The north ridge of Shingu Charpa, Nangma Valley, Pakistan Karakoram. Photo by Jimmy Chin.

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1 VOL. 80 NO.7 SEPTEMBER 2004 Avalanche Echoes Alpine Club of Canada - Vancouver Section News Next Meeting The north ridge of Shingu Charpa, Nangma Valley, Pakistan Karakoram. Photo by Jimmy Chin. Tuesday, September 28, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. Floral Hall, Van Dusen Gardens, West 37th & Oak Street, Vancouver Join us for an exciting slide show of Dave Edgar's recent trip (summer 2004) to Shingu Charpa, in the Hushe Region of northern Pakistan (near K2 and Masherbrum, climbing 6000 ft, with 3 partners, in 2 days. Coming Up October 26, Roberta Holden: An ascent of Mt. Fairweather from sea level as a traverse from Glacier Bay to Lituya Bay. Novermber 23, Andre Zimmermann and Shirley Howdle: Skiing the Haute Route: A high alpine traverse from Chamonix to Zermatt Vancouver Section website: National Club website: Avalanche Echoes 1

2 THE AVALANCHE ECHOES is published nine times per year by the Alpine Club of Canada, Vancouver Section. EDITORS: Helen Habgood Gerard Cheong This newsletter is the official publication of the Alpine Club of Canada, Vancouver Section. It keeps members informed on topics of interest to mountaineers including activities within the club, equipment, techniques, access, and environmental issues. The club meets monthly, usually for a slide presentation, at the Floral Hall in Van Dusen Gardens, W 37th and Oak St., at 7:30 pm on the fourth Tuesday of the month, except in July, August and December. ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DUES Vancouver Section: Single $61.00 Family $81.00 Junior $34.00 (under 18) For membership dues, renewals, and changes of address, and booking huts, contact the ACC national office directly: P.O. Box 8040 Canmore, AB, T1W 2T8, fax , phone , or alpclub@telusplanet.net, or visit Section Website: For detailed membership form including upgrades, send SASE to: ACC-Vancouver, c/o FMCBC, P.O. Box 19673, Vancouver, BC V5T 4E3; ph: SUBMISSIONS We encourage submissions of writing, photography, drawings, etc. If possible, articles should be submitted by (about 500 words). Photos and slides are always needed (JPG format is preferable). Deadline for submissions is the last day of the previous month. ADVERTISING Advertising in the Avalanche Echoes shall be accepted at the discretion of the Editor. All advertising shall be for products or services of direct interest to our membership. EDITORIAL POLICY Suitability for publication is at the editor's discretion within the guidelines of the Section Executive. Articles may be edited for clarity or to fit the available space. Alpine Club Executive Chair Liz Scremin Secretary Tony Knight Treasurer Rob Brusse Membership (Voic ) Susan D Aloisio Editors Gerard Cheong Helen Habgood Climbing Coord. Margaret Hanson Camps Coord. Richard Keltie Skills Development Susan Baldwin Socials Programs Susan Higginbottom Access & Environment Henny Coates National Rep. Fern Hietkamp Promotions Jay MacArthur FMCBC Rep. Richard Keltie Special Project Volunteers: Program Assistant Linda Bily Skills Assistant Zoran Vasic Jim Haberl Hut Liz Scremin Sea to Sky Forums Mary Henderson VOC Rep Antje Wahl Archivist Irene Goldstone Quartermaster Rob Brusse Tantalus Hut Ron Royston Webmaster Sidney Pecul sidney@telus.net Administrator Tony Knight accvanem@telus.net Announcements Lead a Trip! The section needs your help to put together the fall and winter schedule. Please help us by volunteering to organize a trip. Contact the Climbing Coordinator, Margaret Hanson at Satellite Phone The club s satellite phone is available for rent. Contact Tony Knight at or knightta@telus.net Get the Echoes by ...and get it a whole lot faster. And you ll be helping the club save money. Contact Tony Knight at or accvanem@telus.net MEC Gear Swap Sale Sunday Oct 3 10:30 am - 1:30 pm Rooftop parking lot at the store, 130 W Broadway, Vancouver Drop off items Fri. Oct 1 and Sat Oct. 2, in the store. $2.25 per item, plus commission. Info: or vangearswap@mec.ca Vancouver Snow Show Oct Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, at Canada Place. Features ski, snowboard and travel products and services and the huge Winter Equipment Swap hosted by the Canadian Ski Patrol - Vancouver Zone! More info at vancouversnowshow.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to Chartwell Consultants Ltd. for use of computer space and printers. Avalanche Echoes 2

