Canada
July 2013
Vancouver
and Squamish :
At the start of the summer I was asked by my good buddy Finn
McCann to join a four man team consisting of Murray Smith, Andrew Wilkanson, Finn
and myself on an expedition to Canada, with the main goal of climbing The Lotus
Flower Tower. I jumped at the offer and we flew out to Vancouver at the end of
June. We hired a car and drove an hour up the road to
the granite mecca of Squamish, a huge chunk of rock in a beautiful location. We
then spent the next couple of days ticking off some of the classics and getting
used to climbing together as a team. We
managed to climb the amazing crack line Exasperator (5.10c or E3) and then
brushed up on our big walls skills with the awesome and world class The Grand
Wall (5.11a or E3/4) on the Chief. A 10 pitch, 300m line all the way the main
face with incredible exposure. To finish
off was great to see Dreamcatcher and I managed to send a cool route just to
the right of it called Young Blood (5.13a/7c+).
I had remembered seeing a video of it a while back, of some nutter
soloing this above some crazy netting system! Shhhhit that must have been
scary! It was all a perfect start to the trip and was a great place to hang out
for just a few days.
Exasperator 5.10c, Squamish
Young Blood 7c+
Dreamcatcher!
The Grand Wall on the Chief
Muzz high up on the Chief
Belly Good Ledge..scariest part on the whole climb!
Whitehorse, Whatson Lake and the Cirque of Unclimbables :
Next stop back to Vancouver and a flight out the next day, 2
hours north to Whitehorse in the middle of the Yukon. After two days and a lot of food shopping we
caught the Greyhound bus travelling 5 hours east to the small town of Watson
Lake and it was definitely feeling like we were heading out into the middle of
nowhere! After a slight delay while
trying to track down our Pilot we jumped on his Float plane and flew an hour
into the Nahanni park reserve. This was quite a challenging ride, my stomach
feeling like it had been turned upside down! Luckily it wasn’t just me who felt
so shitty (Wilky!). We were more than
glad to land on Glacier Lake and were dropped at a beach by a little shed. We
then left half our food rations there and headed on up. The walk up to our
basecamp, the Fairy Meadows was horrendous! It made the Ceuse climb look like a
walk in the park. It took us about 7 hours the first time mainly due to the ridiculously
heavy bags we were carrying. It was quite a sight to see those meadows, when we
arrived later that day I can tell you! This was our home for the next 14 days
and we pitched camp. The weather was
awesome and we decided to have a crack at the tower the following day. After a
slightly delayed start due to some rain and an hour walk up to the Tower we
were heading up the first few pitches of the route. We got to the half way ledge
late that day and decided to spend the night on it. Unfortunately the weather
turned for the worse and it ended up being one of the coldest nights of my
life! Early the next morning we were engulfed by a snow storm and were all
frozen to the bone, so we decided to bail and abseil back down.
This was taken at about 1am in the morning! Was as dark as it ever got
The Team!
Finn showing his skillzzz
The stunning Cobra boulder
Cobra's initial corner
Finn using them palms!
Norwegian mates taking a shot of us at the top of pitch 3. Gives a good scale of the wall! We look tiny!
The Lotus Flower Tower from the meadows
Our climb!
The Fairy Meadows! So beautiful...
The next few days it snowed and rained quite a bit and we
used that time to make a visit down at the lake, to stock up on supplies. The
weather then cleared up and we decided to attempt the wall again but this time a
lot earlier with a nice 12:30am wakeup call! A rather cold and dark few hours
of climbing on the first pitches we were then greeted to a beautiful sunrise. We climbed well and made it back to the
halfway ledge in good time. A rest and quick bite to eat we then attacked the
awesome looking headwall. This consisted of a system of cracks running up the
wall as far as one could see. We made slow progress while trying to pick the
right crack system and eventually made it to the top after quite a lot of
effort! The Lotus Flower was in the bag. All we had to do now was get the hell
down. By this time it was pretty late and we were spent, so had a forced rest/
freeze on the summit! By around 3am with just enough light we then started the
long abseil back down the whole route. Thankfully the sun was out again. We
made it back to solid ground a few hours later completely knackered but so
happy to have made it. The last few days we all just slept, ate, relaxed and
then enjoyed some of the great bouldering and sport climbing in the meadows.
The highlight being the incredible “The Cobra 8a” boulder. Our time in the Cirque
had come to an end and we packed up and we headed back down to the lake. 2 days
then followed waiting for our pilot to arrive and we flew off to The Inconnu
Fishing lodge which was all part of the deal. It was an amazing place and was
soooo good to have a hot shower, sleep on a mattress and eat some good, fresh
food again! The next day was spent fishing for lake trout from a boat. A perfect
end for me!
We then gradually retraced our steps and made our way back
to Vancouver and caught our flight home.
It was one awesome and epic adventure to one very special and remote part of the world!
Looking forward to more of these...
Bolt pose in the Cirque
Looking down the headwall above the roof
Pitch 15
Pitch 17
Bouldering in the Meadows
Arrrh! Glad we weren't up there!
The Cirque plastered with snow
Rappin down the tower
View from the top of the Lotus
Top headwall
Our Float plane
Me and Wilky...eeeeeh
Our kitchen area
Leading a yoga sessions!
Horrendous mosquito's!
Our haul of kit up to the meadows! How did you manage that Finn??
Finn leading pitch 5
Caught in a rainstorm!
Our little furry friends
Team psyche!
Frozen night on the ledge!
Two and a half weeks worth of food
Hot cakes and French Toast for breakfast....mmmmmm
Norwigian guys having just skydived into Inconnu Lodge...Amazing moment!
Muzz finds a friend
Catching my first Canadian lake trout!
10 pound trout caught by Norwegian Tag! Psyched!
Inconnu Lodge transport
Games room at the Inconnu Lodge
