The Anderson River valley is home to the stunning Steinbok Peak. Two bold (read: dirty and scary) routes go up its nose: the Northeast Buttress (Grade IV, 5.9, A1) and the Edwards-Spagnut (Grade V, mega sandbag 5.10+). The Edwards-Spagnut has only been repeated once in 2007 by Sonnie Trotter, Jon Walsh, and Will Stanhope. Here's a random fact: the summit of Steinbok Peak was used as the setting of the 1992 movie K2 since its gently sloping Southwest face allowed the film crew to hike right up to the summit. Just Northeast of the epic Steinbok Peak lies Ibex Peak and then the conjoined peaks of Les Cornes and Chamois. Les Cornes is the most well-traveled peak in the Anderson Valley because it hosts the Valley's only high-quality modern routes, most notably the Springbok Arete (Grade IV, 5.11a) and it's unfortunately-named variation: the Sprung Cock Erect (SCE). The Valley was an alpine climbing hotspot in the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s because a network of active logging roads and trails led right to the base of the peaks. Currently the Valley is seldom visited because the roads have been decommissioned by the forestry industry. Nick Brown, Nick Hindley, and I (Daniel) planned to stay in the Anderson River Valley from July 5-10, 2020. Our first goal was to climb the Springbok Arete on Les Cornes and our second goal was to attempt an ascent of the Northeast Buttress on Steinbok Peak. Day 1, July 5th: The ApproachGiven its proximity to the highway, the Anderson River valley is surprisingly difficult to access. From previous trip reports, the approach includes a 2-hour drive from Vancouver, a 20-24 kilometer drive up a logging road, and a 2-3 hour hike up to the base of peaks. Although we did end up getting there in a day from Vancouver, it took us much longer than we imagined. The logging road had seriously degraded since the last trip report from 2018. We left Vancouver in Nick B's Honda CRV early on July 5th, stopped in Hope for some last minute shopping, and arrived at the entrance of the logging road leading into the Anderson River Valley at 1:00 PM. Nick B told us he was worried about denting the catalytic converter of his CRV. Within only a few kilometers, Nick H and I got out of the car to guide Nick B across a two meter ditch. At kilometer 12, three large fallen trees blocked our path. We swore and one of us said, "we should have thought to bring an axe!" Getting stuck here would mean many hours more of hiking. Without any real plan in mind, we started breaking off the smaller branches of the trees. I think the physical labour got our brains working again because Nick H suggested to try attaching our static hauling rope to the car and use it to pull the trees out of the way. So we ripped off the rest of the branches, attached the static rope to the lowest tree, and secured it to the car. Nick B pushed on the gas pedal and the tree snapped off! We set up the rope on the next tree and tried again. This time, the car recoiled with the elastic force of the tree. This tree wasn't going to snap. Thankfully, we had another idea: Nick H and I pushed upward on the tree trunks while Nick B snuck the Honda CRV underneath. Success! The rest of the road was driveable until kilometer 18 where we encountered a collapsed bridge. We ate lunch and packed our five days worth of gear. Since our second goal was to tackle the Northeast Buttress of Steinbok bigwall route, the gear included pitons, a hammer, hooks, specialized trad pieces, etriers, and etc. We were not traveling light, that's for sure. It was 5:00 PM and our stoke was high. We hiked the first 6 kilometers on the washed-out road. Our packs were heavy, but we were in good spirits and the view got better as we entered the valley. To our dismay however, the last 6 kilometers were grueling bushwhacking. The "road" had devolved into a sea of strong-limbed, skin-scarring, eye-gouging alders. Yes, Nick B did indeed get his eye gouged by an alder. The highlight of the hike was when we stepped into a small patch of old growth forest with tall canopy, large, spaced-out trees, and soft moss among the massive roots. It was just how you would imagine it in a novel like Lord of The Rings; it was magical. The whole hike (read: bushwacking extravaganza) took 5 hours. It was 10 PM, and we were exhausted. On top of that, we arrived at "camp" to find that there wasn't a flat tent-sized parcel of land in sight! All we wanted to do was set up our tent and sleep. Instead, we scoured the steep talus and snow fields for 30 minutes until we settled on a section of flat-ish rocks that we bolstered with more rocks and a pile of evergreen boughs. Our tent barely fit on the contrived, slanted foundation. Nick H gave up on his tent and set up a hammock between two scraggly trees. It wasn't comfortable, but we fell asleep immediately. We were looking forward to our first alpine climb together the next day. |
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