3 Workshops and Courses St John s Wilderness First Aid September 30, October 2-3, 2004 Pre-requisites: Must be 14 years of age. Course hours: Approximately 22 hours. Cost: $ including GST (If more than 8 people signup there will be a 10% discount) St John s is holding this course especially for Vancouver ACC members. To register, please send your name, address, phone number, and a cheque for $ made out to the Alpine Club of Canada - Vancouver Section to Susan Baldwin 139 E 26th Ave. Vancouver, B.C. V5V 2G8 The Standard First Aid for Wilderness course is taught using practical sessions conducted outdoors, videos, lectures and workbook exercises. Included in the course material is the St. John Ambulance Official Wilderness First Aid Guide. There is a strong emphasis on prevention and preparedness as well as self-preservation and self-rescue. The course covers the following lessons: Emergency Scene Management Bone & joint injuries-lower limbs Shock, unconsciousness & fainting Head/spinal and pelvic injuries Artificial respiration - Adult Chest injuries Choking - Adult Wound care Severe Bleeding Rescue carries Cardiovascular emergencies and one rescuer CPR-Adult Eye injuries Secondary survey Burns Bone & joint injuries-upper limbs Muscle strains Poison, bites & stings Medical conditions Environmental illnesses & injuries Successful participants will receive a three year national St. John Ambulance certificate as well as a CPR B certificate. Intro to Ice Climbing Workshop Coleman Glacier, Mt. Baker October 23 and/or 24, 2004 Basic intro, covering techniques for general mountaineering & more technical aspects of climbing vertical ice and placing protection. No previous experience required. Participants must bring their own harness, boots, crampons (clip-on style preferred), and at least one general mountaineering ice-axe. For more info and to register (space is limited), call Paul Baker at Leadership Development Weekend Oct , 2004 If you are interested in developing your leadership skills, whether as a trip leader or participant, this will be a great workshop weekend for you. Highlights include: a leadership assessment tool where you will learn more about your leadership style and identify areas that can be improved; role-playing to practice decision making and communication in tough situations while on a hike; and an opportunity to meet other club members, learn, and have fun all at the same time! Cost: for ACC members: $25.00 (please give membership number when registering); for non-acc members: $30.00; for Varsity Outdoor Club members, UBC: $20. Pre-registration and pre-payment are required. To register, contact Zoran Vasic at or zvasic@telus.net, before Monday, Oct. 18. If you call, please leave your address with Zoran, as we will be contacting you ahead of the weekend by with materials for the workshop. The workshop will be held at a learning facility in the North Shore mountains; you can find out more when you register. Space is limited, so sign up early! 2004 The North Face / Alpine Club of Canada Winter Leadership Course Application Deadline: October 25, 2003 Location: Vista Lodge, Golden Alpine Holidays Date: January 10-17, 2004 (8 days) Guides: Cyril Shokoples, Peter Amann Asst. Guide: Brad Harrison Cook: Kelly Mager Participants: 10 Cost: $600 + GST Karl Nagy Memorial Scholarship Application Deadline January 31, 2005 This scholarship is intended to provide an opportunity to ACMG candidates and/or ACC aspiring amateur leaders to develop their skills and abilities within the ACC General Mountaineering Camp environment. All applicants must be current members of The Alpine Club of Canada. For more information contact Jon Rollins Mountain Adventures Coordinator adventures@alpineclubofcanada.ca ext. 112 Avalanche Echoes 3

