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Bschmitz
Ice climber
mountain view
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Feb 23, 2010 - 02:18pm PT
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isn't that where Walsh's "uber groove" route goes up? or was that on the north west face.
Heli ride: 4 people about $1200 each.
So want to do the traverse!!!
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Feb 23, 2010 - 03:18pm PT
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I'm suggesting we need to get as many people as possible into Bute this year to raise awareness of what's at stake.
Hi Perry
The problem with this is that the people who would visit the area to view the current and potential devastation are already convinced. As a percentage of the total population they are pretty much statistically insignificant, and the politicians and corporations involved will have already factored in their opposition and decided it can be ignored.
Unless and until stopping the Homathko/Bute hydro development becomes a popular cause, it is probably a lost cause. I wish I had a useful suggestion about how to make it something that the general population cared about, but I don't. Most people care only about what is on TV and how their favorite sports team is doing. What happens to a few fish in some river they've never heard of is irrelevant to them.
Maybe, if a few celebrities (TV/sports stars) could be brought on board, then people would listen. Is there any way of putting up a legal challenge that will halt the process, at least temporarily?
I can never forget sitting on the summit of Mt. Sir Frances Drake, looking 9,000 feet straight down to Bute Inlet, with a clear view of Waddington rising 13,000 feet up out of the valley of the Homathko to the north. It's a spectacular place, for sure.
D
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 23, 2010 - 03:33pm PT
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Perry have you tried contacting an established environmental organization with money and legal firepower ?
Greenpeace maybe ... do they still operate out of Vancouver ?
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Chief
climber
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Feb 23, 2010 - 04:04pm PT
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Ghost, Bruce and others, thanks for the input.
The Western Canada Wilderness Committee has been taking a big part of the lead on this and many other environmental issues. I first became aware of the Bute situation at one of their open houses in Vancouver over a year ago. They helped organize the successful resistance that stopped the Pitt River proposals from being approved. They are planning a series of information meetings specific to Bute for late March and April. We need attendance at these meetings. While the IPPs and Bute are high on WCWC's priority list, they do have a broader mandate and a full plate of other issues.
I'm scheduled to meet Joe Foy at the WCWC office this week to discuss the Bute issue.
The Suzuki Foundation has been suggested as well as Eco Justice/Sierra Legal Defense Fund.
As best as I can tell, there is a broad base of awareness, concern and support on the issue, it just hasn't galvanized around a focused legal entity or leadership structure.
I appreciate that putting a few hundred souls into Bute this year won't contribute to better representation or profile UNLESS,....
We bring some high powered personalities that will attract global media attention.
I do think it will help a lot if people on this forum simply send an email and become "A Friend of Bute". The link is on at least one of these threads.
Thanks for listening, I'll try to keep the information coming.
PB
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Beazley
Trad climber
BC
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Feb 23, 2010 - 05:44pm PT
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Toba can not be stopped but Bute is still not a done deal. Plutonic Power are still only at the research stage. They have delayed their Environmental Impact Study for another year because they found fish last fall in proposed turbine sites where they hadn't seen them in previous studies so need to do more studies.
They also are very much aware of the degree of spiderweb effect of the transmission lines coming out of The Bear Valley, Teaquahan Valley, Homathko Valley, Southgate Valley and on down to the Orford Valley before heading up over The Tahumming to the Toba project. If Knight Inlet also proceeds there will be a connection going over the Whitemantle Range and and down the Brew to the Homathko as well as down Knight Inlet itself to Vancouver Island.
They managed to slide the Toba project under the door without the public realizing the true scale of these 'green' power projects. They thought Bute would be just as easy but are finding out that the public are now aware of what is going on. The EA office had only a handful of public comments in the early application stage for Toba but Bute had over 3,000 comments.They will also have to go through a Federal Panel Review and not just a Provincial Review.
This is the time to say 'I believe'. The Olympics is one month. Our heritage is forever.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Feb 23, 2010 - 07:09pm PT
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"This is the time to say 'I believe'. The Olympics is one month. Our heritage is forever."
Bute Inlet and the Homathko River drainage comprise one of the most scenic and wild areas we have ever visited. In 1985 my wife Nancy and I ventured into this beautiful area with our friends Rob and Laurie Wood. Part kayaking and part sailing on the mother ship Quintano, a catamaran that Rob had built on their property on Maurelle Island. This is their backyard and a most precious sanctuary it is. Chief, Ghost and Beazley all have ideas on how we can help preserve this wonderful area that is so threatened today. Isn't this what ST is all about?
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Chief
climber
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Feb 23, 2010 - 07:41pm PT
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Guido,
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and posting the great photos.
Perry
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mastadon
Trad climber
quaking has-been
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Feb 23, 2010 - 08:00pm PT
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My girlfriend and I visited Rob and Laurie Wood at their little island commune in 1976 or somewhere thereabouts. It was quite an adventure getting there. I remember that they had a pretty cool little cabin and their daughter must have been six or so years old. People were hiding from Armageddon at that time.....
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 23, 2010 - 08:25pm PT
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Ghost or Foweraker have you guys any pictures to complement the images Guido has posted of Bute Inlet ?
Perhaps a tale or two of your exploits in the area ? It's for a good cause.
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 23, 2010 - 10:04pm PT
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Beautiful images Jim and Guido ....
