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Nohea
Trad climber
Living Outside the Statist Quo
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Was helicopter skiing in the Monashee I believe and while chilling on one summit the guide started naming peaks and he points out Mt Robson and I just stared at it for a while thinking of he many adventures that took place there.
Thanks for a great thread!
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Oh...MT. ROBSON stories....
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Wade: Re Mt. Robson & Mrs. Robinson.
It's an "dirty-old-fart" thing.
I had the same flash on at least two-occasions when I noticed the thread title.
Robson was on the 1978 Big climbs in Canada list. After nearly dying (twice) while climbing the Chouinard Route on Mt. Fay
Robson was taken off the list.
For the rest of my life!
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seano
Mountain climber
none
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I just stumbled across this old thread by accident, and Ed H.'s old photos are great! I did practically the same thing in August 2014, reaching the hut on an attempt at the Wishbone, then deciding "nah." That turned out to be a good choice, as I (think I) summited in a white-out, and would never have found the standard descent if I hadn't just climbed it. As it was, I spent a couple hours downclimbing through crevasses to get back to the Schwartz Ledges -- the blowing snow had erased my tracks -- and returned to my car wet and pretty much wiped out after 15 hours on the trail/route.
Here are a few similar pictures from 29 years later:
Anyways, full details here.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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thanks for resurrecting a sweet thread and also for a great share seano...
just snooped through what few old posts you have and you're an understated fitness monster for sure...
if you've got any other good adventures you've been on, a write up or two posted to the forum would be appreciated by at least a few of us!
the descent, as you described on your blog, sounds like it was... shall we say... engaging.
congrats and glad it all worked out for ya.
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LilaBiene
Trad climber
Technically...the spawning grounds of Yosemite
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Great thread and amazing to read all of the different perspectives across time...not to mention see the incredible pictures! Wow.
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seano
Mountain climber
none
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if you've got any other good adventures you've been on, a write up or two posted to the forum would be appreciated by at least a few of us!
There's quite a bit more on the blog, mostly in the "type II fun" category. The most entertaining/sketch-ball stuff from this summer might be Challenger, Goode (also in bad weather), and Johannesburg in the Cascades. The last climb is highly recommended.
the descent, as you described on your blog, sounds like it was... shall we say... engaging. "Engaging" is an apt word. While I normally enjoy being fully mentally and physically engaged in the mountains, that was a bit too serious to be fun.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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^^^^
thanks man.
good understated stuff...
especially liked this line:
“Fell off the lawn and died” is not the epitaph I want.
words to live by... words to live by.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 1, 2015 - 10:28pm PT
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nice story Jeff... the rest of the story? "...but I'm seriously not bullshitting you, it involves lightning strikes, a forest fire, and at least one temporarily insane climber in plastic mountaineering boots running for dear life through burning brush."
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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I want the rest of the story--bring on the rats!
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Happy Cowboy
Social climber
Boz MT
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I saw a photo taken on Mt. Robson when I was a youngster, and which triggered a huge desire to climb glaciated peaks. Summer of 67' on a rainy, camping afternoon we hit Jasper to look for a present for my older brother who was away working at Mt. McKinley. I suggested the little Euro stoves I'd seen in Summit magazine. We'd looked at a Sport shop to no avail, and I enquired if there was any one who sold such? Without answer, the fella dialed up the phone, then asked "Hans, you still have any Optimus stoves, ok, I'll send them over". He diagramed a map to a small basement apartment.
Though 50 years ago I vividly remember the cement stairwell leading down to the doorway, and Hans friendly greeting. It was idyllic, a small warm fire on a cold damp afternoon, young wife rocking their new baby, cat playing in the covers. I spotted exactly what we wanted, Optimus 8R on a shelf with other items for sale. Hans opened the blue box and slid the shiny brass tank into working position. My Dad, an engineer was impressed, and started considering the price. Above the shelf were several B&W photos. One particular had infected my soul. It was of a canvas A-frame tent pitched within a series of glacial ice steps. I quietly stared in amazement, then asked "how deep was the ice there"? Hans noted that was on Mt. Robson's Hourglass route, and the glacier was changing/receding. He "didn't really know how deep only that it was less now than when the photo was taken". Dad asked for his name and he replyed "Schwarz, Hans Schwarz" then bent over and shook my hand. We left and headed back to the wet campground. I was absorbed in desire and soon blurted out "I want to live on ice that I don't know how deep it is!
4 years later I got that opportunity. Summer 71' I spent 45 days on the east side of Mt. McKinley, climbing the FA of the Traleika Glacier route.
August, that same summer, I headed to Robson with George Sormer, a Salt Laker 50 years my senior. He'd been guided twice before unsuccessfully and now my turn. It was there I learned the significance of my earlier encounter with Hans. George had previously been guided by another Hans, "Gmoser", but he knew much of Schwarz. IMHO "Schwarz" was the preeminent Canadian guide of the era before Canadian Mountain Holidays. The route we were intending to try climb was known as the "Schwarz ledges" now simply the "ledges" route. As George explained first there was Kain, then came Schwarz, and now Gmoser. We got as close to the summit then as George ever got. We turned back about 800 vertical from the top when I stated that we would need to bivy on the descent in order to wait for colder, morning conditions, a tactic a party had used 2 days before. The thought of a night out without extra gear turned us around. George tried 9 times unsuccessfully in all and we laughed later(in pain) that represented his "high point".