4 Mount Joffre North Ridge August 14-15, 2004 Because Saturday was supposed to be an easy day we started hiking at the crack of 2pm. Our destination was a campsite around tree-line on Mt Joffre s north ridge. It was blisteringly hot, and because I didn t expect to find any water at camp we were each lugging about 6 litres of water. We started our bushwhack from a deactivated logging road about 500m past the Joffre Lakes parking lot, and just headed straight up the ridge. Fortunately there were blueberries to distract us from the miseries of steep bush, bluffs and deadfall. I also didn t expect it to rain, so we were rather dismayed to see gathering thunderheads. One of the more spectacular clouds turned out to be a big forest fire on Seton Lake, but the other clouds were bona fide and delivered the goods after we had bedded down. Some creative sleeping arrangements were hastily made by those who had reduced their loads by dispensing with tent flies, or even tents Looking down the North Ridge of Mt Joffre. themselves. I spent the night sleeping fitfully in my Gore-Tex bivvy bag, feeling guilty for having given people the wrong idea about the weather forecast, and fretting that they would all be soaked by morning. By dawn the rain was gone and the sky appeared to be clearing. The others, and their spirits, did not appear to be too dampened. So we set off for the peak. The climb starts off as a pleasant ramble up the ridge. It steepens a bit and you get on some pleasant slabby rock, then it seem to go on and on and on (this ridge is 5 km long!). Eventually we got to the crux the notch. The two most sensible people basked in the sun while the rest of us carried on, rappelling down into the notch, then climbing a short 5.8 pitch to exit on the uphill side. More scrambling and a couple of short exposed sections led, finally, to the summit, with grand views of Matier, the Joffre glacier and lakes, Rex s Pillar, and so on. Getting down took about as long as going up because we rappelled the exposed bits, and six people rapping takes some time. We arrived back in camp when most people are sitting down to Sunday dinner, and we still had to pack up and thrash down the hill back to our cars. At least when you re bushwhacking downhill you have gravity assistance. We got back to the cars just as it got dark, to make this a good 14 hour day! There was no time for blueberries on the way down, so we had to make do with Tim Horton soup and sandwiches. Participants: Helen Habgood (l & r), Christina Williams, Tom Lalonde, Marilyn Cox, Dan Friedmann, Sarah Lane, Ferdinand Reinstadler, Heidi Davison. Photos by Helen Habgood. On the summit. Dan Friedmann on rappel. Avalanche Echoes 4

5 The Alpine Club of Canada and the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides invite you to the 15th Annual Mountain Guides' Ball Saturday, October 30th, 2004, Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, Alberta Silent Auction 3:00pm - 9:00pm Cocktails 5:00pm Dinner in the Victoria Dining Room 6:30pm Socializing and Dancing 9:00pm - 1:00am Part of this year's proceeds from the Mountain Guides' Ball will be used for the Karl Nagy Memorial Scholarship, a joint ACC-ACMG scholarship for aspiring guides and ACC amateur leaders. The remainder of the funds raised this year will be placed in the ACC Centennial Fund for funding of projects in the centennial year of the ACC, The patron of this year's Mountain Guides' Ball is Sharon Wood, a woman who has made great contributions to both the Canadian climbing community and the local Bow Valley community. As a climbing guide, professional speaker, and mother of two, Sharon has continuously shown all of us the power of ordinary people achieving extraordinary results through teamwork, cooperation and commitment to their goals. We're hoping to enlarge on our success of last year with another lavish dinner and another silent auction with many great works of art, books, items of climbing gear, bikes, and trips up for grabs by the highest bidder! A Sneak Preview of the Silent Auction items for the upcoming Ball will be coming soon. After an exquisite gourmet dinner, let yourself be drawn to the dance floor with the rhythms of a live dance band that will keep you dancing into the wee hours. Ticket information: ACC Office Manager pzettel@alpineclubofcanada.ca ext Experience Ecuador Adventure Designs is going to Ecuador and we d like for you to come with us! We will be trekking with horses, horseback riding, rafting and trekking up Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world. We will be spending nights both camping and in spas as well as going to one of the largest native handi craft markets in Ecuador. Adventure Designs believes to travel is to give ourselves time not only to explore cultures and landscapes