The transmission line impact alone, is going to be very nasty in the BC inlets, any alternative project linking to the grid shares this problem, be it in hydro in BC or solar in the southern states. This aspect of the issue is universal.
An Einstein category, Environmental lawyer, is what's needed as the best hope to challenge this "progress"
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Feb 26, 2010 - 02:29am PT
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Ghost or Foweraker have you guys any pictures to complement the images Guido has posted of Bute Inlet ?
Perhaps a tale or two of your exploits in the area ? It's for a good cause.
I've posted pictures and stories of Foweraker above Bute Inlet in "The Definitive Canadian Underwear Thread (it's at http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/759442/The_definitive_Canadian_climbing_underwear_thread);. But since that story is mostly about perversion and disease, I'll repost a couple of the pictures (the ones of mountains, not of underwear) here.
It's hard to explain the feel of this place to folks who live and climb in the contiguous US. There are many fine mountain areas in the lower 48, but this is something different. This is truly wild country. Savage in a way that doesn't exist in Colorado or California. Or even Montana or Washington. It is remote, wild, empty, glaciated, steep... Home to wolverines, ravens, grizzly bears, and salmon.
Aaarrrghhhhh! Photo uploader isn't working. I'll try again in the morning.
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Jay Hack
Trad climber
bellingham, Washington
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Feb 26, 2010 - 09:36am PT
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Jim and Guido, your pictures are magical, really cool stuff. They definately make me long for the pacific northwest/coast range.
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 26, 2010 - 11:54am PT
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Bruce Kay - Hey congratulations on your picking of the plum on Mt Bute last year !
2009 Mugs Stump Award Winners: Martinello/Kay/Sinnes—Mount Bute, BC, Canada
TR @ http://www.mugsstumpaward.com/2009_mks.html
We named The route, "School of Rock", it went at 5.11 A1 (50 pitches).
How many thousand feet is 50 pitches Bruce ?
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Chief
climber
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Feb 26, 2010 - 12:26pm PT
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Way to go Bruce!
Rob and Laurie Wood pointed out the line during our visit last Sunday but didn't know who had done it. Over 5000' of relief!
Bute Mountain is a fitting sentinel for the gateway to the Waddington Range. "A Mont Blanc Range with no people around".
If Plutonic GE has it's way, there will be a massive hydro substation at the base of Bute Mountain right on the Southgate Estuary. You won't be able to miss it because it's going to be at the center of a web of transmission lines radiating from Scar Creek to Sechelt. If you're approaching Waddington from Bute, you'll follow transmission lines and powerhouses all the way to the Coola Creek shoulder. Then again, that's only if GE will let you in the valley at all.
I had a productive meeting yesterday with Joe Foy and Gwen Barlee at the Wilderness Committee office in Vancouver. Bute is the focal point and battle ground to challenge our government's unscrupulous policies. I learned that the Sierra Club, Eco Justice and other credible organizations are very much on board. A "Summit" meeting of these various interest groups is being considered for this spring, probably on the Homathko.
I will do my best to keep everyone informed.
Perry
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Chief
climber
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Feb 26, 2010 - 02:08pm PT
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Bruce,
Kudos dude!
I'm going back into Bute for one more recce before my March 11 shoulder rerig. I'm calling on any fellow Canuck ST members to help me form a posse big enough to share a water taxi or plane ride from Campbell River to Homathko next week.
Chuck and Sharon would love to have some guests at their camp.
Catch and release, single barbless, Dollies and Bulls to 10 lb plus, sea run cutties the size of footballs. They rise for waked dries!
Perry
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Feb 26, 2010 - 02:17pm PT
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We did the first top to bottem (as far as we could tell anyway) Well, it is a bit more usual to go from bottom to top, but all styles are fine, as long as the mountain is left the way it was. :-)
Anyway, you guys keep up the good work - both the climbing and the conservation.
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 26, 2010 - 03:02pm PT
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Bruce that is 6000 ft of relief, comparable to stuff on Baffin Island ! You are one hell of an over 50, radical dadical. The left skyline is the Down/Foweraker/Clarke route ?
I have been wondering what the cents/kilowatt hour capital cost will be on this project. The Bloom Energy server weighs in at 11 cents I believe. A sure project killer is always economics.
Perry, I would like to get into Bute with my cameras sometime (DSLR, pro grade video and night vision video), but need good weather for nice images, though bad weather can be artsified on the computer. I was thinking I was going to make a speed boat adventure of it in the summer.
Any quality images or footage I would gladly donate to the WWC
How much would the all in cost be for this upcomming trip with you ?
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Chief
climber
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Feb 26, 2010 - 03:09pm PT
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Bruce,
Water taxi from Campbell River $900 per trip, seats 12.
Ten people, $180 return each.
Accommodation and three squares at the Chateau Homathko approx $125 per day.
The views of Bute and the fishing, priceless!
Let's git er done!
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 26, 2010 - 03:14pm PT
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I'd almost rather put the fuel into my own 18' Grady White and go for it with 1 other person. It would be cheaper. Who owns the dock up at Bute ?
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Chief
climber
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Feb 26, 2010 - 03:20pm PT
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Bruce,
Yer on yer own in the Grady.
Bute's notorious for sudden 80k outflows and devouring small open watercraft.
Besides, two ain't much of a posse and I've got four already.
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