When Michael Down mentioned he had booked a week off in mid-september for a trip to the Waddington range and needed a partner, the idea was more than appealing but it seemed unrealistic to involve myself in the plan. I had spent more time climbing than working during the summer and finances were getting uncomfortably low. September to November seemed to perfect time to earn some money in preparation for the upcoming winter.
But as time rolled by and the labour day weekend drew to an end, I found myself still unemployed and it no longer seemed such a stretch to avoid work for a week and a half longer to fit in a trip. Funny how one's perception can change so entirely, especially when its a question of work versus play!
Once I'd confirmed my participation we began to plan for our objective. Actually, we discussed several options within a several hundred kilometer radius and left it at that. It wasn't until we were driving out of Vancouver that we decided to commit to an attempt on a north face route of Serra 5. We drove to Williams Lake from Vancouver, slept, then drove the rest of the way to Bluff Lake, arriving at the White Saddle Air Services ranch at 7:30am.
Bluff Lake
Mike King, the owner/operator/pilot at White Saddle came down to greet us and before long we were airborn, flying in perfect skies towards the Radiant Cirque. This was my first time flying in from the dry Chilkoten side of the Coast Range. The views were no less or more spectacular but differed greatly as a result of the topography's relative openness and aridity.
The dry side of the Coast Range
Approaching the Radiant Cirque, with Mt's Tiedemann, Asperity, and the Serras clearly visible.
Our initial plan had been to get dropped off on the large bench between the Radiant's upper and lower icefalls. We would then spend the day making our way through the messy upper icefall and the next couple days working the route. As we flew in, it became clear we'd need a change of plans; the icefall was in terrible shape and looked impassible from the air. Fortunately Mike King was able to toe-in just below Asperity's north face above the fall, providing us with relatively clear access to our route and saving us from a lot of danger and sweat. Minutes later Mike was gone and we were alone in this very remote and eerily beautiful part of the Coast Range.
Wishing to waste no time, we quickly found a good spot for camp several hundred feet below the drop. Once setup was complete we set out to establish a route to the base of the face we hoped to climb he next day. Michael calls the Radiant "the Khumbu of the Coast Range" and it wasn't hard to see why as even in this relatively unbroken part of the cirque toppling seracs could be heard frequently. Route finding was tricky at times but we were able to reach the base of the route and return to the tent before dark.
Room with a view
A foreshortened look at the route - the direct line that meets the ridge lookers right of the summit horn
We left the tent at dawn the next morning with the skies clear and the temperature around -10C. Retracing our footsteps from the day before, we arrived at the bergshrund that separates the glacier from the north face shortly before 9am. Michael led up and across a vertical stretch of ice to breach the crevasse and then climbed up the face for the remainder of a rope length. From this point we swung leads, working our way slowly up the face. The climbing was fairly straight forward but took time due to a sugary layer of snow that had to be hacked through in order to reach any water-ice. Sometimes placing a screw safely proved a tiring and time-consuming task but at least our calf muscles were spared the torture of standing on front-point for hours on end!
Sun setting on the Radiant with the Scimitar glacier visible in the distance
I reached the ridge at dusk, joining our climb with the original summit route. By the time Michael arrived we needed our headlamps to see clearly. The wind was howling and while we contemplated a bivy, no suitable spot could be found so we made the decision to abandon the summit and start moving down.
We spent the next few hours methodically making our way down the face. The fact that I hadn't been drinking water for most of the day or managed to eat anything was now catching up with me, as I began to feel nauseous and mildly delirious. I drifted off to sleep often, only to be woken by Michael's call of "SECURE" from below. Recognizing that I wasn't overly alert, I formed that habit of regimentally quadruple-checking my contact points as I disassembled anchors and setup my repel. By the time we arrived at the base of the face, I had drunk a fair bit of water and was feeling better.
As we retraced our steps back towards the tent, dawn began to break. Skies remained clear but the wind blew strongly from the north. Finally we crossed the last ice bridge and made the final snowy trudge back to the tent, arriving at our base at 7am - more than a day after leaving. Once there we shook hands, drank some water and passed out.
When we awoke three hours later the weather had changed drastically for the worse. Clouds covered the higher peaks and heavier weather could be seen in the distance moving our way. With our route complete and not wanting to get weathered in on the upper Radiant, Michael radioed Mike King and arranged for a pickup. We broke camp quickly and were just finishing marking a landing zone on the top of a huge crevasse when we heard the Long-Ranger helicopter approaching. It was snowing as Mike toed-in and we loaded ourselves and the gear as quickly as possible while trying not to jolt the machine as Mike held it in a semi-hover.
Half an hour later we were back at the White Saddle ranch, only 48 hours after leaving! The sky was blue with patchy clouds and the temperature felt warm as Michael and I were left to digest events from what now seemed like another planet.
More pics to come...
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