Avalanche Safety: Avalanche Safety: - The Alpine Club of Canada

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2001 - GMC Report - Windy Creek / Remillardby Brad HarrisonAugust21, the skies were clearbut storm clouds werebuilding to the West. We were going to tryto get a couple more days of climbing inbut the weather forecast was grim at best.Eric Unterberger, manager of the CMHAdamant Lodge, had generously allowed usto use their 212 at short notice. Thanks to alot of hard work by my excellent tear downcrew and yeoman service provided by the5th week participants on their last day, thecamp was ready to move in a few hours.Seven weeks of another GMC were aboutto come to an abrupt end. It was a goodsummer, the campsite was sweet and theclimbing different, but interesting. The stoicfolks of the 1st week were inspirational,suffering through dismal weather with everpresentlaughter and smiles, while the wellbarbecuedpeople in weeks 4 and 5 wouldhave appreciated an hour or two of the rain.It is impossible to thank all the people whomade the GMC engine run.The amateur leaders, cooks, guides andcoordinators all worked their butts offto satisfy the individual requests of eachparticipant; not always an easy task, but theymanage to get it done with a smile. DonMcTighe and the staff at Alpine Helicoptersprovided us with reliable, accommodatingand safe service. CMH generously allowedus to dominate the Remillard area for 6weeks of prime time. Windy Creek is oneof the most important summer use areas intheir operations.10 Alpine Club of Canada ● Gazette ● Winter 2002On July 6th, 2002 a train of six orseven overloaded pickups will be snaking upthe Bigmouth Creek Forest Service Road,the final destination of their payloads beinga campsite just west of the Trident andMt. Neptunephoto by David JonesNeptune peaks. This is where the 2002GMC will take place. The mountains areremote, and have entertained very fewvisitors. The west summit of the 10,264'Mt.Trident has been climbed twice. The firstascent was in 1937 by C.Hasler, K.Gardner,L.Guest and Ed Feuz and seconded in 1989by the KMC. The south summit has beenclimbed once in 1951 by T. Scudder. TridentTower, to the north remains unclimbed.The variety of routes is endless. As well as anumber of longer technical challenges, thereare many pleasant, shorter and non-technicalroutes near the camp. There isn’t muchbeta about this area so drop me an email(colwest@telus.net) if you are interested inlearning more about the local routes. Manythanks to David Jones for the information Ihave gathered from his enormous collectionof data. Check out his new guidebook,Selkirks South which is informative and amust-have for Alpinists. I believe SelkirksNorth will be out soon.Before providing a summary of successfulclimbs for this summer’s GMC, I want toleave you with two quotes. I didn’t have mypocket recorder, so they aren’t exact, but Ibelieve I have captured the general gist.“The GMC validates each and everyparticipant; everybody’s opinion is worthsomething, we all feel like we belong.”— Doug Craig.After having a t-slot (he didn’t build)blow, Dave Dornian slid all the way downa benign slope and, as he passed his ropeteam, calmly said, “Off belay.”MountainParties / Participants Parties / Participants Parties / ParticipantsRemillard - 2881m/9450' SE Ridge SE Glacier E. Ridge3 / 11 17 / 97 1 / 4Craw - 2637m/8649' Craw Notch N. Ridge WSW Ridge2 / 6 11 / 61 1 / 4Foxtrot - 2550m/8364'W. Ridge13 / 89Serendipity- 2857m/9371'OK Glacier13 / 98Yardarm - 2644m/8738'SE Ramp14 / 101ACC - 2347m/7700'E Ramp11 / 63Bravo - 2750m/9020'S. Ramp7 / 55Courthouse - 2595m/8511' NE Ridge W Ridge6 / 23 3 / 17Echo - 2990m/9151' NW Ramp E RidgeWhiteface Tower - 2829m/9279'Wart - Half Dome - ACC Traverse 3 / 23Remillard - Wart - Half Dome - ACC Traverse 1 / 47 / 31 3 / 11N. Ridge1 / 3
Summer Holidays 2001by Rob WilsonHavingenjoyed participatingin The Alpine Clubof Canada’s General Mountaineering Campin the summers of 1994 and 1998, I againhad the itch to go on another mountain triplast July 2001.The 2001 climbing area was located atWindy Creek in the Remillard Group of theSelkirk Mountains, one range west of theRockies. After driving two hours north ofRevelstoke, to the helicopter staging area,climbers and personal gear were air liftedto the Windy Creek area where base camphad been set up at an elevation of 6000feet. At this elevation, tree line ends andgives way to Alpine meadows, rock, snow,glaciers and mountaintops. This remote andseldom visited area would be our home forthe next week. I unpacked my personal gear,and after a dinner of soup, salad, pasta andapple crisp prepared by the camp cooks, Isettled into my tent for the night lookingforward to a week of mountain