After the success of my last climb, we decided to not hold back and see if I could do a normal climbing trip. We had not anticipated just how difficult the climb of Baby Munday would be. To be blunt, this trip kick my ass but I completed it which was quite an accomplishment and another step on the road to recovery.
Climbing in Canada is always interesting. There is limited data on climbing routes. Their trails go straight up hill, no switchbacks (Actually in my experience, you will rarely find a switchback outside the United States.). And the Canadian’s definition of a drivable dirt road doesn’t quite match ours.
Though there was smoke everywhere, we decided to head to Canada. It was that or stay home and Jim and I were ready to go do something. Fay is always eager to jump on trips with new peaks and the smoke wasn’t going to keep her home either. The smoke turned out to not be a major issue. We were lucky enough to have the right winds to give us a few stars at night and blue sky during the day, as long as you looked the right direction. Everything to the south of us was completely socked in.
The first set back for the trip came when we turned off the main dirt road and onto the side road which was to take us 3 miles up 2000 feet of gain to the trailhead. We made it about 100 feet before the road when straight up hill with major ruts. There was no way our CRV was going another 20 feet. So Fay and I bitched a bit and then put on our packs and started climbing the road. I am not sure when the last time this road has actually seen a vehicle bigger than an ATV.
We hit the trailhead in just under 2 hours. The start of the trail contoured the hillside given us our first views of Baby Munday. Even through the smoke, this peak look more difficult than it sounded on paper. After about a mile, the trail headed down to the creek. Once we crossed the creek, we headed straight up hill. Several sections of the trail required hanging off branches. “How was I ever going to get down this?” This went on for 2000 feet. There was no break. It went forever up. The steepest trail I had been on since the trail to Blum Lakes.
4000 feet of gain was more than I had signed up for. When Jim and I finally reached camp, I was completely wiped out. We camped on the one and only flat spot in the middle Cheam Range. The surrounding meadows were beautiful and vertical everywhere you looked. This was going to be a steep climb.
We headed out of camp on the one trail that cut across the meadows. It soon died and we were left with steep heather and scree. “What was I doing here?”
As we reached the base of Baby Munday, the peak still did not look climbable. In the beginning, we couldn’t figure out which point was the summit. We knew we were suppose to gain a notch on the Southeast ridge but which one. There were about 8 notches. And none looked accessible.
As we worked our way across the east side of the peak, we all began to get quite frustrated. By the time we reached the north ridge, we all decided to go climb Stewart Peak instead. Maybe we could spot the route up Baby Munday from the summit of Stewart.
Stewart was a very pleasant class 2/3 stroll over loose scree. The summit offered us some sense of accomplishment. I wondered how many climbers had to settle for Stewart Peak instead of Baby Munday.
After 20 minutes on the summit, Fay and I deduced only one possible route up to the southeast ridge and boy was it a long way from the actual summit. We all agreed to try the route. It was still early afternoon and what else were we going to do?
Gaining the ridge actually went fairly easily. We climbed for about 5 minutes before things started to get exposed. We decided to rope up which was a good call since the closer we got to the summit, the more exposed the climbing got.
The final pitch was a very exposed ridge run which started with a 2 foot airy step over a 1000 foot vertical cliff. Did I mention it was a corner so you had to reach around and try to find a hand hold while you stepped onto this crumbly rock. I yelled up to Fay and Jim that I didn’t think I could make the move. Then 30 seconds later, I did it anyway. Later I found out that they looked at each other and said “oh she’ll do it”. Frankly, I didn’t have a lot of options since I was roped to them.
When I reached the summit, adrenaline had filled my veins. I asked “How are we getting down?” Fay and Jim calmly replied “We are trying to figure that out. Got any ideas?” Oh Great!
After having a bite to eat, we all agreed we had to start heading down. I quickly announced that I was not downclimbing the exposed step. We downclimbed on belay to directly above the step. This was much easier than any of us thought it would be. Once we were all anchored in on the ridge, we setup a rappel and went down the knife ridge. Though the step was only 20 feet, it was incredible unnerving. One slip either way and you would end up penduluming over a 1000 foot cliff. Jim said it was the worse thing he did all day.
From here the ridge ran pretty quickly. Much better than our up route. We had to do one more rappel and then do a very exposed cat walk where we almost had to leave Fay. She got stuck in the middle unable to move forward or backwards. Sometimes it definitely pays to be tall. Wings span is everything in rock climbing.
We reached the notch and our poles with about a hour of daylight. We debated between going back the way we had come which was going to put us into camp around midnight. Or going down the west side which would save a couple of hours. We knew there was a loose scree route on the west side. How bad could it be? We started out roped but soon realized it was more of a hazard than a help.
Before long we had reached the scree, put on our headlamps, and started following Fay’s GPS back to camp. My knees were so stiff and starting to swell as we hiked down the steep slopes. Finally, I heard the magic words out of Fay’s mouth “TRAIL” . Since there was only one trail on this entire hillside, it had to lead to camp.
As we ate dinner, we discussed climbing Knight Peak the next day. If it was a bunch of scree, I was going to find a spot to sit and wait for them. Knight turned out to be a lovely stroll up high meadows. Limited scree and snow. Just what all of us needed.
We were back in camp before 3pm so we decided to pack up and move camp down to the only flat spot we remembered. It was on the other side of the creek so I would have to figure out how to get down the 2000 feet of what the Canadian’s call a trail. I ended up backing down about a quarter of the trail. Facing in, I could use roots and branches as hand holds. Besides my knees like this direction.
Around 6pm, Jim and I came across the creek where we found Fay soaking her feet. I joined her to soak my knees. Boy, the water was cold. Jim went ahead to take his pack up to find us a camp. Then he returned with his summit pack and the water jugs to haul water up to our camp. He takes great care of us.
Our camp was flat and grass. What more could we want? The air was dry so we just through our bags on a tarp and called it good. Found some rocks nearby and called it our kitchen. We made mountain margaritas and settled in for dinner before 7:30pm. Were we actually going to make it in our bags before 10pm?
Jim woke up ready to go. Fay and I were not so eager to get out of our bags. Not that I wanted to sleep any more, I just didn’t want to hike down the road. It was going to kill my knees. After 20 minutes of Jim poking at me, I finally got up.
We were packed up in no time and head out. Fay took the lead, eager to get the miles behind her. We soon found ourselves back on the road and heading to the car. Once we were down the really steep part of the road, I was able to walk backwards. I am actually getting quite good at it as long as Jim keeps an eye out for obstacles.
Finally, there was the car. By the time I got to it, Fay had found us a beach next to the river so we could soak and clean up before heading for home. As Jim and I sat in the river, we laughed about the events of the last few days. He has been by my side through my recovery, coming up with whatever I thought I could do. Literally, behind me the whole way. No matter how many times I told him he could go ahead and hike at his own pace, he wouldn’t leave me.
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