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RDB
Social climber
wa
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Nov 19, 2014 - 08:13pm PT
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Sponsors and pro deals circa '78? You gotta be kidding. Wool shirts were from JC Penny.
Brad?
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RDB
Social climber
wa
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Nov 19, 2014 - 08:37pm PT
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Ha, Ha! And you're Canadian Jim!
Mid summer and late Fall bitd for dry conditions...the Sunwapta was a many, many braided stream, the beginnings of a river once it drops into the valley a mile or so down stream. Us Yanks were just as likely to drown there!
point being..
"You could wade the many creeks, as your photo demonstrates, or drop MANY trees...few or none of them big enough to get across just one braid of that "river" across it as a bridge and hope it doesn't wash away..."
Up side? The Sunwapta is literally right off the road. You have the rest of the day to unthaw your feet. Likely better today when the thing is frozen up. Huts, bivy caves, dry tooling!? Life is getting easier :)
Until you have been back there..into "the hole" I think it is hard to appreciate the mental and physical effort..even today...that a successful summit requires. N Ridge of Columbia, Twin and Alberta are some amazing climbs in a stellar location. We're lucky to still have such a place.
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RDB
Social climber
wa
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Nov 20, 2014 - 12:53am PT
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Nov 20, 2014 - 01:50am PT
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Thanks RDB, classic pic.
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Nov 20, 2014 - 02:34pm PT
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Mt Alberta, North Face: Will Sim and Nick Bullock cont...
Thanks to Will Sim
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Nov 21, 2014 - 01:21pm PT
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Mt Alberta, North Face: Will Sim and Nick Bullock cont...
Thanks to Will Sim
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Nov 21, 2014 - 11:18pm PT
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Mt Alberta, North Face: Will Sim and Nick Bullock cont...
Thanks to Will Sim
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Nov 22, 2014 - 01:34pm PT
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Mt Alberta, North Face: Steve Swenson and Kit Lewis
Special thanks to Mark Kroese. (From his book "Fifty Favorite Climbs in North America: The Ultimate North American Tick List")
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 22, 2014 - 01:52pm PT
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Hey, Avery, I think you forgot a page! Jess sayin', but keep up the good work! :-)
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Nov 22, 2014 - 02:00pm PT
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Thanks Reilly, just fixed it!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Nov 22, 2014 - 02:44pm PT
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Great stuff. Cool story and spectacular color shot.
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Nov 23, 2014 - 12:42am PT
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Mt Alberta, North Face: George Lowe and Jock Glidden
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Nov 23, 2014 - 12:52am PT
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I started this thread with the hope of identifying and naming the climber's responsible for the first six ascents. With a little help from my friends this has been accomplished. (fingers crossed)
I then decided to approach every successful NF party I knew of, in the hope of getting a short trip report from each. So far, I have ten excellent reports covering ten separate ascents of Alberta's NF. (This includes Will Sim's pics)
With that in mind. I would like to thank: Peter Arbic, Andy De Klerk, Dana Ruddy, Jon Walsh, Vince Anderson, Will Sim, Jason Kruk, Gregg Cronn, Steve Swenson and last, but not least, George Lowe
It will be most interesting to see if the remaining two ascent reports are forthcoming!
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Nov 23, 2014 - 08:08am PT
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Well done Avery!
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Aurora Colorado
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Nov 23, 2014 - 04:10pm PT
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Really scary stories. Looks like you don't want to consider this route unless there is a thick ice layer over that yellow band. (what Swenson and Lewis encountered)
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Nov 23, 2014 - 06:41pm PT
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Wow, the Lowe article is pretty cool.
Was that in Ascent?
[Edit to add:] Kind of amazing that they climbed it with a Goldline rope (although many hard climbs were done before kernmantel ropes, and this was close to the time when Goldline was going out of favor, I think).
I wonder if they thought the Goldline might be a bit more robust to rockfall?
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Nov 23, 2014 - 07:52pm PT
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Yes Clint, I believe it was "Ascent".
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA/Boulder, CO
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Nov 23, 2014 - 11:38pm PT
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Clint,
I was thinking the exact same thing about using Goldline rope. It it gets cut, you certainly know it. But, the rope handling characteristics....well, they sometimes make soloing look very, very good.
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Nov 25, 2014 - 03:17pm PT
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Mt Alberta, North Face: Will Sim and Nick Bullock.
http://willsim.blogspot.co.nz/
Somehow we pulled it off, the plan A, the big one, shit; i didn't think that ever happened.
The North Face of Alberta is what I’d call a mythical face. In form, its pyramidal spike of a gable-end is so pleasingly intimidating; it must be one of the most spectacular faces i know of. This incredible photo by the aerial photographer John Scurlock is what inspired me a few months ago to put the N face of Alberta at the very top of my list of things to do.
Although only really a marginal window for what we wanted to attempt, it was our last chance so we had to take it. What we were wanting to attempt was the House-Anderson line on the N Face of Alberta. An incredible looking line which was put up at the end of winter, 7 years ago by the amazingly driven American team of Steve House and Vince Anderson.
With most of our gear stashed up there already, we made the walk in over Woolley Shoulder pretty fast and were chilling out in the sun for most of the afternoon before we left.
