The Emperor

It's been a few years now since I've felt in decent rock climbing shape.  One problem with the whole multi-sport thing is unless your are supremely talented, it's hard to stay in top form in each one of the disciplines you practice.  This spring I had every intention of getting back into the sport of hard rock climbing and hopefully redpoint my hardest route to date.

I was trying.  I bouldered heavily while in Patagonia and came home with an edge up on spring training.  In Vancouver, I committed to training sessions in the climbing gym religiously for several weeks.  I just about glimpsed past strength levels too, when the fateful TSN Turning Point happened - I pulled a tendon pulley in my middle finger.  I was benched from holding any sort of grips, plastic or rockstone.  Even gripping ski poles was aggravating.  Finally, after a month and a half layoff, the finger felt just good enough to hold ice tools.  This development put and end to furious crimper training and I postulated on how to make the very most of my spring.

If alpine climbing was now the only thing in condition for me, there was one guy I knew I needed to get in contact with - Jon Walsh.  Jonny Red (JR) is my total hero.  He has climbed the kinds of routes around the globe that people dream of climbing.  Usually in an uncompromising, bold style - single push, fast, and free.  This is the very aesthetic that appeals to me.  His response was immediate and positive.  At the top of his hit list was a face I had dreamt about climbing since I was a kid, the storied Emperor Face of Mt. Robson.  We didn't have to talk tactics for very long to realize we were on the same page.  If we climbed fast with small packs we would only need a couple good days of weather, not the 5+ usually required for an ascent.  JR was adamant any face in the Rockies could be climbed in a weekend.  "I've realized I can climb continuously for 48 hours before I need to sleep," he claimed.

The Emperor Face from Mist Lake

The hike in is long, like 25 kms one-way long.  We ended up going in on three separate occasions; twice in May and then finally on June 19th.  The first trip ended in part due to bad weather and too much snow on the face, so on the second try we packed skis and our stiff touring boots just to hedge our bets.  Too much snow still clung to the rock on that attempt, so we switched into ski mode and attempted to ski off the very aesthetic Whitehorn.

The Whitehorn north face

I still haven't checked the map, but I reckon it was a ~60km, 12,000ft day of skiing car-to-car in 19 hours.

Hanging off an ice screw to clip in to your skis is tricky on a 50° face 

JR shredding

'Schrund work

The summer solstice seemed a ridiculous time to try and climb a 'winter' route, but with a plump snow pack this year and a mild spring, conditions were looking good for a try.  I had kept a full backpack packed just for Robson, incase we got the window we needed for another go.

On Friday the 18th, after deejaying the Test of Metal blockparty in Squamish, I hopped in my truck and drove the 10 hours through the night to meet Jon in the Robson parking lot mid-morning.  We hiked in quickly and established a camp below the face.

Here is Jon's report published on the Alpinist website

Despite the continuous, cerebral (read: scary) nature of the climbing, it was a pure pleasure to climb such entertaining and sustained mixed ground for so long.  We climbed quickly, swinging leads the entire way up the face.  I can call the hardest pitch I lead M7 with a straight face.  We hit the top of the face at midnight as lightning struck to the north, clouds enveloped around us, and it started to snow a little.  At the time the decision was pretty easy to go down the Emperor Ridge and not continue to the summit.  Now, I can't help but wonder 'what if?'

It always seemed a little silly to argue over the very definitions we climbers make up ourselves.  Summit or not, it definitely felt like a new route.  In correspondence with a longtime Rockies climber, another hero of mine, his point was clear: "we're not arguing black or white here, rather, different shades of ugly".

Look for a feature article I'm writing for Gripped Magazine.  Here are some of my photos:

And JR's route line:

Patagonia 2010 Part Three!

The majority of the alpine brothers and sisters returned with tales of defeat from the mountains. Our trailer park decided we needed a bit of a blowout to let off steam. We threw a 'gringo trailer trash' asado with the help of Eduardo, our friend and owner of the hostel and trailers.

Segal in gringo trailer trash costume… wait, this was taken weeks before the party!?.

The buzz among the party was of good weather. Everyone was scheming, making plans for the next window. I was unsure of what to do. Hayden was leaving the next day, and I was trying to decide exactly what to do. I had sworn I never wanted to climb the Supercanaleta ever again. We were sideswiped while cruising a pretty moderate route by today's standards, I couldn't help but feel bitter about the experience. As much as I wanted to just let it go, clean my hands of Fitz Roy, I couldn't. I needed to go back.

I didn't have to say much to Hayden before realizing he felt the same way. Immediately, Hayden got on the phone and initiated the painful process of extending an international flight 36 hours before departure. Thankfully, his parents went to bat for him over the phone back in the US. Now all he had to do was borrow enough gear to make up for what he had just sold!

