Elevation Gain: 1,887m
Distance: 25.33km
Total Time: 14 hours 52 minutes
Date: July 14th, 2024
Alex and I had ambitious plans for the weekend. First an attempt up Castle Peak in the Chilcotins then a long drive along at least a dozen different FSRs for an attempt up J-Cracks on Grainger Peak’s South Face. As it were, we finished up a first recorded ascent of Castle Peak after a much longer day than expected. By the time we stopped our driving it was 12:30am and we were still a few kilometers north of the Mystery Creek FSR turn off. Nonetheless, we were setup for an early enough start (we thought) to drive in and finish up the approach. The last time had driven down that way was in February to climb Nursery Peak and this same summit had us ill prepared for the woes of a summer time approach. Still oblivious to the perils ahead, we awoke for sunset and made the remainder of the drive to the Mystery 8100 branch.
The roads after Mystery Creek had been marginal at best and now equipped with e-bikes we decided to spare my truck and bike the remainder of the way. That got us all the way to the big washout on the E-100 and now we set off on foot. When we took this road last time it had been covered in a small layer of snow. We knew the road might be alder-y but there was old growth forest and a large clear boulder field for most of the route to Grainger’s south eastern cirque, so we weren’t too worried.
After we crossed the creek where a bridge had been removed, the bush whacking began in earnest. It was insanely dense, but we could still make out the road bed so we followed it for as long as we could. Somewhere within this walled garden of alders we spotted an exit up a steep slope of moss and made a break for it. This kicked us out of the road and onto slightly less bushy terrain where we traversed into a short section of more open forest. Next came a 300m section of bushwhacking through unforested slopes before one last stint in open forest. We had finally reached the open boulder field that made for easy travel on our Nursery Peak climb. This time, it was eye-level bush and alders in all directions. Nearly 1000m away the promise of more open forest laid ahead. As we made our way through we discovered countless, drops, pits and other mysterious holes masked by the dense vegetation. The known universe became an amalgamation of green leaves, hidden creeks and the tentacles of pervasive alder infestations. Our pace slowed to a crawl in the stifling heat and we could do nothing but laugh and pray that we wouldn’t disappear into the jungle.
A few hundred meters in we spotted some reprieve higher up on the slopes via boulder field. We pushed hard to get to it and the pay off was worth it. The boulders lasted for 300m at least, before our dive back into the bush; the final stretch proved to be the worst. At long last we reached open forest again followed by a short boulder field and then some dense but less horrible forest bushwhacking to the cirque. When we finally reached the open terrain below Grainger, the scene blew us away. A massive granitic amphitheatre with waterfalls cascading onto multi-tiered slabs. Grainger’s south face rose 1300m above us; the approach was far from over.
We descended 30m down into an open marshy area to ditch some extra weight like bear spray and extra climbing gear. By this stage we knew there was nowhere near enough time to do J-Cracks and so the call was made to go for the South Ridge route instead. At 5.7 and ~300m in height, it looked to be a manageable outing. There’s no beta other than a rough line, but we would figure it out. From the base of the cirque we hopped across boulders and gained a ramp system weaving between massive waterfalls and then up a narrow constriction climber’s left of the upper tier. This took us onto several rock fingers and then eventually snow where we trended right towards the ridgeline. I started gassing out here and it was clear this was turning into the “just get it done so we don’t have to come back” type of mission. Type 1 be gone. We traversed on snow around a gendarme and reached the start of the south ridge. From the start we scrambled up 50-60m of 3rd class terrain to reach a chimney type feature that looked 5.7/5.8 at least. This was the point we opted to swap into climbing gear with Alex roping up for the first pitch.
