The Red Lobster Journal for 1971

Overlord, Canadian Border Peak, Coleman Glacier, Diamond Head,
American Border Peak, Mt. Baker

Mt. Overlord - Whistler/Black Area - Coast Range

Alan Lizee and I made our first trip up to Singing Pass and the Himmelsbach Hut and Russet Lake the weekend after Ken Willis went in.

The hut that had been put in was a welcome site. Hopefully people will appreciate it and look after it.

When we first woke up we were in fog at the hut, but we soon realized that it was a thin layer that had clear air above it. Soon we were off towards Overlord.

In the picture you can see the Platform Glacier on either side of Alan. This glacier is part of the Spearhead traverse. On the horizon, just above the cairn, you can see Wedge Mt., the highest mountain in Garibaldi Park.
This picture was taken from the summit of Overlord looking in an easterly direction. In the left foreground is Fitzsimmons Mountain with the northern part of Benvolio on the extreme right hand side.



Canadian Border Peak - Chilliwack River Area
 

 Alan Lizee, Ken Willis, and Keith Rajala hiked up the trail above Slesse Creek on to the N-E shoulder of the Canadian Border Peak to spend the night. The east face is terrifically steep and quite foreboding looking (at least to us at the time) and I'm sure we went to sleep with a little apprehension.

In the morning we went up the deeply runnelled snow slope and angled slightly to the right topping out just out of the picture to the right. From the ridge crest, we went around the west side for a short time, to gain the ridge again just before the summit.

 CanadianBorderPeakAlanKen

 The next morning was overcast but we headed up. We went around the north ridge and crossed easy ledges on the west side to work our way back up to the crest of the north ridge. (see picture) I remember looking down into the mist on the east face just below the summit and thinking that I'd better watch my step! It was a very long way down.

A lot of class 3 scrambling with lots of exposure.

Just below the summit we came down a slightly different, and probably the usual way, compared to the airy snowy traverse we made on the way up. As you can see it involved a short steep bit that had rather brittle rock. There were some rapell slings at the top, but it wasn't hard to climb down. The descent down the ramp on the west side involved some snow then some of the class three scrambling that was shown in the picture above. With the exposure down the west side, we wanted to be careful. Here Alan and Ken are making sure we do the snow traverse safely.

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Mt. Baker and the Coleman Glacier
Paula Panek and I went to elementary and high school together and we enjoyed doing hiking together. On this day we went up to explore the lower part of the Coleman glacier on Mt. Baker. It was an enjoyable day.




Diamond Head - Squamish
On the drive to Squamish early in the morning, the mist was coming off the Pitt River. I stopped and took this photograph. I often miss not having the time to just enjoy looking for good scenes and recording them.
On this day Paula and I hiked up to Diamond Head. The Pyramids are the high group of peaks above and to the right of the picnic table. Dennis Brown and I had climbed one of the peaks in 1970.



American Border Pk - Chilliwack River Area

 

 Alan and I drove up the Tamihi Creek far enough for us to see the border cut going up towards the Canadian and American border peaks. We thrashed our way up the cut and then traversed to the col between the two peaks. A little scrambling took us to the col.

From there, we made our way up to the base of the north side to find the rock separated from the snow with a large moat. That was enough to drain my enthusiasm at least. I think Alan was ready to continue as usual.

At the base of the rock of the American Border Peak was a brass border marker. It was a segmented metal marker about a meter tall. To the east and west you could easily make out the border slash that had been cut to mark our border with the United States.

From the moat, we scrambled over to two little peaks to the north. Although he is almost invisible, in the picture, Alan is on the summit of the left peak. I remember the rock on this small peak being hot as it was facing south and you couldn't leave your hands on the rock for a long time without them getting uncomfortably hot. In the distance is the Lucky Four Group with Mt. Cheam on the extreme left and ending with Mt. Foley on the right hand side. I scanned Alan on the little peak at a higher resolution and superimposed the magnifying glass.



I have been blessed with good friends and wonderful parents. My friend Todd Huston is in the picture on the extreme right and my mom and dad were talked into a hike up the steep gravelly moraine to the start of the climbing route on Mt. Baker.

In the foreground is Lynn Grasser who, four years later, became my wife.