Trip Report by Ben Shewan
My first real introduction to the Tantalus Range came in mid-July when our party was stopped by a thunder storm shortly after the summit of Mt Conybeare.
http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=51120
We’d attempted to complete a traverse from Echo Lake to Lake Lovely Water but found ourselves totally socked in on the second day with visibility limited to no more than 50 feet for a time. The prior night had afforded clear views of the jagged peaks forming the core of the range and since that moment I’d been unable to entirely escape what I can only describe as a need to return.
-Peaks surrounding Lake Lovely Water from Conybeare
A flurry of emails during the past week saw a more cohesive plan come together and I was pleased to know that feeling would be at least partially addressed. Originally we’d planned to helicopter into the Jim Haberl Hut but ended up opting to take a jet boat and hike up to Lovely Water under our own power. Honestly I was glad we chose to hike it since a part of me would feel like a heli was somehow cheating - as though the trail to the lake was a part of paying your dues (stupid, I know).
Day 1: “You forgot to say over, over” – Lake Lovely Water approach and Omega Mountain
I picked up Adrien and Bonn-Tien close to 7 on Saturday morning. Already running late, we rushed to Squamish and met with a punctual Leigh and Spring at the Watershed Grill. The boat was ready when we arrived so I tossed my gear in and we we’re en route moments later; I quietly hoped I hadn’t forgotten anything during this initial flurry of activity. The short jaunt up the Squamish River was great and I relished the cool morning air in anticipation of the steep ascent ahead of us. We stood on the small beach for a moment while the drone of the boat engine faded in the distance and I was presented with my share of the MSR Mutha Hubba that Spring, Leigh and I would be sharing. With just the poles it wasn’t too bad and I was sure glad I didn’t have to carry the whole damn thing (foreshadowing here...).
We passed the couple hours of ascent discussing our latest adventures and even spotted a pair of baby bears with no Mom to be found (bad parenting right there). I know someone got some good pictures so hopefully you guys can post them!
The steepness wasn’t as bad as I’d heard and we soon came to the small suspension bridge across the lake’s outflow.
Hoping to utilize a boat to shorten the journey to the Sandspit, we popped by the ACC hut but quickly reached an impasse with the people on the dock regarding a mutually acceptable arrangement. Deciding to hike it, we arrived at our new home quickly enough and set about arranging camp and dropping off the items we wouldn’t need on our pending climb.
Omega Mountain would be our destination for the afternoon and we followed a boulder filled creek bed to Niobe Meadows slightly above the lake.
-Niobe Meadows
From here we crossed a small snow patch and followed a roughly cairned route toward the Iota-Omega col. Occasional scrambling on the granite outcrops kept the ascent interesting but the eastern face of Omega sure looked intimidating as we approached.
Following the eastern ridgeline lead us to the scramble route and we found the going to be no worse than a class 4 throughout. I kept my camera in the pack for this portion since the front carry can really get in the way when scrambling so once again the pics are lacking – hopefully someone can fill in the blanks.
Adrien had brought a pair of walkie-talkies so we were able to keep in touch with Leigh as he lead the climb and fed us status updates as we went.
Reaching a flatter area slightly below the summit proper, I stopped to remove my camera and commented that it seemed the worst was behind us. Leigh retorted “famous last words.” No more than 15 seconds later Leigh had stepped on an innocent looking rock and badly rolled his ankle resulting in a partially torn tendon and rendering him effectively immobile in the process. Bonn-Tien assessed the damage by asking if he was experiencing any shooting pain or a burning sensation and Leigh initially responded that he was not. After waiting a moment he tried to put weight on the ankle and found the pain to be excruciating even on flat ground. Beginning to realize that this was more than a simple sprain, Leigh told us that he’d heard a series of crunching or popping sounds when the ankle had rolled and that the pain was in fact increasing. That whole afternoon the surrounding peaks had been sporadically shrouded in cloud and we could see that the weather was changing rapidly.
