Coastal Mountain Experience: Matier

And so it began once again with Scotty, Jay (aka jing-jo) & a-Ron crammed into a little red 4-runner. The day was off to a promising start with the hype and anticipation for the upcoming suffer fest at its peak. We didn't suspect anything was amiss nor that perhaps the lengthy delays along the Sea-to-Sky was anything other that bad luck. We passed Whistler by without even a second glance, our eyes solely on our objective. Keiths Hut. This was my 3rd time heading up to the area this year and with so much promise and opportunity, hell, who can blame me?!? Needless to say we arrived at the winter parking lot to ~3 inches of freshiez, in March no less!

The plan was for Scotty to meet up with a couple of buds, Nick & Ryan who'd be skiing up later on that evening, and for jing-jo and me to try our hand at the south buttress on Joffre. It was a line I'd perved at in the alpine select many a time, and it looked like great fun. Now I was thinking that in winter conditions it'd be even better!

All in all it wasn't long before we were at Keiths hut with plenty of time to head out and do a recce on the surrounding area & snow pack. Jing-jo and I headed up the ridge in behind the hut and headed towards the butresses of Joffre. Our primary objective was to evaluate the snow pack and get a sweet little run in at the same time. Our rutschblock test turned out to be solid and we were excited that we had passed an initial hurdle. It didn't take us long to get back to Keith's hut and every time I visit the place I'm completely astounded by how relaxed one can be after a hard day of skiing in the back country. We stayed up late waiting for our friends Nick and Ryan to arrive and throughout that time we were constantly being given strange looks for assembling a small set of nuts & pins, a single 8mm rope, a few draws and a our tools for the route tomorrow.

We figured that if we left the hut by 5am we'd be at the start of the route by around 7 and gave ourselves about 3 hours to climb the first 3 pitches an hour for the traverse across the snow field and another 3 hours to climb the upper 3 pitches then around 2 hours to make it up to the top via the summit crest and about another 2 hours to get back to Keiths. Not a bad day in the making.

So we started off very early the next morning and found ourselves at the base of the route on time and in shape! This was a new experience and definitely one that I could get used to. Throughout the morning tho we had been experiencing a shifting mass white that would cut our visibility down to about zero. Thankfully when we were ready to start climbing we got a break and it cleared up and we felt that we could proceed, though with caution.

Mr. jing-jo making some big uptracks

Mr. March

Stashing our ski's at the base of the route we solo'd the first 3 pitches, it really only took us about an 1 1/2 hours. We were making really good time and feeling very confident, though things were starting to thicken up and we still had a long way to go.

Jay took up the hard lead on the upper snow crest and was shouting banter back at me as if I had tucked up and decided to run. He was thigh deep and loving it! Forget that, I gave him some space and followed in his foot steps.

For some unknown reason we ascertained that the start of the upper 3 pitches was to the right of the buttress up a large snow slope that took us into a nice left facing corner. I figured that the top couldn't be much further than another pitch from the upper section of this corner. So, with the enthusiasm of the mentally ill I picked up the sharp end and soon found myself perplexed as to how to get myself up what turned out to be an overhanging corner.....ooops...

Well, my best bet was to move out right through a series of thin ledges that I would have to front point and what do you ask, did I sink my ice tools into? Well it was definitely not ice, nope not snow, ahh yes, you guessed it. Frozen turf. Now I have often wondered if there happens to be any Scottish in my blood, and I still don't really know, but as the next few moments played out I definitely feel as though I have earned an honorary badge. I made my way across the ledges and moved from turf to turf when right in the middle of the wall I realized that I was only dangling by a single tool stuck into one of these wonderful alpine tuffs. Jing-jo down below is bellowing up at me "Aye lass, you look fine in that beautiful dress, now get your arse moving!" all I can do is shake my head and pull myself shakily back into position. Then, before I know it i've pounded in a bomber pin and am breathing easy once more. I finish my traverse and make it to a position that I believe to be the only decent stance, with the anchor set and jing-jo ready it's my turn to play with his mind.....

jing-jo at his belay stance

Things are starting to go from bad to worse, things aren't going quite as quickly as I had hoped on this pitch. Part because it took me so long to lead up to this one stance, second it's taking jing-jo a bit to get up to the traverse and thirdly, the weather. Right about this time snow had started to stream rather steadily out of the heavens and we realized that this isn't the most best location to be in during a storm. jing-jo takes one look at the traverse I had just completed, makes some offhand remark about how he thought I was crazy to do it, and shakes his head. As he stands in the corner we debate about trying to continue upwards or if we should bail. Chirping in I just have to through out one of alpine climbings tenets "it's more about failing than succeeding"

To that note we decide that we're better off alive and I lowered him down to the previous stance. I cleaned the station leaving a knife blade and nut and lowered off myself. From then it was a hazy, shifting nightmare of white stuff to get us back to our ski's. There were times when up felt like down, left was right and you thought you were stopped when really you were still moving. As Jay put it, "It was like being inside of a ping-pong ball" After grabbing our ski's we hugged the side of Joffre and made a very hesitant ski descent back to Keiths hut. Phew, it was nice to be back inside a warm, cozy shelter where safety as a given.

Though I often wonder why I decide to take on these risky ventures, I must say that at the end of the day, when its all finished and over with. I know that what I just did pushed me to my limits and made me strive to live. I know that i'm not just some complacent being that moves to a mindless/beat less pace.

The evening was filled with revelry and good times. There were 2 very beautiful huskies and some very excellent people in the hut that night.