The Red Lobster Journal for 1976
The Origins of the Red Lobsters

Garibaldi Lake Skiing, Hollyburn Mountain Skiing, Cookie Jar, Golden Ears,
North Ridge of Mt. Wedge, Exasporator, Little Smoke Bluffs, The Bowren Lakes,
Mt. Raineer, Mt. Baker,



The Origins of the Red Lobsters - as written by Randy Wheating

The Red Lobster name originates during a period that could be known as "The
Golden Age" of Lobsterism, circa 1976. Young, childless, energetic. Remember the regular slide show evenings at Keith, Chris, or Garvin's house? We all had that book "Fifty Classic Climbs of North America". Pre Gorertex. Lowe Expedition packs. Wooden ice axe shafts.

The Red Lobster name originated in the early summer of 1976 on a large group trip up Mt. Foley. Members were (as I recall): me, brother Gary (rare trip), Gord Shellborn, Ryan Shellborn, Al Lizee, and Garvin Morse (this was the summer Garvin and Al did a lot of climbing together). We hiked up the mule trail to camp in the col just below the peak proper. We all lounged around in the afternoon sun with our shirts off wearing our wool knickers and glacier goggles. Someone said we would all become sun burned. Red. Like a lobster.

Ryan and Gary slept in a snow cave. We were getting into the "no sleeping bag, bivouac in all your clothes and cagoule go super light program". I remember Gary saying that Ryan kept waking his up in the night with his shivering.

We all went on the ascent the peak the next day. Gary and I by the regular route (traverse the snow field and climb the ridge) while the others climbed directly up the east (?) face. We all met on the summit. I remember Al saying to me that we (Gary and me) did well as our route required some route finding and technical bits. I realize now it was pretty easy but was very flattered by the compliment at the time.
Garibaldi Lake Skiing

One of the things we like to do during the winters back in the 70s, was to go up to the Garibaldi Lake area and ski. This picture is on Ken Willis bathing in the warmth of a (stove) candle in one of the shelters at the Battleship Island area.



Hollyburn Mountain Skiing

It's a short trip to Hollyburn from Maple Ridge, and back in 1976 you could go up and ski for free and most of the people wore wool and a lot had Scandinavian accents. Our tax dollars paid forthe plowing of the road and the mountain was in a park. Now, commercialism and privitization has taken over and you have to pay to ski in our park.

Here Todd and Judy Huston enjoy the view over to Vancouver Island.




   Cookie Jar - Squamish Chief

Just north of the Grand Wall route at the base of the chief is a short climb that combines rock and tree climbing, and bolt ladders. What a combo! Leaning way out to the rock face while holding onto a tree limb to clip into a rusty bolt wasn't in any rock climbing manual that I could remember. Anyway, once on the bolt ladder and I had clipped into a couple of bolts, I felt safer. After shuffling right on some small ledges, and lay backing up a left facing corner and up into some trees, I got myself a secure belay.
 CookieJar  Once the rest of the guys came up, an interesting thing happened. The sky started to fall. Holy Hell! Rocks were screaming down in a gray hurtling blur from the top of the Chief and crashing into the trees below us. My helmet suddenly felt useless. No sooner than the rock fall had started, it stopped. We finished off the climb and scrambled off the big ledge to the left and onto the ground. What a rush!

Why we tied the rope to the tree during the rappels, I don't know. As you can see, it wasn't a great idea.

Oh, yes, aren't you glad clothing styles have changed since 1976?

 
The Golden Ears with Dad

My dad had looked up at the Golden Ears ever since he was a child growing up at Webster's Corner during the years of the great depression. I had climbed the mountain a number of times before and circumstances finally allowed us to try to get up it together. Dad was born in 1918 so this made him 58 years old, but dad worked in the woods behind our home chopping wood and he was strong.

We camped on one of the roads above the alder flats and the next morning made our way up the snow.

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate fully. I knew the way up very well, so in spite of the mist, we made the top.

This picture shows dad fulfilling a life long dream.

I was pleased I helped to make it possible and proud of my father making it all the way in good style.

We descended into clear air and made our way home tired but fulfilled.

 

 North Ridge of Wedge Mountain - Garibaldi Park
 

Garvin Morris, Ken Stewart, Ken Willis, Alan Lizee, and I headed for the north ridge of Wedge. 

The hike up to the hut is always steep but when you get to it the view makes it all worth while. I have always thought the view towards the north ridge of Wedge seemed a bit Himalayan, with its elegant snowy north ridge sweeping down from its summit. Even after getting back from Nepal, I still felt a bit of the same way.

The ridge wasn't that technically difficult, and when we went up we were surrounded in mist and a bit of snow so we weren't able to enjoy the views on the last part of the ridge, but we enjoyed it never the less.

Later, Alan and Ken went up a gully on the north face of Parkhurst to be humbled by avalanches but they got to the top and returned safely.

The Egyptian cotton anoraks sure does date us.

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Squamish Chief - Exasperator

During the 70s we did a lot of crack cleaning, moss throwing and exploring, but there was still a lot of clean rock. Here Garvin Morris leads a pitch on wonderful Squamish granite low on the Chief. No lycra, no chalk.

