Writing contributions from our friends
The Choss Boys invite friends who have shared in their adventures to contribute stories from their own perspectives.
Another delectable trip report brought to you by Nick Hindley. This article was originally published 4 October 2020 on the University of British Columbia's Varsity Outdoors Club Blog and is reproduced here with Nick's Permission. Want more? Check out Nick's other post about our subsequent trip to Cathedral Provincial Park! Intermediate BushwhackingSunday, 5 July, to Tuesday, 7 July 2020 The Anderson River Group is one of Southwest BC’s many, many hidden gems. The access forest service road (FSR) is just a little over 2 hours from Vancouver, and the approach theoretically only takes half the day – depending on how far you can drive, and how fervently you can thwack. Therein lies the challenge.
Our mode of transport was Nick Brown’s Honda C-RV. We were going to have to account for its meager clearance with either some tactful driving, or wreckless abandon. Nick B had a preference toward the former. Water bars started around 6 km up Anderson River (Cattermole) Main, and continued to worsen until a final creek crossing at around the 10-km mark. After spending some time navigating these obstacles and putting a couple fresh dents in the C-RV's catalytic converter, we arrived at a cluster of 3-8” diameter alders across the road. We still had a long way to go, and throwing our packs on here would add an additional 6 km to our hike. So we began stripping branches from the downed trees, and clearing as much debris from the road as possible. We rigged up a tensionless hitch to the first two trees using my 100-m, 10-mm Mammut static, then tripled it up to dissipate the load across three strands. We then hooked it up to the C-RV and gave her a tug. After some initial resistance, the fallen trees gave way with a snap at the base, and sprung across the road out of the way. Back in business. For the next few kilometers, the road was in reasonable shape, with frequent but manageable washouts, and occasional large washouts (~10.5km, ~12km), which are navigable for now due to the wide shoulder, but are unlikely to last more than a couple seasons longer. Around 13.5 km, the road narrows around a cliff and is rife with fresh rockfall. Daniel and I became the designated road clearing technicians, i.e. Dan jogged ahead and flung rocks off the road while I drank a few beers sitting on the C-RV's roof as we plodded up the FSR. We reached the definitive end of the drivable road 0.2 km after the Y-junction with Anderson Middle Main.
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Below is a trip report written by our friend Nick Hindley and originally published 2 October 2020 on the University of British Columbia's Varsity Outdoors Club Blog. We reproduce it here with Nick's permission. I (Nick B) added a few extra photos. A brief background on our trip with Nick: This was to be the summer (2020) that Daniel, Erik, and I travelled to the Northwest Territories for an expedition to the Cirque of the Unclimbables. However, the expedition quickly fell apart with the onset of the pandemic, and Erik wisely cancelled his flight from Norway to Canada. Through the spring, Daniel and I remained optimistic that we could salvage the trip by embarking on a more localized climbing adventure. As restrictions eased toward the end of May, we hatched our Plan B with Nick Hindley to spend 12 days in the Daniel's River Valley bigwall climbing on its rarified behemoth cliffs. Alas, it was not to be. One week prior to Daniel's arrival in BC, the forecast was clear--rain, rain, rain. So we pivoted to Plan C(?--there were several): drive east to find whichever pockets of sunshine remained in southern BC. Three days later, we arrived in Cathedral Provincial Park... Thursday, 9 July 2020After being rained out from everywhere else on the Coast during the mid-portion of 2020’s rainy coastal Summer, we sought the refuge of interior BC’s drier climate. It wasn’t our first choice, in fact it wasn’t even our fifth choice, but nevertheless the raingods determined our fate and we quested up Ashnola FSR to the trailhead for the ‘climber’s side’ of Cathedral Provincial Park. The road was in good shape, the trail: less-so. Still in similar condition as it was after the burn in 2018, the trail is now becoming increasingly overgrown in the marsh and burn areas. The abundant deadfall likes to throw you off track. A chainsaw would do wonders here for decreasing approach time and helping to mark the line of least resistance through the deadfall. Nevertheless, the approach was mostly painless and took 4.5hrs car-to-camp. We hiked into the idyllic meadow camp site in the early evening, directly under the South face of Grimface Mountain. Don’t give up on the hike too early because of your wet feet; instead, keep hiking until you find the big boulder camp site – you’ll know it when you see it.
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