climbing.Sunday I awoke to overcast skies andjoined five others who signed up the nightbefore to climb a moderate peak we called“ACC”. We headed up through the meadowsfollowing Windy Creek to reach a pointwhere we could scramble up a 700 footheadwall to make the ridge which wouldgive us access to the summit of our chosenpeak. After a rest break under clearing skies,we climbed the ridge which kept gettingsteeper the closer we got to the summit,requiring use of a climbing rope in twoplaces. We all arrived safely at the summitjust before noon. On completion of lunchand a noon radio call to base camp, wescrambled down the rock ridge and uponreaching the meadows below the ridge,sunned ourselves for an hour before headingback to camp. We arrived in time for aSunday dinner of soup, salad, Chinese stylechicken, rice & veggie main dish, followedby fresh strawberries and cream.Beginning to feel acclimatized by thenext day I signed up for a more strenuousclimb requiring glacier and rock climbingskills. Glacier mountain travel is a passionthat keeps me returning to the mountains.This day was no exception to past climbingtrips, and I enjoyed the glacier we had toclimb to reach the summit ridge whichwould lead us to the top. After anotherfull day under sunny skies, we returned tocamp for a dinner of roast beef and a tastydessert.We awoke to rain on Tuesday and allclimbing trips in the area were cancelled.Roger, a certified ACMG (Associationof Canadian Mountain Guides) and aprofessional photographer, conducted aphoto / camera clinic in the dining tentduring the morning, and in the afternoonPeter, the other ACMG guide in camp,conducted a refresher clinic on map, compassand GPS skills. This was the only badweather day we had the whole week.Wednesday, with a 4:30 AM start, Iwent on to climb Mt. Remillard the majorpeak in the area which required sometechnical climbing skills, returning to camplate that night and a late dinner of ham,spinach quiche and blueberry pie. Thursday,I decided to climb on my own and scrambledup a peak called Yardarm. I took advantageof being alone and was able to take picturesof the mountain scenery at my leisure,including Mt. Remillard on the other sideof the valley. Dinner at the end of this daywas turkey with all the trimmings. It wastruly a day of “thanksgiving” as the weatherSelf portrait by Rob Wilsoncontinued to be flawless. I crawled into mysleeping bag that night saddened the nextday would be the last day of climbing in thisbeautiful alpine area.Friday I joined a group and, after adifficult morning of climbing and routefinding, we decided to split into two groups.One group climbed a peak close by calledEcho. The other smaller group, of which Iwas a part, went on to climb peaks Tangoand Serendipity. After a short rest on top ofSerendipity, we retraced our steps to climbover Tango again, in order to go on toclimb Echo, and then drop down the otherside, eventually leading us back to camp.Needless to say we had another long, butperfect day of climbing, reaching camp late,but learning the camp had delayed dinneruntil our arrival. It was appreciated by all,as this was our last dinner in camp beforeflying out the next day. Each day the cookskept outdoing themselves and this was noexception, making our last feast a MexicanDinner.Saturday, our fly out day, we awoketo rain and overcast skies and a threat ofstaying at least another night in camp. Butafter close to a three hour delay, Don, thehelicopter pilot, was able to fly a longer anddifferent route to reach our camp, where, bylate Saturday, he was able to get all of us outand the new incoming group into camp.Will I do it again? I’ve heard that militarypeople say Navy retire and go “groundpounding”, Army retire and take up sailing.I have witnessed this, and I am no exception,as I retired after serving thirty-four yearsin the Navy. Also, this was the year Istarted collecting my OAP (meaning OldAge Pension to the very young!). As longas I can train, prepare for and enjoy themountains, I keep telling myself, “Yes, I willdo it one more time.”Alpine Club of Canada ● Gazette ● Winter 2002 11
Page 1: Vol. 16, No. 1 ● Winter 2002Avala
Page 4 and 5: Message from the EditorThrougha coi
Page 6 and 7: Avalanche Safety:Not just for Snow
Page 8 and 9: Looking for a Mountain Adventure th
Page 12 and 13: Peaks of FireClimbing Mexico’s Vo
Page 14 and 15: The International Year of Mountains
Page 16 and 17: Eric Brooks Passes AwayIt was with
Page 18 and 19: 2001 ACC Volunteer AwardsDueto the
Page 20 and 21: Financial GrantsToall those who app
Page 22 and 23: An exciting new sport is developing

Avalanche Safety: Avalanche Safety: - The Alpine Club of Canada

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