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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 26, 2018 - 05:14pm PT
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This thread is dedicated to any winter ascent (via any route) on the North Face of Mt Temple in the Canadian Rockies.
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 26, 2018 - 05:35pm PT
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Mount Temple NorthEastFace aka Sphinx Face（M6,1000m）
March 13,14,2018
Toshiyuki Yamada, Noboru Bob Kikuchi and Eijiro Matsumoto
Story
This climbing was actually plan C for us. We were initially thinking about climbing at around Rogers pass area to make a record first winter ascent of this time but We misunderstood that the park’s rules as to overnight permits. After realizing the rules, We decided to drive back to Columbia Icefield. I checked information like weather, condition and avalanche hazard... etc at Tim Hortons in Golden. We got the news that they are planning to carry out avalanche control at the time. Damn.
I was totally disappointed with this news because three of us took 10 days off from work for this project. Weather forecast announced that the good weather will last only for another two days.At that time we thought Mount Temple North Face could become the only possible objective after taking all factors in. I have done classic Greenwood-Locke of this wall in winter condition three years ago. I read the reports of Sphinx face to make sure only 1 party(Legendary Raphael Slawinski & Valery Babanov 2004) climbed during the winter season. The definition of winter season here ends on 21 of March.
We started approaching with ski at midnight and it was same style as three years ago. It was surprisingly easier approach than the ones in May. Our plan was climbing easy snow section before dawn. However, we couldn’t find the best way to across the small rock band to enter the snow slope.So we decided to bivy at this point. Two hours later, sun came out but we still couldn’t find the route. We just jumped on the wall and got snow slope(M5). While I was breaking trail to head to the wall, Nobo screamed to us something from down below. His BD crampon of toevail was completely broken.
This news forced all of us to be in a silence for the moment. Eijiro who is a shoe craftsman tried to fix it by using a cord. It wasn’t perfect but looked fine to keep climbing.
It was already noon by the time we got to the base of the wall. I realized that we didn’t have much time left. Three pitches of head wall have chossy chimney which had almost the same difficulty all the way up. The end portion of the chimney looked like to be overhanging. When it was getting dark, I climbed two pitches along the chimney and reached the big hole that was something you often see on limestone walls.We decided to bivy inside this hole which had only fifty cm width but luckily there was no wind. It was far from comfortable stay and I was struggling with cramping of my feet every 30 min. That forced me to stand up and down and patiently waited until the sun came out.
Huge chockstone made an awful overhanging at the end of the chimney. Also taking protection was quite hard since that section of wall was totally weathering. I have managed to place two pitons side by side. The wall required extremely delicate hooking along the chockstone.
Being able to take a solid protection with cam on the chockstone left me with a sense of huge relief. Although the line after passing the chimney was not hard, the rock quality was getting worse and worse. And there was no protections about 10m till finally making it to the belay point above the chimney(M6, 100 m). Upper head wall was not technically as hard as lower part but route finding with smooth slab was another difficulty that the upper portion had. However, we kept on climbing and we made a East ridge of Mount Temple(3 rope lengths, M5) . Although we wanted to reach the summit(First winter ascent didn’t make the summit),the south side of Temple had already turned into a bad weather so we agreed on start descending same way.
Thanks to Toshiyuki Yamada
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Dec 26, 2018 - 05:47pm PT
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And to think these people are allowed to walk freely amongst us.
Good work, as always, Avery!
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okay, whatever
climber
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Dec 26, 2018 - 06:22pm PT
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That is definitely hard core! I climbed Mt. Temple by the "easy" route (still plenty of loose shale and a bit of exposure here and there) in the 1970's, and aspired to the north face, but never did it. The Canadian Rockies north faces are pretty intimidating, and the weather is often a bit iffy, of course. Kudos to these folks, for sure! And to George Lowe, who managed to get up some of these huge faces and lived to tell the tale, also back in the 1960s-1970s. His epic with Chris Jones on North Twin was obviously a survival story, in the end. And I also remember Jeff Lowe, George's cousin, who died not too long ago, alas, as everyone on Supertopo knows. Happy New Year, and great climbing, to all, for 2019!
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Dec 26, 2018 - 07:28pm PT
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Strong work!
I think Phil Hein and Carlos Bueler did a pretty early winter ascent via The Dolphin with at least a couple bivi’s.
Pretty sure it was well after the CAJ published the classic photo (Fuehr’s?) of a serac fall scrubbing most of the face between the Greenwood Jones and Greenwood Locke.
I’ve heard the Sphinx is a much less hazardous alternative.
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Dec 26, 2018 - 08:10pm PT
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Hein Buhlher may have been 1976 or 77.
I was climbing the serac on the Lowe route in 1982 when part of it cut loose around the corner to the left. We were watching truck size blocks spinning into space. Was a good motivator like Chessmond would say "climb like a beast man".
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 28, 2018 - 02:17pm PT
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Thanks to Mikey Schaefer
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Dec 28, 2018 - 11:28pm PT
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hey there, say... Avery... thank for sharing...
great to see this... will come back to see it later...
just getting off line, for now...
thank you! for posting...
happy good eve, or, day, as the case may be...
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Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
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Dec 29, 2018 - 07:44am PT
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Great pic of Josh! What a rad face. I climbed the Ammer coulior to the East Ridge many years ago. One of my most memorable climbs.
