back to the hut just before sunset. We enjoyed the luxurious comfort of the hut, cooking a nice meal before hitting the hay.

Hut luxuries

A well earned rest in the hut

The next day we packed it up and began the long hike back to the car. The weather was fantastic so we took a bit of time to enjoy the views of the spectacular alpine meadows and waterfalls below the glacier.

Icefall glacier

Meadows

Sunny enjoys the views of the waterfall

We reached the truck, and enjoyed those stashed beers. We drove out, and reached the final crux of the trip. The washout we had driven through earlier was much much worse, in fact the road had disappeared under the river!

Where did the road go?

Is there a road under there?

Undeterred, Bryce had his biggest 4WD test and managed to get his vehicle through that mess, getting us safely through to the other side. The Xterra almost flipped over and it stalled in the middle of the water, but he made it!

Emerging from the river

We headed back to town and enjoyed another night of Bryce and Sunny's great hospitality. We had an awesome trip into the mountains with them, and I will certainly look them up next time I pass through Canmore.

For the last few days of the trip, Kyle and I explored Canmore (i.e check out various pubs and climbing gear stores). We also made one last quick climb, heading up a super easy bolted route on the appropriately named Mt. Cory. 

Grey limestone on Mt. Cory

Kyle - looking grizzled

It was a short trip, only 6 days, but we certainly packed in the adventure in a short time. As always, my annual climbing trip with my brother was memorable. 

Goodbye Canadian Rockies, until next time...