The Red Lobster Journal for 2008
Battery Mountain via Evan's Valley
A solo by Alan Lizee
Needle and the edge of Edge from the West branch of the creek
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I don't know why I always choose the options that take a few days of recovery. Anyway, after waiting-out the big snow dump over the last few weeks, I was chomping at the bit for some punishment. I hiked up Alouette on Wednesday by way of Evans Creek and the North gully to gain the North-East ridge above the big buttress. I went home, over what John Hume calls, false peak, then on down the Viking Creek rib to make a loop around Evans Pk. It was extremely tough going up the gully, and there were times when I had to rest after only 15 steps - and some of those had negative elevation gain. It took 4 3/4 hrs to summit, going down took less than 2 casual hours as the snow was nice for downhill on snowshoes. Avalanche activity was extreme. Edge roared continuously. The buttress beside me dumped four times, and there was an all-day, continuous hiss of graupel cascading down its flank. Sometimes it flowed around me as an inch-deep, whizzing river - it was awesome!
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The friendly gully and the big, hissing buttress
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Half way up the gully, I used the ski pole like I was cross-checking with a hockey stick to keep from sinking too deeply, I knew that if I stopped to take a photo, things would start happening, sure enough, the buttress dropped its first load, notice that I took the fall line on a rise far away from the buttress
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Two blurry gullies on the buttress are the remnants of the first dump, notice that I am well away, and I have good terrain protection above |
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