BAd
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Dec 29, 2018 - 09:27am PT
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I am unworthy of even looking at photos of these giants
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 30, 2018 - 09:03pm PT
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Greenwood-Locke: Skiy Detray and Alik Berg.(2015)
That was a funny climb. Supposed to be a casual warm up to make sure Alik and I could mesh for the Moose’s Tooth. We had never climbed together- but I’d seen him in the valley soloing gems like Wyoming Sheep Ranch and the sorts.
He didn’t regale me with the routes reputation until we bivied on the first rock bound. Sand Bagger! But I enjoyed the route- fun 5.10 dry tooling for days and interesting snow to boot.
Would recommend it as a winter route. But not as a summer route - too loose.
Thanks to Skiy Detray
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 4, 2019 - 05:29pm PT
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Greenwood-Locke: Marc-Andre Leclerc and Luka Lindic
Thanks to Luka Lindic
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 10, 2019 - 09:23pm PT
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Greenwood-Locke: Yamada Toshiyuki and Takeshi Tani (2015)
Thanks to Yamada Toshiyuki
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 17, 2019 - 01:16pm PT
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Greenwood-Locke: Yamada Toshiyuki and Takeshi Tani (2015)
Thanks to Takeshi Tani (More to come)
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 18, 2019 - 04:59pm PT
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Greenwood-Locke: Yamada Toshiyuki and Takeshi Tani (2015) cont..
Thanks to Takeshi Tani
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 19, 2019 - 10:22pm PT
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Mount Temple, Sphinx Face（M6,1000m）March 13,14,2018
Toshiyuki Yamada, Noboru Kikuchi and Eijiro Matsumoto
Thanks to Noboru Kikuchi (more to come)
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Bale
Mountain climber
UT
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Jan 20, 2019 - 08:30am PT
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I love these threads, thanks Avery!
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 23, 2019 - 07:29pm PT
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Mount Temple, Sphinx Face（M6,1000m）March 13,14,2018
Toshiyuki Yamada, Noboru Kikuchi and Eijiro Matsumoto (CONT)
Thanks to Noboru Kikuchi
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 27, 2019 - 06:36pm PT
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Greenwood-Locke: Skiy Detray and Alik Berg. (2015)
Skiy and I climbed the G-Locke as a "training" climb before a trip to Alaska. He was in the Rockies for a week and luckily timed his visit to coincide with the best snow conditions we had that winter. We started up a skinny but easy couloir that branches right off the right tail fin of the dolphin and leads directly to the start of the climbing. This seemed like a faster and much safer start than the usual dolphin approach (on our return to the base after the climb we watched the dolphin get clobbered by a big serac fall). Our first day we started mid-morning from town and spend our first night on big ledge 2 pitches up and a rope length off route to the right (likely the best bivy ledge on the whole route). The next day we climbed from dawn till dusk through the majority of the hard climbing and stopped on an exposed perch just below the top because high winds would have made a night on the summit slopes much less pleasant. The next morning we dropped our packs on the SW ridge and ambled up to the summit under perfect blue skies. Cold temps and incredible views. The descent was thankfully uneventful on mostly wind scoured slopes and we were back at the car before dark.
We packed fairly light and were able to both climb each pitch with packs. No hauling or jugging. I was quite pleased and a little surprised to free the whole thing. Expecting a bit more fight for such a feared test piece. Of course the difficulty of such a route comes from all the other elements of climbing a big Rockies face in winter and we were very fortunate with conditions, but the technical difficulty was really quite reasonable. I think the history and reputation of these routes can really weigh heavily and reduces the number of attempts quite a lot. We were really stoked to hear about Tak and Toshi climbing it a couple months after us and hopefully more will follow. It's such an approachable and accessible route for such a big face. Good place to get ones feet wet.
Cheers
Alik
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 28, 2019 - 05:59pm PT
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Greenwood-Jones (IV/V M6, ca. 20 pitches, 1300m)
2nd Ascent: Roger Strong and Steve House (Single 25.5-hour push)
We enjoyed a wonderful push, with pitch after pitch of moderate dry tooling with a few pitches that earned the 'alpine nod' here and there of exposure, scant protection and a final crux on about the 40 something pitch of an overhanging corner with exhaustion and cold temps starting to set in.
We really have to thank Raph, Eamonn and Ian for sharing a ton of beta that allowed us the confidence to go for the single push. I do admit that at the end of my last 10 pitch block at about 1 am, out of water and not much food, I was wishing for a snuggle bivy to rest and enjoy the incredible position of Mt. Temple's huge and looming North Face. That was Steve's and my first big route together and our rhythm together was a blast. After completing the final headwall with Steve's last block, we were blessed on the mile long ridge (oops, 1.6k __) with barely a whisp of wind in the single digit/minus Celsius temps to the summit. Spent, we finally found a flat spot on the slog down the West Ridge to brew up, re-hydrate and keep each other from falling asleep, knowing our little bivy site at Lake Annette was going to welcome us back with replenishment in a few grovely hours. The N. Face of Mt Temple is a must do for any passionate and burgeoning alpinist looking for a multi-day vertical winter mission, new route variations, or single push attempts to test one's endurance and alpine terrain efficiency.
Roger
Thanks to Roger Strong (More to come)
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