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The Red Lobster Journal for 1970
Diamond Head, Golden Ears, Batzer Hut, Alouette Lake Canoe,
Mt. Wedge, Needle Point, Mt. Welch, Mt. Baker, The Golden Ears,
The Pyramids, Mt. Foley
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Diamond Head Ski (Garibaldi Park)
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| Dennis Brown and I headed up to the Diamond Head Chalet for New Year's Eve. Those were the days when Millie was cooking her wonderful cakes and Amiel and Ottar ran the site and brought tourists up in the bombardier. |
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| A cable tow ran on the slope just east of the chalet. We skied up to the Saddle the next morning - no skins and a poor understanding of waxes! But we had a great time. We got a ride to high point in the bombardier and skied down the road. I remember that the bombardier dug deep ruts in the snow and there were high vertical banks cut by the machine. It made for some hair raising turns! |
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Winter is such a beautiful time of year.
I was to learn in later years that Chris Cooper spent a season working at the lodge and drove the the old Bombardiers up and town the trail.
For the picture to the left, I held my goggles in front of the lens of my old Agfa view finder camera. I like the results. Kind of a feminine look don't you think?
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Golden Ears with Ken Willis
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| We took our little Black's Egyptian cotton mountain tent and headed for the Golden Ears again. We cooked up our supper on our little 8R stove and got ready for the summit in the morning. |
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Again, we put the goggles in front of the camera lens for this effect. It was a great sunset.
In the morning we woke to thick fog so we headed down. Was it worth it anyway? Of course it was.
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The
Batzer Hut - Lucky Four Group - Chilliwack River Area
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| Dennis Brown and I made our first trip
up to the Batzer Hut on the south side of Welch and Foley in
the spring. The views from the hut were spectacular. As you can
see in the picture above, you can see Slesse on the left with
the American and Canadian border peaks just above the left hand
part of the hut. |
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As the hut was almost encased with snow,
it wasn't a very warm place to be, especially down low. The temperature
up at the top of the ceiling though was really quite nice! Too
bad we didn't have a ceiling fan. |
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The picture here shows the view of Foley from the Welch Foley col. I found it an impressive site coming out of the mist.
Oh yes, the Batzer Hut was later wiped out by an avalanche.
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Alouette Lake with Dennis Brown
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Dennis and I shared a great interest in getting out and doing things in the outdoors, whether it was hiking, climbing, or in this case, canoeing.
We paddled up beyond the narrows of Alouette Lake to a place on the west shore where we could spend the night. I remember animated discussions about a wide range of topics and with Dennis's intellect, they were never boring.
In the picture above, Dennis holds a small flashlight in his mouth, while he gets at some food in a can. ..... Don't ask.
Although we grew apart in the ensuing years, I have very fond memories of our times together.
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Wedge Mountain - Garibaldi Park - June, 1970
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Dennis Brown and I hiked up the wooded west ridge of Wedge without advantage of a trail. It was our first time up the mountain and we pitched our little Blacks summit tent soon after we broke into the alpine area. The next day was windy and cold and I didn't go all the way up the talus strewn west ridge. Dennis went on up while I huddled beside a rock out of the wind. |
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It felt like a big mountain. It is the highest peak in Garibaldi Park at something over 9000 ft. Indeed it was the biggest one I had tried to go up so far. It was an exciting feeling. I'm not sure if I was intimidated by it or if I was just pooped out too much to continue to the top. Regardless, it was a great adventure. |
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Needle Point (Blanchard's Needle) - Golden Ears Park
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Dennis and I hiked up from Mike lake and along the old Abernathy and Lougheed logging roads on up to Battery Mountain which we by passed on its west side and on over to Needle Point. Dennis had some nylon rope he got from his dad who was a fisherman and we prepared to tackle the first pitch of the needle which was about a low class five or upper class 4. After that it was scrambling up through short easy class 3 pitches and sections of brush. |
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| I had packed up a 8 mm movie camera only to find later that it didn't have any film in it! Note the classy climbing helmet! We didn't have much of a view of the Fraser Valley, but it was a gratifying climb never the less. |
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This is looking down on the first pitch of the climb, a class four or low fifth pitch. If you look closely you will notice that Dennis is using a full body rappel. I wonder how many people still know how to do that, or if the reliance on technology is so great that few people could do a rappel without added gear? Thick pants does help with this technique, as those of you who have tried it know. ;-) |
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Mt.
Welch - Lucky Four Group - Chilliwack River Area
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KenWillis, Dennis Brown, and myself went up to the Batzer Hut on the south side of the Lucky Four group and then went up the south ridge of Welch. The picture shows Ford Mountain in the distance. The Chilliwack River is just on the other side of it. It was an enjoyable scramble. We even saw a mountain goat quite close up while going up the ridge.
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| One of the great pleasures of mountain trips is being able to take the time to soak up the scenery. Here we enjoy the view of Slesse, and the American and Canadian Border Peaks. |
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Mt. Baker - Washington State
- Northern Cascades
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| We slept on the moraine and woke up about 3:00 am. A large furry tail brushed by my head - an introduction to a Mt. Baker marmot. We dined on cookies and fruit cocktail for breakfast. Just below the buttes I threw up and thought about my lost breakfast, such as it was! Dennis Brown was very much a go getter and we managed to pass everyone before they got to the summit. |
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I was not going quickly enough evidently, because the rope was tight as we approached the summit. I remember that my ski jacket didn't provide me the warmth I wanted. The thin hood did little to keep my head warm. I decided then to get a down parka! The view from the top was spectacular, like being in an airplane! |
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Golden Ears
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The weekend after Dennis and I went up Mt. Baker I went up the Golden Ears with Paula Panek, her brother Peter, and mom. We camped on PanoramaRidge and watched this incredible sunset go down over Vancouver.