For this try we decided to approach from the north via Paso Quadrado. We would be bringing everything with us this time, intent on summiting and rappelling down the shorter Franco-Argentine route on the other side of the mountain. It was a committing plan, only intensified by the fact we were planning on bringing only one rope. Descending back down the Supercanaleta with one rope would be so brutal, we never considered it an option. We were going up and over the mountain. Inshallah.

We started soloing up the couloir at 2:00 AM, and were at the first pitch of technical climbing before dawn. We climbed swiftly and sure, we wanted the perfect ascent this time.

Goulotting on the second try

HK high on the route

Rime time fun

A very fun pitch near the end of the technical climbing. I only wish this pitch was longer…

Cumbre! Me and HK soak it all in…

My excitement thinking we had it ‘in the bag’ was cut short by the realization that the fun part was now over, and we still had to get down. The summit of Fitz Roy is an intimidating place to be with only one rope.

On top, Hayden and I hugged and screamed into the wind. We had just sent the route in 11 hours ‘schrund to summit! We lingered for a couple minutes and then started to descend. We had very little margin for error on this notoriously tricky descent, but with key beta from our friends Neil and Joel, we nailed every one of the 30-plus rappels. Five or six hours later I rapped over the bergschrund just as it was getting dark. Touching down on the glacier I dug my headamp out of my pack and waited for Hayden. We were elated to climb up and over the mountain in the light of day. Our stove and bivy gear unused.

I had time for one more quick mission before I had to be on the bus out of town. I teamed up with Whit Magro from Bozeman for a lap up Aguja Poincenot. Whit had never been to the top of this cumbre before; I had. It was my first Patagonian summit: Will Stanhope and I endured a three day first ascent epic up the west aspect of the beast. Whit and I decided to climb the standard route up the east side, the famous Whillans-Cochrane (WI3 5.9 M4, 700m).

Whit cruising ropeless up fun mixed ground

Psyched on top! Absolutely bluebird out.

A nod to future projects - I'll be back. Wink, wink…

It was a casual, comfortable day. Whit and I topped out in three hours 'schrund-to-summit. We had tea back at Paso Superior, and boot skied down to Lago de Los Tres in 20 minutes flat. It was a fun route, a perfect end to a great trip. My love affair with this range is not over yet, I already have another trip to the range planned...

Special thanks goes to MEC, an organization never afraid to help small teams complete their dreams in the hills. I am very thankful to have access to all the best gear for these trips, please check out my sponsors' websites, click the links on page right! Thanks also to Petzl USA, for surely they make the finest ice climbing equipment for alpinism.

Patagonia Interlude: Tour de Bloc Western Boulder Regionals!

Sorry for the delay in Patagonia updates... I have been working hard in Vancouver instead of updating my blog. Hard to do both when you are an apathetic writer at the best of times...

I just returned from a long weekend in Kelowna, BC. I was setting and generally helping out for the adult regional bouldering championships being held there. The venue: Beyond the Crux climbing gym, my personal vote for the best gym and climbing training facility in Canada. I always jump at the opportunity to go hang with Mike and April Shannon, owners of the gym. Truly great people, they sure do know how to throw a comp and ensuing party.

Not only did I set, but I MC'ed the final round, busting out my best one-liners as the competitors did battle with the problems. Of note was the outdoor adventure theme. Competitors on the third problem had to literally swing across the gym over a pit of inflatable sharks with lazer beams. To top out number four, climbers had to successfully make Billy Bass the talking fish sing.

A great weekend was had all around. We kidnapped Gary, the thirty-year-old birthday boy, taking him to a surprise party at Mike and Apes'. A bonfire, tractor races, and wood-splitting contests ensued...

I don't think the movie I made last year about Mike ever witnessed widespread release, so I am posting it here. It documents Mike's general amplitude regarding the sport of climbing, and in particular, new bouldering first ascents. The problem, the Pant Pisser, is located in the Kelowna Boulderfields above Mike's place.

The Pant Pisser from Jason Kruk on Vimeo.

The absolutely thrilling recap of my Patagonia trip is coming very soon, I promise!

J

Patagonia 2010 Part Two!

Hayden and I adopted the tactic of 'if the weather looks marginal, we take our gear for a hike up the glacier'. That is to say: if it cleared, we wanted to be poised to strike at the base of the route. So we packed our gear and hiked in to high camp, prepared to auger in until we got up something. Our first goal was going to be Exocet on Cerro Standhart.

Our alarm went off at 2:00 AM, Hayden's 19th birthday! We blasted some Notorious BIG and pounded coffee to get psyched up. No one mentioned the fact that it was raining and the winds were nuking, we were going hiking...

Hayden hiking below the east face of Cerro Torre. Most of the trail breaking was knee-deep wallowing.

We were laughing at ourselves pretty hard the whole day, conditions were terrible. Still, we pushed on in the high winds and sideways rain.

Hayden and I at the 'schrund. We're bailing...