but to explore our own sense of adventure. We are dedicated to crafting the best trip possible to suit our diverse clientele. Through our local guides, we are able to get to places off the beaten track and learn about flora and fauna from a resident expert. Adventure Designs is commited to having as little impact as possible on the cultures that we visit and we are intent on giving back to communities in the form of a percent of profits and work days in communities. For more info contact Kelly Wood kalicois@yahoo.com or Dave Edgar Ecuador@iceguides.com Trip Report Needle Peak Traverse via the NE Ridge Helen Habgood This is a scenic scramble at the Coquihalla summit and makes a great day trip. Start the same place as you would for skiing at Needle Peak (at the sand sheds on the south side of the Coquihalla highway) but rather than taking the trail up to Needle Peak, bushwack up to the NE ridge. It s steep and bushy for an hour or so, and you ll need to bypass an open slabby section on the right. Then you get above the tress and just ramble and scramble up the ridge, through scrubby alpine shrubs, heather meadows and rocky slabs and buttresses. Climb over Markhor or Thimble Peak and follow the obvious ridge over a couple more bumps to reach the summit of Needle. The route is mainly third class, however we got a bit off route and got bluffed out descending Markhor, which necessitated a short rappel. We could have avoided this if we had stayed to the right when descending Markhor. Ed Fischer and I did this on a very hot Sunday in August. It was breezy and cool up on the ridge, but when we got back to the car the rest area was full of cars with overheated engines and people eating ice cream cones. We were glad we d gone to the hills! Recommended Reading The following two articles have many references to the local climbing scene of years gone by. They are published in BC Studies Number 141, Spring 2004, available from BC Studies, Risk on the Rocks: modernity, manhood and mountaineering in postwar British Columbia, by Christopher Dummitt Being a girl without being a girl : gender and mountaineering on Mount Waddington, , by Karen Routledge. Thanks to Elizabeth Walker for the recommendations! Avalanche Echoes 5

6 Gondola proposed for the Stawamus Chief The Park Management Plan of the Chief was completed in 1997 after two years of community consultation. It was an important and time-consuming process that determined the Chief as a natural and unique landmark of cultural importance for British Columbians. Mechanical lift access is not permitted under the management plan. There has been a proposal put forward to the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection by a group of Whistler developers to construct a gondola up to the second summit of the Chief. This proposal includes tram towers, and the capacity to carry 880 people per hour to the summit. Two acres of usable land at the second summit will be fenced off to accommodate an observation deck and visitor facilities. The current hiking trails on the Chief are some of the most popular and heavily used trails in the province, and the climbing at the Chief is some of the best in the world. To the recreational community, this proposal is akin to suggesting a gondola to the top of El Capitan in Yosemite. It will introduce Industrial Tourism on a large scale to one of the crown jewels of recreation in Squamish and British Columbia. Thank you for your support in our attempt to maintain and protect the Stawamus Chief Provincial Park. If you would like to be involved in our fight to make sure this gondola does not happen, please write a letter to the following: Honourable Bill Barisoff Minister of Water Land and Air Protection Box 9047 Stn Prov Gov t, Victoria, BC V8W 9E2 Phone: (250) WLAP.Minister@gems9.gov.bc.ca Honourable Gordon Campbell Premier of British Columbia Box 9041 Stn Prov Gov t, Victoria, BC V8W 9E1 Phone: (250) premier@gov.bc.ca Mayor Ian Sutherland, District of Squamish Box 310, Squamish, BC V0N 3G0 Phone: isutherland@squamish.ca Thank you for all of your efforts and support! Sincerely, Megan OleskyFRIENDS OF THE CHIEF Box 2142 Squamish, BC Canada V0N 3G0 friendsofthechief@yahoo.ca The following letter was sent May 28th by the Squamish Access Society to Bill Barisoff, the Minister of Land, Water and Air Protection to protest against