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| I think we don't get to spend enough time in the mountains. There is something wonderfully theraputic about it. |
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Overlord - Garibaldi Park - Coast Range
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Ken had made a trip up into Singing
Pass and the hut at Russet Lake a week or two before, and told
me about it so naturally I wanted to see this area as well. There
was no trail at that time beyond tree line, but the going was
easy.
In the picture here, Ken is almost at Singing Pass.
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| We enjoyed a night at the hut and met a couple of other climbers from Vancouver. We headed off the next morning for Overlord and squeezed through between Fissile and the small glacier that is nested between it and Whirlwind Peak and headed across the top of the Overlord glacier to the scramble up to Refuse Pinnacle and the summit of Overlord beyond. The scramble down went quickly but the loose scree and a little bit of snow made you be careful.
We quickly crossed the Overlord on our descent, making some nice little boot glissades down off the glacier.
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In the picture above, we are heading over to the Whirlwind - Overlord col.
As climbs go, it wasn't a serious one, but it was exploring a new area, and it was exciting for me. What a great way to spend a weekend!
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The Pyramids - Garibaldi Park
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My Friday day shift of pulling lumber off the green chain at the Hammond mill ended about 4:00 pm and I went home and picked up my climbing pack and drove into Vancouver to meet Dennis. We drove up to Diamoond Head base camp to meet a vehicle that was supposed to drive us up to the chalet. At least that's how I remember the story. Well, there was no vehicle and so we walked up into the darkness and finally camped in the rustic campsite below the Diamond Head Chalet. We threw down our sleeping bags on the grass and fell asleep.
The next morning we got up early and hiked down into Ring Creek and up onto the Garibaldi neve. We cramponed up and walked along the glacier heading east toward Mamquam lake, oblivious to the fact that having the rope coiled up was a dumb idea. We eventually learned better. We hiked down into Mamquam Lake to be met by millions of gregarious mosquitos and black flies. Needless to say we stumbled along, very tired now, up the other side trying to find a way onto the upper west side of the Pyramids.
The picture above show me taking a rest just before dropping down into Mamquam Lake. Our campsite that night was almost directly behind my head. The ridge we climbed is above and to the right of my head. We descended the other side of the minor peak and came down the glacier that descends from the skyline just to the left of the right hand most peak.
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| Dennis had talked about the good rock and the fact that hardly anybody had climbed in the area. I was beginning to find out why. Anyway, we found a way through the cliff band above Mamquam Lake and found a nice flat rock at the base of the snow and ice to sleep on.
The next morning, now Sunday, we strapped
on our crampons and headed up. The westernmost Pyramid had a
sub peak just to its east with a nice clean north western ridge.
This ridge was separated from the westernmost Pyramid by a tongue
of a small glacier which blocked our progress so we took to the
rock. It was nice granite and the climbing was about class 3-4.
To descend we went over the other side and came around to the
col between the westernmost Pyramid and the peak we had just
climbed. We figured we could get down the small glacier which
had blocked us on the way up. We were feeling braver. A belayed
descent down into a crevasse and up the other side got us through.
We scrambled down to our sleeping bags, packed up, and headed
down to Mamquam Lake.
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We didn't go back across the neve. We
had learned our lesson. The way to go was the trail over to the
south side of Opal Cone. The last section of the old road out
of Ring Creek and up to the Chalet was a bit grueling after a
long day. We looked forward to some of Milly's spice cake and
a cup of tea. We sat on the steps of the chalet enjoying some
of her fine cake and tea and looked east to where we had been
not that many hours before. A little dried blood caused by a
misplaced crampon mixed with the glacial dust on my exposed lower
leg were proud testiments to a rewarding day. |
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A person who had stayed at the chalet asked us where we had been. We pointed east to the distant Pyramids and said that we had just climbed the second peak from the right. I think we were met with more than a little disbelief.
Ottar apologized that he didn't have room in the jeep to take us down to base camp, but said he had room for our packs. We thought that was great! One of the people going down in the jeep exclaimed, "You're going to walk all that way?" (Like we had a choice) We replied that without our packs it was no big deal.
I got back home late that Sunday night and went to sleep as soon as I could because the green chain at the Hammond mill was waiting for me in the morning. I weighed myself before going to bed. I had lost ten pounds since Friday. A memorable trip.
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Mt. Foley
- Lucky Four Group -
Dennis and I headed off for Foley in September. The weather was perfect: clear and cold in the morning, and warm afternoon. We were not well versed in technical climbing, so the the south-west face was challenging and rewarding.
Not long after our trip here, the Batzer Hut was wiped out by a winter avalanche and its debris was strewn over the valley below.
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In the picture above, we are about half way up the face and I am looking almost straight up to Dennis, who is starting to climb up an open book. If I remember correctly I had him stop at that point so I could move over to my left to avoid any possibility of falling rocks.
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| In this picture I have moved over and Dennis has proceded up the open book. The rock was rather brittle and you had to check out the holds before you trusted them. |
The summit was small. There was a very old register in an old can and we recognized more than one name from our climbing guide books.
Downclimbing forced concentration as I remember because there was a lot of exposure. A good short climb.
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