The Red Lobster Journals for 1978 The Squamish Bluffs, Hollyburn Mountain Skiing, Fraser River Paddle, Slalok, Needle Point-The Gully of Murk, Cleaning Klahanie Crack, Bugaboo and Pigeon Spire, Mt. Athabasca, Mushroom, and "Bakerboys"

I remember the sound of sand hitting the bottom of the canoe as we put in at the Hope bridge. It was strange to think that there was so much sand and current under us that the sand was hitting the canoe hard enough to make that sound.

I remember doing around curves in the river and wondering what was ahead. In bends, there were whirlpools, and if you went deep into a sharp curve, there were whirlpools deep enough that I was sorry were had taken that particular route. I'm sure that people used to rivers would consider those whirlpools minor and nothing to worry about, but they certainly got my attention.

In one section near Abbotsford, the river seemed to be over a kilometer wide and it appeared to have something that looked like white water in the distance. As we approached it, I was really startled by a sound that didn't make any sense to me, here in the middle of this huge wide river. We were dragging bottom! The "white water" was the river rippling over the sand and rocks. For most of the year, this section of the river would have been an island!

By the time we got to where the Harrison River entered the Fraser, we were ready to find camp. There was a grassy island that provided an idyllic setting.

We set out again skirting the huge slow moving whirlpool that the Harrison River sets up as it enters the Fraser, and made our way down to Maple Ridge. The river was slower in this section and the hot afternoon made for a lazy paddle.

And yes, they were the days of lots of hair, for all of us.

Slalok (Rex's Pillar )

Early in the summer of '78 Chuck McCafferty and I made a trip up the Duffey Lake road and intended to have a go at Matier via the Joffre Lakes. For some reason we avoided the big glacier between Joffre and Spetch and went up the glacier coming down the north side of Slalok. We contemplated going up a shallow snow gully at the base, but I felt the ridge to its right would be safer. Soon after that decision, rock fall pummeled down the gully.

We climbed up the glacier and made camp on a minor ridge between the glacier that slides down to the north of Slalok and the glacier to the north of Matier.

In the picture to the left, you can see the Joffre Lakes in the background.

In the picture to the left, Chuck is making his breakfast.

Again, I do not know who came up with the idea, but a group of us thought we should tackle the west face of Needle Point (Blanchard's Needle). This time we ascended the gully between Battery Mountain and Needle to gain the col.

In this picture you can see Chuck McCafferty closest to the camera making his way up through the mist. The gully was fairly steep, but not steep enough to rope up. It was a number of springs later that Chris Cooper and friend skied down this gully. Now that would have been "interesting"!

Between a half hour or hour later, I heard strange sounds coming from down on the west side of the col. Guess what? The others had come to their senses! In the picture above Garvin Morris stands beside the tarp where we spent the night.

In the picture to the left Chris rappels down the first pitch, the only really steep bit of climbing on the route.

Oh yes, do you notice that it is still misty? It never did clear up that trip.

The "Gully of Murk" is still referred to by old time Lobsters with a variety of memories.

I think this picture is of Ken Willis making good use of his alpine hammer and a wire brush

This area is just right of Shannon Falls, just south of Squamish.

Our first goal was doing the regular route on Bugaboo Spire. The picture to the left shows the approach to the bottom of the snow slope that goes up to the Bugaboo - Snowpatch col. You The peak to the right is Bugaboo and the ridge leading up to it is the regular route. Most of it is an easy scramble untill you get to the last quarter of the ridge. There the climbing begins. The gendarme is in the area of the light coloured rock just to the left of what appears to be the summit.

The huge walls on the left of the picture are part of Snow Patch Spire.

I got up to the base of the gendarme (see picture) and ran out of gas, or perhaps I was intimidated. I knew I was tired and my confidence in doing well was not there. I thought it was better for me to let Chris and Chuck go ahead.

In the picture here, Chris is belaying in the lower right hand corner, and Chuck has just finished the crux made so famous by the first person to climb Bugaboo, Conrad Kain. You can see Chuck just below the top of the gendarme.

I wondered how Conrad Kain had felt doing the same thing on the first ascent, but with virtually no protection. (I didn't realize it then, but Chuck and I were to climb the spectacular NE ridge to the summit some years later.)

We continued leap frogging up the ridge, but with three on a single rope, it was a bit slow.

The descent created its memories as well. As we got a later than expected start, it was late afternoon when we descended the normal route. The snow was soft and the bridges over the crevasses were weak. The area around the base of the Silverhorn Ridge had some big bridges that were quite thin looking. Being the heaviest and last on the rope, I tried my utmost at creeping across the bridges as smoothly and as quickly as possible. Looking down into the dark depths of some of those crevasses was very sobering.

As we neared the bottom of the glacier, we ran out of snow, and had to head out onto bare ice, so we stopped to put on crampons. The snow at this stage suggested hidden bridges so we kept the rope fairly snug during the time we put on our crampons. Every once in a while, I would stop to just look around and soak the scenery in. What? Chuck had disappeared! He had stepped onto an area of whiter snow that perhaps even had a bit of a sag to it, and dropped down almost 2 meters and stopped on a ledge of sorts! At this point, I saw his head pop out above the snow and look around. Needless to say we kept an even tighter rope until we were on totally bare ice.

Another trip to Mt. Baker, but this time not to climb it, but to play on the ice. We got to the base of the Coleman glacier early, and had time to set up camp and make snow sculptures.

Chris and Barb came up with their dog and also brought up some raw eggs. They soon retreated to their tent to escape the sun and heat. We discovered they had brought up some fresh eggs and had left them next to their tent. We thought it would be humorous if we boiled up a couple and put them back in the carton. The late afternoon slid into evening, and they were non the wiser.

When Chris got up in the morning and started to cook his carefully packed eggs in the morning, he found that when he tried to break them they were "cooked"! He was puzzled, perplexed, and just a bit annoyed at the store which sold him defective eggs! We suggested that it might be the altitude but regardless should be taken back to the store for a refund ;-)We didn't tell him what actually happened for years!

Tony and Renis took a break from their formidable bush thrashing and peak bagging to join us as well. They were some of the most creative, tough hikers I have ever met. I remember seeing a video they had made with their super 8 film camera on the top of Mt. Edge, where they had one of them appearing and disappearing. They were fun guys. What ever happened to them?

This picture appeared on a MEC catalogue a few years later.