Archive:BC Day '09 Long Weekend: Tantalus Range

What when how why?

Tantalus_Range is those pretty mountains you see off the highway between Squamish & Whistler. Read all about it in Matt Gunn's book, p.48.

We need 1 day (Aug 1) to hike in and 1 day (Aug 3) to hike out. We will do ~1200m elevation gain/loss with backpacks + one river crossing each of those days.

On Aug 2 we will break up into smaller groups based on what we want to do. Our base camp will be Lake Lovelywater. There is scrambling up there, you can go to at least 2 different places: Alpha (exposed sections), and Pelops/Niobe (glacier+ some exposure). If you don't like sketchy, haul up an inflatable kayak and paddle on the lake.

Beginner Friendly?

There are several beginner-sketchy things on this trip which I will take the time to point out.

• Crossing via tyrolean. I have no idea how much arm strength this requires. Not recommended if you're afraid of swiftly running ice cold water below you.
• 1200m elevation gain to base camp, with backpack. it will be a long day.
• Optional moderate to difficult scrambling with exposed sections and/or glaciers. You can skip this though.

Never scrambled? Wondering about safety/equipment? Here are some pointers.

• Each route has its own set of dangers which you should research before heading out. Matt Gunn's and Bruce Fairley's guidebooks are good references. Maria has a copy of Matt Gunn's book that she will bring, so does the club.
• Having a climbing helmet is important to protect you from the danger of falling rocks. All routes at Lake Lovelywater are subject to rockfall hazard.
• You must be able to tell when a route is so hard that you have a non-negligible chance of falling off. If it is, then you probably don't go there. Having climbing experience will help in making this judgment.
• If there is glacier traversing then the standard crevasse dangers apply.
• If there are steep snow slopes on the route you must have an ice axe (and possibly crampons), and know how to use it.

Across the Squamish

At the beginning of the route we have to cross the Squamish river. It's kinda surrounded by Native land and there is no bridge. There's a cable where we can Tyrolean across and boats can be hired too.

This is going to be a large organizational issue. I want to cross via Tyrolean because it sounds like fun. But, we can't have everybody pile up at the crossing all at the same time (you cross one at a time). So at the very least we need to get people 'time slots'. You can probably pay somebody to use a boat, and Roland has given me some contact info, but before I do that, maybe a rough idea of how many people wanna NOT do the Tyrolean will be helpful. If you own a boat (canoe? kayak? yacht?) then you can do that. Except, where would you leave it? Also, the river is fast so you should be confident of your paddling skills.

Gear

Regular camping gear. You want a warm sleeping bag even though it's likely to be boiling hot down here. Helmet for scrambling, possibly rope 'n harness for the glacier? Probably ice axe. 3 large biners if you're doing the Tyrolean thing, these will work: [1]. They may get ruined in the process. From the msg board, posted by Chris Michalak (who is tall so reachy for him = impossible for some?):

 These biners fit the lower cable (if you want to hang from the cable and drag your way across). Also full-sized wire gates
 work (so you can buy one locker for you + one wire gate for your pack+clipped to you as a backup). Note that the biner you 
 hang from will become quite worn (you can reuse it to cross the cable numerous times, but I wouldn't use the biner for 
 climbing afterwards).
 
 However it is more efficient to walk on the lower cable and clip the upper (thinner) cable. Any biners will do for that. The 
 cruxes are reaching to clip past the anti-helicopter markers on the upper cable and the wobbliness between the two cables near 
 the midpoint of the crossing. But it's really not that hard.
 
 (for the record, I've done it both ways and with the specified biners)

If you wanna skip on carrying the tent, there is that really $$$ve hut up there which belongs to the ACC. I hear that it has to be booked waaaaay in advance though. Just throwing that out there, not saying it's a good idea or anything.

More details coming up.

Interesteds

Put down a name and any info you'd like to share, such as your preferred method of crossing the Squamish (important!), number seats in car if you have one, number spaces in tent if you have one, newbie factor, etc.

1. Maria M. Crossing via tyrolean. Not much glacier travel experience.
2. [name] [preferred crossing method] [car?] [tent?] [n00bie factor]

Further Reading

Tantalus_Range A VOC wiki description.

Tantalus_Range#Tyrolean All about the Tyrolean.

[2] The discussion thread.

[3] Old TR from roughly the same time of year.

[4] Last year's extensive planning complete with Ran's amazing Tyrolean diagram.

[5] Last year's wiki page.