With full service at the summit, I knew a SAR extraction was likely but Leigh was hesitant and initially wanted to extricate himself. I told him that once we left the peak we wouldn’t have any access to cell reception - our only recourse if he found himself no longer able to move may be a SPOT activation on tricky terrain with night approaching. Accepting the truth of it, Leigh gave us the word and soon enough Adrien was on the phone and initiating the disturbingly familiar process. We passed the time shooting photos and scouting out a landing location. It also turns out that Adrien was quite a stickler for walkie-talkie protocol and he had to remind me multiple times to end my transmissions with an “over”.
Not much more than 45 minutes after the initial call we saw a helicopter entering the valley and begin to circle the peak. Adrien indicating a good landing zone to the pilot and he dropped off 2 SAR members and took off again. These fine ladies tended to Leigh and briefed us on the steps we would follow to load him and Spring into the chopper. Touching down again, we got everyone on board the heli and gave the thumbs up to take off. Being right at the nose of the chopper was a pretty unique experience and the down draft when he took off again was a little frightening up close. As the helicopter receded into the distance there was a moment of silence as Bonn-Tien, Adrien and myself contemplated how the weekend had changed.
The time was now about 6:30 and we began to hustle down to try and descend as much as possible before darkness. Not wanting any further incidents, we opted to rappel 2 sections of the scramble and returned to the base of the climb.
-Iota, Pelops and Niobe (L-R) in the background
Collecting Leigh and Spring’s poles and ice axes, we continued back on the ridge and found ourselves in almost complete darkness by the time we exited the last snowfield below the glacier. With headlamps the last portion was exceedingly slow and all of us were pretty exhausted as we closed the last few hundred meters to camp. Arriving shortly after 10:30, we exchanged greetings and briefly chatted with a group of 4 who’d also setup camp on the spit. After a quick dinner we set out rehanging our food but managed to break the line in the process... Too beat to fix it properly, we simply put the food in our tents and hoped for the best. After listening to various critters sneaking around camp for almost an hour I fell into a deep sleep inside the empty feeling tent.
http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=51120
We’d attempted to complete a traverse from Echo Lake to Lake Lovely Water but found ourselves totally socked in on the second day with visibility limited to no more than 50 feet for a time. The prior night had afforded clear views of the jagged peaks forming the core of the range and since that moment I’d been unable to entirely escape what I can only describe as a need to return.
-Peaks surrounding Lake Lovely Water from Conybeare
A flurry of emails during the past week saw a more cohesive plan come together and I was pleased to know that feeling would be at least partially addressed. Originally we’d planned to helicopter into the Jim Haberl Hut but ended up opting to take a jet boat and hike up to Lovely Water under our own power. Honestly I was glad we chose to hike it since a part of me would feel like a heli was somehow cheating - as though the trail to the lake was a part of paying your dues (stupid, I know).
Day 1: “You forgot to say over, over” – Lake Lovely Water approach and Omega Mountain
I picked up Adrien and Bonn-Tien close to 7 on Saturday morning. Already running late, we rushed to Squamish and met with a punctual Leigh and Spring at the Watershed Grill. The boat was ready when we arrived so I tossed my gear in and we we’re en route moments later; I quietly hoped I hadn’t forgotten anything during this initial flurry of activity. The short jaunt up the Squamish River was great and I relished the cool morning air in anticipation of the steep ascent ahead of us. We stood on the small beach for a moment while the drone of the boat engine faded in the distance and I was presented with my share of the MSR Mutha Hubba that Spring, Leigh and I would be sharing. With just the poles it wasn’t too bad and I was sure glad I didn’t have to carry the whole damn thing (foreshadowing here...).
We passed the couple hours of ascent discussing our latest adventures and even spotted a pair of baby bears with no Mom to be found (bad parenting right there). I know someone got some good pictures so hopefully you guys can post them!
The steepness wasn’t as bad as I’d heard and we soon came to the small suspension bridge across the lake’s outflow.
