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bigbird
climber
WA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 11, 2014 - 02:31am PT
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Might be more of a question for a different forum but here it goes
Has the East face of Mt Slesse on the US-canadian border seen a repeat? The first ascent was in the late 1990s by Sean Easton and Dave Edgar... But from there I could not find any information on subsequent attempts or ascents...
Not that I'm gonna attempt it... I'm just curious....
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Jay Hack
Trad climber
Detroit, Michigan
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Feb 11, 2014 - 10:51am PT
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Bigbird,
In 2008 or 09 my friends and I were approaching the NE Butt and we bumped into Will Stanhope and Jason Kruk (I think) who were getting on the east face to work the free route. I'm not sure they sent but it was cool to see them go for something so big and intimadating.
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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Feb 11, 2014 - 11:05am PT
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Cascadeclimbers.com
Post over there, you'll get good info. There are always some reticent hardmen somewhere that come out of the woodwork. That region seems to have more of the off the radar badasses getting it done in the mountains than most.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Feb 11, 2014 - 11:49am PT
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Colin bailed. "Hardest route in the Cascades."
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Feb 11, 2014 - 12:49pm PT
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To the best of my knowledge the Easton/Edgar route has not been repeated although a few teams have attempted to free their line.
It could be argued that technically, the late John Stoddard and his partner did the first ascent of the greater east face by angling left off the top of the big central buttress left of the Easton/Edgar although they were forced off the face to the upper SE Buttress.
Greg Child and I climbed a direct line off the top of the central buttress at 5.10c and named it the East Pillar and we'd like to think we did the first ascent of the greater east face.
It's been repeated in a day.
The Easton/Edgar is much more of an East Face Direct that tackles the gnarly piece of terrain between the NE Buttress and the East Pillar that most of us think of as the "real" East Face.
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Feb 11, 2014 - 11:07pm PT
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Bruce, yes, first ascent as posted above but have never tried the Direct.
Jim, yes.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Feb 11, 2014 - 11:37pm PT
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When I saw this post, my first thought was that Scott Flavelle had been on an early attempt, but I'm not sure.
I know I've got a bunch of photos of it somewhere, but probably on unscanned slides in the basement. So, for the benefit of those who haven't seen the monster, here's a shot by Drew, stolen from the AAJ website showing the route.
(I'll remove the photo if you want me to)
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bigbird
climber
WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2014 - 02:19am PT
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Yeah. I've seen the face from far away and figured it had to have been climb recently... I was surprised to learn it had not seen a second ascent... I wonder why?
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Feb 12, 2014 - 02:24am PT
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Dick Culbert, Dick Wilmott, Jack Bryan and I got about a third of the way up the E face in the early 60s, perhaps '63. We came down because it was snowing, bivvied at the base, and went home the next day. That was just after the [5 year?] goverment ban/moratorium on entering the valley, due to the commercial airliner crash, was lifted. There was debris everywhere, pieces of metal, scraps of luggage, clothing, bone fragments etc. Depressing and sad. Somehow the main wheel assembly was way down the valley. There were even a couple of scavengers looking for valuables, such as jewelry. No big load of dope on that one. Nasty bush as I recall.
You win some, you lose some!
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Sol Wertkin
climber
Leavenworth, WA
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Feb 12, 2014 - 02:43am PT
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I saw a party bail on the East Face years ago. The pitch they were on seemed to be decomposing as they nailed up it...
On a lighter note, the Navigator Wall on Sleese was a formative adventure for myself back in the day:
http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/488907/1
Cool story from Burdo pasted to the end of this TR.
SLEESE STOKE! Gotta go get that East Pillar one of these days.
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bigbird
climber
WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2014 - 05:43pm PT
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I see... basalt often indeed is less then ideal for climbing....
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Feb 12, 2014 - 06:01pm PT
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FWIW, Craig McGee with various partners freed the first 7 pitches or so at around 5.12c before giving up on the complete free ascent idea partly due to rock quality and partly, iirc, due to the next few pitches being significantly harder than that.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Feb 12, 2014 - 06:18pm PT
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Right below the third summit - leftmost and lowest of the three in the pic.
There's still a big chunk of metal up there.
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Feb 12, 2014 - 10:47pm PT
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Bruce
Yes, really!
Sorry, never heard of Bill MacN. Glenn may know him?
I'm not sure where Perry started. We started on the first rib/buttress left of the Beckey and Easton routes. This is clearly visible in the photo below by Monty Lassere.
The route would then have climbed to the prominent snow patch, and from there angled up the broken rock to the main summit. We were not aware that Beckey and Marts had done the NE Buttress the month before.
We did not go back for several reasons.
1. The bush.
2. The problem of getting from the summit back to your car.
3. I think that one of the bridges was washed out.
4. We were too lite!
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Feb 12, 2014 - 11:58pm PT
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Nope, Hamie, never heard of Bill MacNeil. You guys were a strong party; too bad about the crappy weather.
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bigbird
climber
WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 13, 2014 - 12:54am PT
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C'os it's heinous, foreboding, terrifying and huge ? :-)
Does not stop people from jogging up "foreboding" and "terrifying" North faces of the alps.... Then again they have never seen slide alder or nonexistent "logging roads" either ....
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 13, 2014 - 01:04am PT
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I've done a few approaches here and there but getting back to the car from Slesse ranks right up there with escaping from the Gulag.
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Feb 13, 2014 - 12:55pm PT
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No Joe Turley sightings.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Feb 13, 2014 - 01:12pm PT
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Hamie, the line you attempted is the East Buttress route, completed to the summit (hammerless!) by Stoddard and Mullen in 1977. It gains the summit ridge at or near the notch between the main and south peaks and then finishes up the south ridge of the main summit
The Beckham/Child East Butt Direct climbs the same lower ground but moves right where the M/S moves left, essentially, from the snowpatch and climbs steeper ground more directly to the southern end of the main summit.
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