Once we were in rock shoes, we climbed a little further to get directly underneath the first section of climbing and then Alex kicked off the lead. As he neared the top, I heard some grunting and remarks usually reserved for heads up technical cruxes. He finished off the challenging moves and disappeared out of sight. I seconded up shortly after and found the 5.7 grade of this section to be quite stiff. Were we in for a rude awakening? Above this starting crux, the terrain eased off considerably and we swung leads for 3 pitches on 3rd and 4th class terrain. Finally the ridge steepened again and Alex lead us through blocky 5.7 terrain to another shorter section of tame ridge before two steep options presented themselves. We could go climber’s left underneath the ridge and then up a corner system or direct up the ridge itself.
I liked the look of the direct option more and so headed out for that. The moves started off easy enough and then the protection ran out and I found myself on exposed face moves making some delicate foot placements up to a loose boulder. Without much choice, I carefully pulled on the boulder and up on to tamer terrain. I found a boulder to sling on a large flat ledge and belayed Alex up. Now Alex climbed left of the ridge crest up a short but burly 4″ crack and then onto more scrambling terrain. I lead the final pitch, a full rope length, up through the jenga blocks of the face directly ahead of the ridge. Stark white granite marked a massive zone of recently cleaved off rock and I briefly questioned whether heading into this was the right call. The rock proved to be solid and sharp with plenty of options for protection and climbing styles. This was probably my favourite pitch on the route and it took us all the way the scrambling portion of the summit ridge. Alex seconded up and then we walked up to the summit to enjoy the views.
We stayed on the summit just long enough to recharge on candy and then we got going. Neither of us was keen to bushwhack in the dark, so the race was on. Our plan was to descend the east gully via some unknown number of rappels and then down climb snow to the cirque. I headed down the ridge first and managed to scramble a fair bit of it before we needed to descend on snow. We donned crampons here and then continued to the entrance of the gully. There was no snow in the upper sections so we descended 40m or so before spotting a rappel station. The anchor was made of an old piton and a bomber nut, but we had to replace the webbing. I rappelled first, descending 20m down onto a flat narrow bench below. I walked over to the next station while Alex descended next.
The next station was webbing wrapped directionally around a horn and below was a series of massive chock stones and then two moats between the massive remnants of the upper snow gully. It looked like a tricky rappel to say the least. I felt somewhat confident that a 60m rappel would get us past both moats, so we whipped out the tagline, replaced the webbing and then kicked off the rappel. There was a bit off faff with the tag line getting tangled but I was soon above the first moat. I descended and then swung at the same time over the gap and reached the snow safely. Now came the second moat. Descending looked messy. Either risk a big swing off the snow into the rock face or slide through a narrow channel next to a large snow horn. I chose the channel, but I didn’t so much slide as fall through and the rope nearly sliced the massive snow horn off. Thankfully, it held and I lowered onto the lower continuous section of snow, finishing off the rappel at a relatively safe spot. Alex came down having to do the same awkward set of moves as me and then we pulled the ropes and down climbed the rest of the gully.
The rest of the descent went smoothly and we reached our stashed gear around 8pm. That gave us roughly an hour and a half before dark, so we wasted no time getting to it. Reversing the boulder field was not any easier on the way back. Even with our GPX track we could not locate our path in and it was the same nightmare on the way out. Both of us took several massive falls on the way out, but we managed to escape just before dark. Unfortunately, we did not reach the road with enough light and locating the actual road bed turned into an out of body experience. With just a head light to illuminate the sea of alders, it was impossible to make out our surroundings and we accidentally started going up the spur road instead of down. We quickly caught our mistake and eventually located the correct direction. A few of the creek crossings put is into disarray again, but we managed to keep on the road for the most part until it finally opened up to a more recognizable abstraction of a path. Finally we reached the bridge crossing and then our bikes a short while later. The return bike road was a sweet victory and the e-bikes once again paid off big.
I think we both agreed after that these south face routes require a ridiculously early start to reach in time or over nighting at the cirque. However, I can’t imagine carrying heavy packs through that bushwhack and was happy with the approach we took. Thankfully, we never have to come back out this way. As for the climb itself? The ridge isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. The views and position are what really stand out. Worth it for that alone.