Hoping to utilize a boat to shorten the journey to the Sandspit, we popped by the ACC hut but quickly reached an impasse with the people on the dock regarding a mutually acceptable arrangement. Deciding to hike it, we arrived at our new home quickly enough and set about arranging camp and dropping off the items we wouldn’t need on our pending climb.
Omega Mountain would be our destination for the afternoon and we followed a boulder filled creek bed to Niobe Meadows slightly above the lake.
-Niobe Meadows
From here we crossed a small snow patch and followed a roughly cairned route toward the Iota-Omega col. Occasional scrambling on the granite outcrops kept the ascent interesting but the eastern face of Omega sure looked intimidating as we approached.
Following the eastern ridgeline lead us to the scramble route and we found the going to be no worse than a class 4 throughout. I kept my camera in the pack for this portion since the front carry can really get in the way when scrambling so once again the pics are lacking – hopefully someone can fill in the blanks.
Adrien had brought a pair of walkie-talkies so we were able to keep in touch with Leigh as he lead the climb and fed us status updates as we went.
Reaching a flatter area slightly below the summit proper, I stopped to remove my camera and commented that it seemed the worst was behind us. Leigh retorted “famous last words.” No more than 15 seconds later Leigh had stepped on an innocent looking rock and badly rolled his ankle resulting in a partially torn tendon and rendering him effectively immobile in the process. Bonn-Tien assessed the damage by asking if he was experiencing any shooting pain or a burning sensation and Leigh initially responded that he was not. After waiting a moment he tried to put weight on the ankle and found the pain to be excruciating even on flat ground. Beginning to realize that this was more than a simple sprain, Leigh told us that he’d heard a series of crunching or popping sounds when the ankle had rolled and that the pain was in fact increasing. That whole afternoon the surrounding peaks had been sporadically shrouded in cloud and we could see that the weather was changing rapidly.
With full service at the summit, I knew a SAR extraction was likely but Leigh was hesitant and initially wanted to extricate himself. I told him that once we left the peak we wouldn’t have any access to cell reception - our only recourse if he found himself no longer able to move may be a SPOT activation on tricky terrain with night approaching. Accepting the truth of it, Leigh gave us the word and soon enough Adrien was on the phone and initiating the disturbingly familiar process. We passed the time shooting photos and scouting out a landing location. It also turns out that Adrien was quite a stickler for walkie-talkie protocol and he had to remind me multiple times to end my transmissions with an “over”.
Not much more than 45 minutes after the initial call we saw a helicopter entering the valley and begin to circle the peak. Adrien indicating a good landing zone to the pilot and he dropped off 2 SAR members and took off again. These fine ladies tended to Leigh and briefed us on the steps we would follow to load him and Spring into the chopper. Touching down again, we got everyone on board the heli and gave the thumbs up to take off. Being right at the nose of the chopper was a pretty unique experience and the down draft when he took off again was a little frightening up close. As the helicopter receded into the distance there was a moment of silence as Bonn-Tien, Adrien and myself contemplated how the weekend had changed.
The time was now about 6:30 and we began to hustle down to try and descend as much as possible before darkness. Not wanting any further incidents, we opted to rappel 2 sections of the scramble and returned to the base of the climb.
-Iota, Pelops and Niobe (L-R) in the background
Collecting Leigh and Spring’s poles and ice axes, we continued back on the ridge and found ourselves in almost complete darkness by the time we exited the last snowfield below the glacier. With headlamps the last portion was exceedingly slow and all of us were pretty exhausted as we closed the last few hundred meters to camp. Arriving shortly after 10:30, we exchanged greetings and briefly chatted with a group of 4 who’d also setup camp on the spit. After a quick dinner we set out rehanging our food but managed to break the line in the process... Too beat to fix it properly, we simply put the food in our tents and hoped for the best. After listening to various critters sneaking around camp for almost an hour I fell into a deep sleep inside the empty feeling tent.
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