The Old Settler – FWA by West Face M2/AI2

Elevation Gain: 1,482m
Distance: 10.77km
Total Time: 9 hours 16 minutes
Date: January 29th, 2025

The Old Settler is a rather iconic summit on the eastern side of Harrison Lake. It’s host to some fabled and unique rock and is a popular climbing and scrambling objective as a result. Access is somewhat ephemeral, as the entrance can be gated for years at a time or be impassible altogether. In the last few years that has changed and the gate appears to be gone since 2023. Numerous trip reports have filled in since then and I bumped it on the list. I was initially tempted to climb the 5.8 route Mars Western, but after my friends came back with lack lustre reviews I put off any trips out there.

Summer transitioned to winter and I found myself in the midst of a long stable period of snow and weather. I was caught off guard and ill prepared for a mid January window like this. My otherwise long list of ideas was coming up short. I spent most of my Thursday evening sleuthing around for something interesting when a comment From Drew Brayshaw on Bivouac caught my attention. It was dated from 2002, but it stated there had been no known winter ascent of The Old Settler. That surprised me a bit as it’s a very iconic summit and not far off of Harrison. Although perhaps historic access issues had made a winter ascent a stretch in previous years. Not convinced, but certainly intrigued, I did some more searching through alpine journals and nothing came up. Now that doesn’t mean that it hadn’t been done, but there’s an interesting mystery to unlock and that seemed like the perfect way to take advantage of these conditions.

Andrea had the weekend free as well and so we decided to hike in and camp overnight to give ourselves the best chance of summitting. Thanks to the high snow line we were able to drive quite far up and that made lugging our heavy packs a little bit easier. We set up camp at Daiphy Lake and spent the evening picking out a line. After testing out the snow, verifying the age of some nearby avalanche debris and looking through Andrea’s monocular, we finally landed on the summer route as the best choice. The hope was the long running diagonal ramp across the west face would offer a not too steep line up to the ridge. From there it was likely to be at least one mixed pitch to gain the summit. However, that crux section is exposed 3rd class in the summer, so it seemed like a feasible option.

The major concern was the large steep slopes above the traversing ramp. We were both worried that under the afternoon sun it might send snow or debris down on us. The likelihood of a big avalanche was nearly 0, but it would only take something very small to knock us off on very exposed slopes. With that hazard top of mind, we set a very conservative turn around time. Ridge line by sunrise or turn back. Once the sun set, we finished up making dinner and settled in for a decently long night of sleep.

Alarms went off at 4am and we were marching up the slope an hour later. Unfortunately, the slopes to the base of the traversing ramp were quite foreshortened and we burned through too much of our time. We made it part way across the ramp and then had to call it off. Disappointingly, we returned to our camp site and mulled over our decision. We watched as the as the sun’s reach left our areas of concern untouched; even by 10:30am. It was then we realized that we had turned around much too early. But that was our one shot and we had to head home. On the bright side, for an exposed line like we had chosen, it was better to play it safe and have been wrong than to have been stuck up there with the slopes actively falling apart.

I spent the next day or two watching the forecast and sure enough another window was forming. We had encountered perfect boot packing snow on our attempt and I just didn’t think another summit bid would come again so easily. Especially given the ease of access with the high snow line. I had to make something happen and was ecstatic to find out that Brayden was willing to move some plans around to join me. Andrea unfortunately, did not have such flexibility, but she gave me her blessing to give it another attempt.

This time around, we’d go fast and light and we both had obligations in the afternoon so that meant a horrible early start. I’d leave Vancouver at midnight, pick Brayden up in Agassiz and we’d drive on from there. I somehow managed to squeeze in an hour and a half of sleep and woke up with more energy than I expected. The drive was a breeze and by 4am we were marching up the familiar snowy section of road. Andrea and mine’s boot track made for fast travel and we reached the lake just after 5am. It was still pitch black out and the huge west face was not visible to us yet.

From the lake we snowshoe’d up a little over half way and then ditched snowshoes for cramp ons. We headed up to the start of our traverse and changed gear for a final time before heading up the last remnants of the old tracks. Before long we were traversing on virgin snow and Brayden soon took over the lead; setting a brisk pace across the west face.

We followed the contours of the slope through sections of styrofoam snow, snice and generally all around perfect snow conditions. It never got all that steep but above and below us were huge cliffs and the exposure above Daiphy Lake was awesome. As we neared the open section of ridge, the slope steepened and we boot straight up; weaving through a section of rocks on thin snow.

When we crested the ridge we were met with the first start of the sun rise; perfect timing! The light illuminated a heavily corniced ridge line to our right and the relatively dry crux pitch to our left. It looked to be in perfect condition. To reach the base of it, we had to make a few very exposed moves over a narrow gulley and then it was an easy walk over. Brayden was keen to lead and I offered no resistance, so he racked up and set off. My belay stance was exposed to the gusty ridge top winds, but I managed to avoid freezing too much.

Brayden made quick work of the rock, snice and a finger of ice and I was soon following up. The crux proved to be not all that hard and I think we had the perfect mix of ice and rock to make it fun. Now above the crux, we coiled the rope up and traversed across the heavily corniced ridgeline to the final summit block. I cut left along a bench and wrapped around to a steep snow slope on the other side which lead all the way to the top. Brayden joined and we were both standing on the summit shortly after. The views could have kept us there all day, but neither of us wanted to be caught out under warming slopes, so we spent little time waiting around.

We traversed back to the top of the crux pitch and built a rappel anchor in short order. Brayden descended first and then myself. The tag line came down with only a little manipulation of the blocker knot, but as we pulled the main rope the wind gnarled it into a mess on the east side. Brayden made several attempts to free it, but ended up pulling some huge blocks off the face instead. To get a bit closer, I put Brayden on belay and he traversed on snow and rock out to the rope. He gave several tugs; slipping once in the process and still the rope remained persistently stuck. I didn’t like the idea of Brayden taking a fall for a stuck rope and offered that we just cut it, if it was truly stuck. In agreement, Brayden returned and gave one final heave. By some luck he yanked all of the loose rocks off and rope was no longer pinned down.

At last we were heading down the traversing ramp, following our ascent steps as we did. The traverse back was uneventful, but tiring as we didn’t bother stopping until we were away from any exposed upper slopes. We reached our gear stash just as the sun started hitting our descent line. At this point we just had to walk back to Daiphy Lake and we’d be out of harms way for good.

Once at the lake we spent a fair bit of time taking in the west face and snacking on various candy combinations. Satisfied with our views, we returned to the forest and were back at the car in time to make our afternoon obligations.

There’s still an outstanding question on whether this summit has had a winter ascent yet, but it was an amazing adventure nonetheless. While Andrea couldn’t join us on the second try; it wouldn’t have been possible without her and our previous attempt. Now the weather’s closing in and I can finally take a rest!