A "Short Drive" Beyond Whistler

For Labor Day 2000 I ended up going climbing with Dan and Forrest, two Seattle climbers who had been invited by Don Serl, BC activist and guidebook writer, on a trip into the southern Coastal Ranges... We left Seattle at about 3pm on Thursday afternoon, crammed into the front of my truck. We met Don Serl and his four friends in Hope, where we transferred Dan to Steven's Jeep to make a bit more room in my truck. We carried on driving in the rain to some place beyond Williams Lake, deep in the heart of the Canadian interior. Dan, Forrest and I all managed to sleep in the back of my truck, mainly because they're both quite a bit smaller than I am.

The following morning it was still raining we drove 50 miles down a forest road to the trail into the mountains. Several hours later having driven through huge mud troughs and massively rutted roads, forded a three foot deep river and nearly rolled the Jeep. Having arrived at the drop off point we re-packed and headed off up the nearest valley, bushwacking through fir trees and over heather to get above the tree line. Navigation was difficult as it was now snowing quite hard and we were in fog. After a couple of hours we quit trying to get the whole way in to out original objective and settled for a camp in the valley below Taseko Mountain. The Saturday morning we got up at 5.30 to discover the skies were at least partially clear. With the weather much improved, at least for a short while we opted for an attempt on Taseko Mountain, 9232'. Having go up at 5.30 we didn't actually leave camp until much later, "The crack of 8am" according to Forrest.

Considering the weather and snow conditions we opted for the least ambitious option which was to climb a variation of the existing line on the face climbed by Don on the last visit. We did the North Couloir of Taseko, 1400' 50-60 degrees (from Don's description) Don Serl and co. had previously climbed the left hand gully at the base of the couloir, mainly due to difficulties crossing the long bergshrund and rockfall down the main couloir .We tried the unclimbed but more direct main couloir having found a place to cross the 'shrund.

We crossed the 'shrund at 11am and moved as a rope of three until Forrest was on the face and reached the first screw we then ditched the rope in favor of simul-soloing the route. Snow conditions didn't improve but didn't get any worse either, 6-9" of soft powder over the ice. I dug an trench up most of the first third of the route until the couloir narrowed and things got a little more thought provoking... The couloir narrowed and we had to climb a 80' section up an avalanche runnel about six feet wide and four foot deep, not a good place to be should the snow above decide to move so I stepped into the runnel at the last minute and dashed for the top so I could step out of the fall line. It's amazing what the vision of a three foot high wall of snow heading towards you can do to already tired calves.

Upward progress slowed a bit about 300' below the final rock step as one of my ice tool picks suddenly became two inches shorter than it was supposed to be. Climbing with a broken pick proved futile. By the time I'd changed it Dan and Forrest had arrived at the top of a projecting rock a hundred feet below.

As we were heading up the final slope Don's head appeared above the lip of the gully. Don, Gord and Steven had decided to do the normal route. The final few hundred feet and short mixed section at the top turned out to be pretty straight forward when all the snow was swept off. Don's appearance turned out to be a real bonus as the weather had crapped out, we tagged the summit and then followed their footsteps down the ridge to the descent gully.

The following day we walked out, the weather had warmed up so no more routes were on the agenda. The drive out took most of the day, including a short detour to the ridge crest to look at the rest of the range. There's a whole load of routes still to do if you can handle the approaches.

Summary

Taseko Mountain, North Couloir 3063 m (420m, 50-60°). 4^th Sept 2000.

The route follows the major couloir directly below the summit (I don't have a picture, the main summit is well to the left when looking up the valley). The couloir is split in its lower third by a large rock buttress. We crossed the bergshrund on the far right and continued up the right hand side, exiting through mixed terrain to reach the summit plateau. The first ascentionists took the left hand variation.