construction of a gondola on the Chief. It is reproduced here with permission, to provide some background information for members about the gondola proposal. May 28th, 2004 The Honourable Bill Barisoff Minister of Land, Water and Air Protection, Victoria, BC Regarding the proposed Gondola on the Stawamus Chief Dear Minister, Our organization was recently invited to a private presentation by Peter Alder, one of the principals involved in the above Gondola proposal. Mr Alder appeared quite candid about his proposition, provided us with considerable detail and asked for our input. During the last couple weeks we have considered what we learned, and after consideration of all aspects, wish to make comment on the matter direct to your office. We ask that this proposal be rejected promptly, and that your ministry make a formal announcement to that effect. Our reasons for asking the proposal be rejected are as follows. 1. Mechanized access of this nature would be unequivocally damaging to the status of the Chief as an international centre of adventure recreation. The Chief in its natural state, and with little or no effort expended to promote it, has become an international icon over the last half century for the outstanding opportunities for adventure it offers climbers and hikers close to an urban setting. It is now the most popular hiking peak in British Columbia and Canada s most famous rockclimbing centre, and simply unacceptable to suggest such a radically differentparadigm. There is no improved public benefit to be gained by imposing a Gondola on the Chief. Such initiatives have their place in this region, but at the Chief is not one of them. 2. We believe the proponents have considerably underestimated the vast scale of objection that their proposition would stir up in British Columbia and abroad if your government should bring it forward. There are, conservatively, tens of thousands of people who hold very high regard for the Chief in its present natural state, and the dramatic clash of values presented by the industrial tourism of a Gondola would ignite a very public and damaging controversy. From what is now being voiced across a wide range of interests, there is little or no chance of a Gondola proposition gaining even a moderate level of committed public support. It would be akin to proposing a shopping centre for the middle of Stanley Park. 3. The economic gains projected from a Gondola will be outweighed by the erosion of tourism equity built around Squamish s trademark: the Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada. A recent report from the District of Squamish placed rockclimbing in this area and hiking the Chief, conservatively, at an annual value of $20 million. Some portion of that would be permanently lost as a result of interest in the Chief declining due to the objectionable presence of such an incompatible set of values. 4. For the Chief to become a centre of industrial tourism; branded, marketed and sold, would change the nature of the experience on the Chief and the self-identity of Squamish so radically and distastefully for hundreds of thousands of Continued on next page. Avalanche Echoes 6

7 Letter to the Minister continued: outdoor recreation visitors and residents, that the Municipality s trademarked title of Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada Squamish Access Society would run serious risk of no longer being sustainable. That is not an exaggeration. Squamish can have one or the other, but it can t have what would be in essence a type of mini- Grouse Mountain on the top of the Chief, and also expect the same place to be an international centre of adventure in a natural setting for rockclimbers and hikers. Squamish s title of ORCC is authentic because it is given international legitimacy by tens of thousands of mountainbikers, climbers, windsurfers, hikers, and river users. A Gondola on the Chief would severely erode that legitimacy. 