Participants: Brian Moorhead, Colin Moorhead, Kwon Kim & Nick Watts.

Most of the guide books cover the actual climbing route on the N.E buttress in good detail so rather than regurgitate that information I will endeavour to provide the reader with the following on this magnificent alpine rock climb:
Access information as of early September 1995 including the approach and the descent.

Our impressions of the route.
Some hints and caveats for those unfamiliar with the area.
Due to the transitory nature of logging road activity there has been a great deal of confusion surrounding the approach to the Buttress. At one point a local “Guide ?” was using a chopper to drop parties off at the toe of the pocket glacier. If this was needed in the past (in my opinion it was not), it is no longer justified, or legal.

The logging road up Nesakwatch Creek was regraded two years ago, allowing us to drive to the trailhead. The trail was signed and follows an old logging road bed. Two hours will take you to the lookout below the buttress where you will find a nicely done memorial to the victims of the aircrash. From this point it is a further hour to pleasant alpine benches under the E. Face. N.B. Facing the memorial plaque the trail heads off left and up to the benches. The obvious couloir directly above the lookout is NOT recommended. Should the logging road to the trailhead become washed out in the future it would merely add 2/3 hours to walk up from the Chilliwack Valley. You will probably want to spend the morning of the approach day to park another car (preferably a truck) or mountain bikes, at the trailhead for the normal route ascending from Slesse Creek. The reason for this rather tedious procedure will become clear.

We opted for the two car strategy and had a lesuirely amble up to the benches in the afternoon of day one. Since we planned to “carry over” and descend the ordinary route we kept our packs to a minimum. To further save weight we elected to use lightweight hiking boots. Do not even think of runners as the descent trail is a real ankle eater. We passed on ice axes and packed a modest rack consisting of stoppers and medium to large SLCDs. A good supply of rap sling material should be carried against the eventuality of retreat. A two person team should have two 50m ropes.

Water is A PROBLEM on this route. After you leave the benches there will be no water until you reach Heli Ledge half way up and even then there is no guarantee of water there late in the season, although we did find a snow patch hidden above the bivvy ledge. The descent route is equally arid. In the Bugaboos we tell epic tales of lightning storms, on Slesse its epic tales of thirst !

Day two dawned bright and clear so after topping up the water we traversed to the slabs over hung by the infamous pocket glacier. By the end of last summer this had shrunk back and was nothing more than a collection of VW sized ice cube perched precariously on the polished slab. We had little choice but to sprint across underneath heading to the top right corner where the buttress abuts the E.Face. Once the morning sun hits the underlying slabs this stuff will trundle. Make no mistake, this is a dangerous place so get up early and move across quickly.

Once across both teams picked different lines towards the Buttress skyline moving away from possible rockfall from the E.Face. The climbing for the remainder of the day consisted mainly of low 5th with occasional steps to 5.7. Nevertheless, packs and route finding will make this section plenty challenging for the average party, especially if wet. As a general rule going a bit right will usually get you around most difficulties. Your reward will be to pop out on the spacious and airy bivy site called Heli Ledge. At this point we quit for the day and had a shot of Nick’s Glen Livet to celebrate while contemplating the Grand Sweep rearing above us towards the summit,

I awoke the next morning around 4.a.m. with a a bad feeling. The stars had gone out. Either the world was coming to an end or our weather had changed! First light proved the latter to be true with as thick cotton balls of low cloud, complementing the overcast, moved rapidly up the valley to envelope us. While we cursed this change in fortune we started to hear the distant rattle of thunder off to the N.W. By 8 a.m. we were cowering in our bivy sacks as the surrounding peaks were lit up by strikes. Curiously , Slesse, the highest point around was spared. Alternate showers of rain and hail pelted us as we contemplated rapping down the hard won terrain of yesterday. Fourtunately by 9 a.m. the storm moved on to harrass the Lucky Four Group and left us a fogged in, but climbable, summit.

The final section of the buttress, The Grand Sweep, is the reason to climb mountains. We were moving up steep, clean, easily protectable rock on the ridge crest, with dramatic glimpses of the pocket glacier over 2000 ft below. The climbing is at most 5.8 unless, like Colin, you decide to take the direct finish (one extra pitch) which puts you directly on the summit. This is probably a bit harder but can be avoided by going left near the summit and following a series of terraces to the summit ridge. Due to the delays imposed by the storm it was 6p.m before our whole party summited. This pretty much guaranteed us another night out as the descent is complex.

From the summit you traverse south on the narrow ridge for about two rope lengths before rapelling a steep wall rightwards into the gully guarded by large gendarme. Descend the gully for a short distance watching for cairns on the ledge systems on the right hand wall alllowing you to exit the gully. Continue traversing north under the NW Face on a series of terraces and short rappels finally dropping into another prominent gully below a prominent notch. Descend this gully for several hundred feet and then head for the obvious wooded ridge to the north. Once on the ridge follow it down to the meadows. The normal route trail drops in 2 hours to the Slesse creek trailhead.

In theory you could traverse to Crossover Pk. and descend into the Nesakwatch drainage. I have not heard of anyone actually doing this and I suspect it would be a vertical bushwack from hell.

While on the topic of Slesse it should be noted that the other shorter Becky route on the N.W. Face is well worth climbing in its own right.