Note his hair style ;-)

This picture is taken on the Apron going above the usual end of Banana Peel and Slab Alley.

Oh yes, this was the age of EBs and painter's pants. Lycra? What's that?




Squamish Little Smoke Bluffs

We spent many weekends in the bluffs just north of the hospital cleaning cracks and learning how to place protection. Here Nick Didlick is aiding one of the many small bluffs. If you look closely, you can pick out his trademark railway engineers hat.

For those of us who have not kept up with Nick, check out his web site:

http://www.nickdidlick.com/





 

The Bowren Lake Chain - Interior B.C.
Glenn and Rodney Lans paddle along in the still morning hours on Isaac Lake

Ken had wanted to paddle the world famous Bowren Lakes chain for some time and so off we went to Barkerville.

I had smoked for about a year and wanted to stop so I thought I would only take one pack of smokes and force myself to quit en route. Why I had started such a stupid habit I don't know, but it was humbling to realize what an addiction it is. This seemed like a good opportunity to get away from it all in more ways than one.

My uncle Glenn and his son Rodney were going to be on the circuit as well, and as it happened we did meet them on our second day on Isaac Lake, but we seemed to be in some kind of rush and only spent a short time paddling with them. I felt badly about that later.

We ran the outlet of Isaac Lake fully loaded - kind of daring or stupid in a way and fought off the bears in the campsite lower down on the river. The scenery is beautiful with the eastern side being rather typical of west coast lakes, with the eastern side seeming more interior with its shallower lakes, reeds, and the occassionaly moose!

We ended up getting back to our truck at about noon on the fourth day. Rather quick by normal standards. It is a great place to take your time and do some fishing and even swimming on the western side, if the weather is good.

For any canoe enthusiast, a must trip, although now you have to book in advance and deal with far more bureaucracy and crowds.

That was the last time I smoked a cigarette. :-)


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 Mt. Rainier - Washington State

 

Chris Cooper, Mike Goetz, and I drove down to Mt. Rainier during the summer for a try at the usual route on Mt. Rainier. When we got to the Paradise parking lot, we hiked up the trail until it got dark and then bivied.

This picture above is from Camp Miur, at 10,000 ft. If going up the "regular" route, climbers usually stay here overnight, and get up early the next morning and head up to the summit. I liked this picture because the clouds gave me a sense of being above my normal world, and entering another world, which mountains often seem to be part of.

The next day we hiked up to the 10,000 ft camp. I remember frying up some steaks at the camp and getting strange looks from some of the other climbers ;-) Envy didn't do them any good.

This picture was actually taken below Camp Miur. We did not take huge packs on our hoped for summit day. The rocks are reddish because like all rocks on this huge mountain, they are all volcanic.
We got up very early the next morning and by headlamp started up the trail on the glacier and we were just about the height of Mt. Tahoma when the sun started coming up. (see photo)

Climbing with headlamps in the pre-dawn hours is almost an other worldly experience. Your world consists of only what your headlamp allows you to see, yet you know there are things above, around, and below you that can be hugely significant. The sounds of your crampons biting and crunching into the snow, and the tinkling of metal on metal add to the eeriness.

The weather started to turn for the worse by the time we got to the top of Disappointment Cleaver but there were wands in the trail so we dropped the wands we had and carried on. By the time we were approaching the summit it started to snow and a party started to come down taking out the wands! We had no choice, weather wise, or wand wise, but to turn around ourselves. By the time we got back to the top of the cleaver, Chris was feeling the effects of the altitude and thunder and lightning was in the air. Time to get out of Dodge!





Mt. Baker - Washington State
We were Nick Didlick, Neil Baker, Chris Cooper, Chuck McCafferty, and Keith Rajala, and we were headed to the top of Mt. Baker. As with almost any good weather weekend on Baker, there were quite a few other people with the same idea.

The picture above was taken about an hour above the rope up point.
We camped by the black buttes and enjoyed a wonderful sunset. There's Nick's engeneer's hat again! Our route the next morning basically went above Nick's engineer's hat to the saddle, then up the right hand skyline to the summit. The Roman Wall, is the upper part of the right hand skyline. It's not very steep, but later in the season when it can be ice, you have to be careful.
I sometimes people ask why we do it! From this point, we could see the silouettes of the high rises on English Bay.
We got to the summit via the usual Roman Wall route and enjoyed a spectacular view. The picture makes it look less steep that it is. It may be about 30 degrees at it's steepest, so if it's all snow, it's easy. In the left background, are the Twin Sisters. The picture is looking west.
On the summit,even in the middle of summer, it can be very cold in the morning. The picture is looking generally east with Mt. Shuksan between Chris's legs.(red jacket)

If I remember correctly, someone from another party had carried up some beer but didn't feel well enough to drink it, so offered it to us! Here Nick is begging. Was he of age I wondered? Didn't want to contribute to juvinile delinquicy!

The picture is looking generally west north west into the Fraser Valley.

The actual summit of Mt. Baker is on the south-east corner of the summit crater. The crater is filled in with snow and is like a giant white flat field.

Looking off to the south, and very close to the summit, you see Sherman crater, which has a small pond of water and small vents of steam shooting up into the air.

Off in the distance you can just make out Mt. Raineer.