5. In respect of the Sea to Sky Highway Rebuild, the possibility of your government bringing this proposition forward further complicates the balance of considerations for the new intersection to the Chief. Mr Alder stated the Gondola would require a new road entrance direct from Shannon Falls. This raises the real concern of intersection-consolidation for the sake of economy. That would lead in one way or another, sooner or later, to all Chief users becoming subject to the hegemony of a defacto private branding of the peak. As long as a Gondola appears to be under consideration, under no circumstances can we give consideration to a consolidated single entrance to the Chief from Shannon Falls. In closing, we believe there is high potential for broad public support for new economic development initiatives for outdoor recreation and provincial parks, if they are centred on leveraging and enhancing popular existing usages and interests more effectively. In other words, giving people more of what they have demonstrated they want. We thank you for taking the time to read our comments, and we welcome the opportunity to discuss this, and any other matters relating to the Chief at your earliest convenience. We look forward to hearing from you. Kevin McLane Chair, Squamish Access Society Box 370, Squamish, BC. V0N 3G stone@elaho.ca View of Needle Peak from the NE ridge. Photo by Helen Habgood. A family outing on Needle Peak. Photo by Ed Fischer. What did you do on your summer vacation? We need your trip reports!! We d love to hear from you. Deadline for the Echoes is the first day of the month. Photos welcome JPG format please. Send to: Helen Habgood at hhabgood@chartwell-consultants com and Gerard Cheong at gerard.cheong@shaw.ca Avalanche Echoes 7

8 Alpine Club Trip Schedule Date Destination Type Grade Organizer Phone SEPTEMBER Slim Lake Area (S Chilcotins) hike B2 Jay MacArthur Mt. Dickson North Ridge climb C5 Margaret Hanson Copper Ridge hike C2 Lorne Owen Ruth Mtn scramble C3 Chris Drotar Tomyhoi scramble C3 Lorne Owen Brunswick, Harvey, Lions loop scramble C2/3 Ilze Rupners Mt. Sheer scramble B3 Todd Ponzini Mt. Baker climb D3 Lorne Owen TBA (hike) hike B2 Richard Keltie Lindsay Lake (1160m) hike B2 Tania & Trish Mt. Ashlu scramble C3 Helen Habgood Rainbow Lake hike B2 Martin Cook ACC Monthly Meeting and Slide Show OCTOBER Skaha (rock climbing) climb A5 Margaret Hanson Mt. Cheam (bike & hike) scramble B/C3 David Gunhold Ice Climbing Workshop - Mt Baker climb A5 Paul Baker Leadership Development Wknd, North Shore Mtns Zoran Vasic ACC Monthly Meeting and Slide Show Trip organizers needed for the fall and winter schedule. Please call Margaret Hanson at THE ALPINE CLUB OF CANADA VANCOUVER SECTION TRIP SCHEDULE GRADING GUIDELINES A - Less than 6 hrs travel/day (not strenuous) B - 6 to 8 hrs travel/day (moderately strenuous) C - 8 to 12 hrs travel/day (strenuous) D - More than 12 hrs travel/day (extremely strenuous) S- Slower-paced trip, (suitable for seniors) 1 - Gentle slopes. Travel on trails over fairly level terrain. 2 - Moderate slopes. Travel may be off trail. Intermediate skiing ability recommended. Easy climbing. 3 - Travel in mountainous terrain. Steep forest and glaciers probable. Backcountry equipment and intermediate skiing experience required. Moderate climbing. 4 - Travel over difficult mountain terrain. Advanced backcountry and mountaineering experience, ability and equipment required. Advanced ski mountaineering or moderate to difficult ice or mixed climbing. Ropes and belays required. 5 - Technical ice or mixed climbing. Advanced climbing experience required. Please contact trip organizers by the Wednesday prior to the trip or earlier to express your interest. Non-members are welcome to participate once or twice before joining, and are accepted on a space available basis.. Everyone is welcome to attend our meetings at 7:30pm in the Floral Hall of Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, W. 37 th Ave. & Oak St in Vancouver on the fourth Tuesday of every month (except July, Aug, Dec). Trip organizers are required to have participants sign the ACC waiver which can be obtained from the climbing schedule organizer, or from: Completed waivers can be mailed to: Alpine Club of Canada, Vancouver Section, c/o The Federation of Mountain Clubs of B.C. 47 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V5Y 1P1, or given to any member of the executive. CHAIRPERSON Liz Scremin MEMBERSHIP Susan D Aloisio CLIMBING SCHEDULE Margaret Hanson vanacctrips@hotmail.com Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: The Alpine Club of Canada, Vancouver Section, c/o Federation of Mountain Clubs of BC P.O. Box 19673, Vancouver, BC V5T 4E3 CANADIAN PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO Avalanche Echoes 8