I grew up climbing around many individuals involved in early Robson exploits...Ron Perla, Peter Lev, Jock Glidden, Pat Callas, and Jim Kanzler, all helped to build Robson's mystique.
I'll finish with an enjoyable memory from one Johnny Waterman. He helped guide on the Kain Face with Warren Blesser. Warren had a big Husky dog that went most places with him. Johnny told how the dog got to the top of the Kain face first, before any of the climbers, and headed up the summit ridge. Later when J and Warren were heading up the ridge they met a party of Japanese descending who told them "beware, there is a Wolf on the summit". Long live the King of the Rockies!
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domngo
climber
Canada
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She was lookin sharp last weekend
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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MT Robson, Emperor Face, 2nd Ascent: 1981 David Chessmond and Tony Dick
It seems absurd but our arrival at Mt. Robson represented a sort of failure. In the mid-summer storm of ’81 we South Africans had congregated in Alaska looking for the superb east spur of Mt. Deborah beneath 6ft. of snow. We were also looking for our unequaled supply of good and nutritious canned roast chickens and cashew nuts which were to be airdropped to us. In spite of strenuous efforts we never found the snacks until after the horrific hike out. They were waiting at the airstrip along with everyone else’s supplies. So we ate them in the van on the way down the Alaska Highway, and decided, next time we would bring some porters to carry our snacks.
Robson wasn’t really on our minds, only food, but the way it looms above that highway, you would have to be in worse shape than a Biafran not to leap out of the van and climb it. Try, at the very least.
We were so skinny we pretended not to see the Emperor Face, but went up the Wishbone Ridge instead, to try and get some strength up. Unfortunately while resting near the top of the hourglass on the descent, a serac fell off and knocked my pack down almost to the Ralph Forster hut. It was too warm to go after it as everything else was starting to fall down, so I spent the night up there in my shirtsleeves. During the night I noticed that it wasn’t too warm anymore!
Dave Cheesmond and I had one more big nosh on the way past our tent, and this time we felt we could notice the Emperor Face straight above. I had to catch a plane from Calgary in four days, so we set off in an afternoon hail storm and bivvied where the wall steepens up. It was as warm as South Africa up there so the noises kept us entertained all night.
All I remember of the next day on the wall is running for odd bits of cover. The stones were coming down everywhere, but most especially down the existing route, so we ran past it. But that evening we reached the freeze line. What a pleasure! Really an excellent bivvy, more of the Alaska snacks, and the views down to Berg Lake made it more than worthwhile.
From there on we enjoyed ourselves fully; steep ice gullies and rock ribs, with the ice frozen up to hold the rock together nicely. Where the angle eased, the climbing got more serious, as there was little safety. We had one more bivvy on a tiny ledge we cut in the ice; happy as children. Next morning we soloed part of the way up to the gargoyles, but then roped in and out of these huge frozen waves, to reach the summit for lunch. Good meals were still one of our main concerns!
Then it was a stroll down to the hut were we spent the night, before an early morning rush to get to the airport in time. Even though I only spent that one week at Robson, its as large as life in my mind; right up there with my best memories of Dave.
Tony Dick
Thanks to Tony Dick
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norm larson
climber
wilson, wyoming
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Cowboy that was a great story.
My Robson stories are much shorter. Twice I hiked in in the rain, sat around for a few days in the rain, and hiked out in the rain. Ahh the days before internet forecasts.
Think what we could have accomplished
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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Jun 19, 2017 - 10:07pm PT
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TFPU the link about the Robson N Face ski descent, by Dylan Cunningham, nah000!
Didn't see it until now. Hard to believe a 2nd descent after all these years! I'm so jealous, too. What a line!
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Jeff Gorris
climber
Not from Portlandia
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Jun 19, 2017 - 11:43pm PT
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Here is my account of the North Face, which I was very fortunate to be able to do with Tom Davis. Not a lot of photos, too busy trying to keep the fun under control.
North face of Robson
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micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
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Jun 20, 2017 - 08:10am PT
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Fantastic stories guys. Way to resurrect a cool thread. That initial OP story was fantastic Ed. I have (we all probably have) many similar stories that follow the same general narrative.
Long approach
The naivety of youth
Get pretty far up the route
Iffy weather comes in
No summit
Long hike home
Tell eachother "It ain't going nowhere...we canalways come back."
You never do come back
Great memories tinged with a bit of regret
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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Jun 20, 2017 - 08:13am PT
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Sometimes when you're hanging out at Berg Lake you just have to play with your rubber chicken. Summer of 79, the Chicken Climbing Club toured the Rockies with little effect; modest success on Narao and Andromeda, abject failures on Forbes, Edith Cavell and of course, Robson. We started up towards the Kain Face as an enormous wall of weather rolled down the glacier towards us and we screeched the club motto in high pitched Python voices, "Run away, run away!" As an addendum, we stopped at a burger joint at the highway to have a "Mountain Burger". Halfway through it dawned on us, this wasn't hamburger. We queried the proprietor who said it was soy, and added, "I think it makes a better burger, don't you?" Oh, Canada. Club members still deploy this quote at appropriate moments.
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