The alarm went at 2.30a.m. and it all felt right. It's amazing how different you can feel before an intimidating route, sometimes you'll do anything for that alarm not to go off, sometimes you can't wait to get on with it. After forcing a bagel and a litre of water down my neck we got wrapped up and headed out in to the perfect crisp morning.
To get to the bottom of the N face you have to make a series of raps to the lower glacier which feeds off the face. After walking for an hour we were nearly at the point where we down climbed to make the first abseil when i made a horrifying discovery. My belay plate was not on my harness. What the f*#k! How is that possible? After quickly checking the contents of my bag it was obvious i didn't have it. My magic plate has been attached to my alpine harness for about 5 years, i never take it off, along with two slings a screwgate and a ropeman i never remove it for the precise reason that it would be catastrophic to not have it in a situation like this. After some brief thoughts of anger at myself and how cruel it all seemed, my mind immediately flicked on to thinking of alternative methods of belaying and abseiling. With about 5 raps to get to the route, multiple pitches of very technical climbing, and god knows how many raps to get off the mountain, my belay plate was going to be sorely missed. Nick wanted to bail immediately; the wind had got up and stood freezing ourselves while having a debate about how possible the route would be with one belay plate things had suddenly got desperate in just an hour from waking up. I did my best to persuade Nick and in the end he agreed to give it a shot, i owe him for giving it a chance, with roles reversed I’m not sure what I’d do. I still don't know where my belay plate is.
We made about 4 abseils, 2 of which were free hanging, plus some down climbing to make it to the lower glacier. We managed to leave as little gear as we could, conscious that we needed to conserve it for the climbing ahead. I now know we actually abbed off the wrong spur, and it would have been better to go 200 metres further north.
With this over, we were now beneath one of the most inspiring faces I’ve ever stood beneath, and we could see it was absolutely plastered with whiteness, it looked awesome, so we strolled over to the schrund and got stuck in.
The brilliant line of the House-Anderson goes up the ice streaks in the centre of the headwall, with hard mixed climbing above and beneath, this is why i love alpine climbing, the lines on big mountains are just so inspiring. The pitches up to the top ice blob had been repeated by Canadians Jason Kruk and Joshua Lavigne when they climbed their great looking new line on the left side of the headwall in 2012.
We climbed the last few pitches of day one in the dark. A 50 metre pitch of bullet-hard WI5+with wild stemming on the right wall was exhausting. The pitch above was an incredible yet very worrying skin of vertical and overhanging ice. Nick put up a brilliant lead, and I’ll leave it to him to tell the story of how he climbed it. I spent the whole pitch belaying with my bag on top of my head as i was directly in the firing line.
A pitch later and we were relieved to find the legendary cave feature that Kruk and Lavigne found. Although we knew it was there, we didn't know for sure whether we'd be able to get in to it, or if it was iced over or blocked somehow. We were relieved to be able to enter it and have the most surreal bivy of our lives. Narrow to begin with, we crawled to where it opened out and it felt like entering a cathedral. A huge tube covered in rime ice penetrated in to the mountain. We weren't sure how deep to go, as we needed to have some indication of light outside, but it goes deep, really deep.
We didn't take bivy kit, i had a duvet jacket and some insulated trousers, curled up on the ropes and had a few hours of shivering with occasional bouts of sleep.
After leaving the cave, we climbed a few pitches then hit a kind of dead end. Nick went up and left, and belayed beneath a steep blank looking wall. I started up one weakness, which after a little excavation turned out to be a blank seam. I then traversed right and noticed a steep flake firing up the wall, it looked improbable but i got involved anyway. I battled my way up it with arms exploding for the final 10 metres. I think given the circumstances it was one of my hardest leads. I've done much easier VIII's in Scotland.
Three continually tricky pitches later and we were off the headwall. 150 metres of easy angled rock and ice lay above us which we climbed in three long pitches to reach the south East Ridge.
By this point the weather had taken a real turn for the worse. It was windy and snowing, and as so often is the case with these things, we walked straight over the summit, no hug, no handshake not even an acknowledgement that we were on top. The alarm bells were starting to sound in my head, we needed to get as far down the mountain as we could before darkness and the weather worsened still.
After down climbing the summit ridge, which seemed to take forever, we located the top of the Japanese route and started abseiling down the east face. The Japanese route, the easiest route up the mountain is probably the worst heap of choss I’ve ever seen. Extreme care was needed not to chop the ropes or worse with falling rock when we abbed. The night went on and on and once finished with the abseiling we started down climbing the easier angled lower sections. In the dark and snow it was very hard to navigate, and we were cliffed out everywhere we went. In the end we decided to call it and spent another night shivering in a foetal position. I got my head under a boulder and tried to find a happy place.
After scrutinizing photos I’d taken a few days earlier of the mountain in good weather, i managed to work out where we were, and the next morning, with blocks of wood for feet, we stumbled out on to the glacier after the most intense bit of navigation I’ve ever done.
Sitting by a fire with a beer in my hand, it seems to be sinking in. But I’d like to say that climbing that line in March like Steve and Vince did is seriously inspiring. They must be made of tough stuff.
By Will Sim (With his kind permission)
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