Descending back to camp in the Valley...

Thoroughly defeated, we crawled back into our tent to wait out the rest of the weather. Our most recent forecast indicated that tomorrow was supposed to be poor, but there was potential for a two day stretch of no precip and low wind the day after. We wanted to go as big as possible during this window, so we decided to try the biggest route we thought was possible in current conditions - the Supercanaleta (WI4 5.10/M5 1600m) on Cerro Fitz Roy. The mountain was covered in crazy rime ice, with the top resembling the summit mushroom of Cerro Torre more than the usual rocky top of Fitz. It would be tools and crampons the whole way, exactly the type of route we were looking for in these cold conditions.

We rested and packed our bags the following day. Two ropes, 3 screws, a single set of gear, stove, and my proto two-man bivy sack. At around 6:00pm we started hiking up the Torre Glacier to the base of the snow leading up and over Sitting Man Ridge. We found great snow conditions which made this usually poor approach to the north aspect of Fitz Roy seem like a good choice. We descended the couloir on the other side of the ridge to the base of the route as it was getting dark. Hayden and I crawled into the two-man 'love sack' and brewed and rested until our 3:00am alarm.

The Supercanaleta on Fitz Roy!

Hayden near the start of the 1000m couloir, lots of calf burning to go.

The route starts with 1000m of ice up to AI3. We soloed together in the dark, our little worlds illuminated by the bubble of light from our headlamps. Surely this would be scarier in daylight, with thousands of feet of exposure beneath your legs.

We reached the top of the couloir and the start of the 22 pitches of mixed rock climbing just after daylight came upon us. The first pitch was one of the hardest of the day. Unconsolidated snow clogged the corner, making for hairy stemming in frontpoints, thin sticks in the icy crack, and good tool hooks on the righthand wall. I threw a couple gloved handjams in the crack above, plugged in a high cam, and dry tooled out right to a thin vertical ice smear which led to the top of the pitch. Hayden followed and ran the rope up to the base of the next pitch, a short vertical waterfall leading to a couple rope lengths of easy ice and thin goulottes (narrow ice runnels splitting rock). As I swung into the start of the pitch, I got really excited. We were sending Fitz Roy! I passed the next belay, yelled at Hayden to take me off, and went hypoxic swinging and kicking up the moderate ground as fast as I possibly could. The rope came tight on Hayden and I screamed down to him to start climbing. We simuled for a couple rope lengths and I stopped to belay on the righthand wall.

The start of the waterfall pitch.

From here, the route heads up and right linking amazing ice runnels and goulottes - perfect granite mixed climbing. Hayden took over the lead, and together we simulclimbed several pitches to the ridge. I dug my frontpoints in carefully and torqued my crampons into the cracks hard, making sure I was solid following behind Hayden without a belay.

Hayden linking amazing ice runnels.

Thumbs up on the ridge. Note amount of rime ice...

On the ridgeline proper we stopped simuling. The rock was heavily coated in rime ice, sometimes several feet thick. The climbing was still of very high quality, the rime making things just interesting enough without things ever getting too desperate. We did make some blunders though, the rime totally obscuring the easiest line in a few places, forcing Hayden up a particularly heinous pitch, which I followed free at around M7/8.

Rime, rime everywhere!

Really good granite mixed. Dreamboat.

Hayden loving it…

A tight fit.

This is where things started to fall apart. Lost in the rime, I tried to do battle with a particularly gnarly mushroom of overhanging snow on the ridgetop. With no way to get through and no options presenting themselves to us, we reversed the pitch, searching desperately for the line amongst the rime ice. My camera ran out of batteries… We spent about 6 hours climbing up and down, left and right, trying every conceivable variation to no avail. With no food or water left (we left our Jetboil stove at the base of the route), we had no choice but to bail, mere pitches from the end of the technical climbing and the summit of Cerro Fitz Roy!

Rappelling the route through the night was one of the more unpleasant things I have ever done, taking about 12 hours to reach our bivy at the base of the route. We brewed up and napped for a couple hours at the base, then shouldered our packs and hiked back around Sitting Man Ridge to our camp in the Torre Valley. We were completely choked. I honestly felt wronged by the mountain… Never before had such a cruiser mission turned into a total shut-down! Hayden and I vowed never to climb the stupid Supercanaleta ever again!

Back in town, Hayden was busy selling all his gear, he was due to fly back home to Colorado in a couple days. I was looking forward to wrapping up a couple undone bouldering projects and generally having a leisurely last week or so in town, maybe even fly up to Bariloche to hang out with some Argentine friends for a few days.

As luck would have it, the weather was about to get good, again...

Click here to go to Part Three

Patagonia 2010 Part One!

Finally back in Canadar after nearly two months in Argentine Patagonia. Below is some thoughts on the amazing trip...

I left Vancouver in early January to alpine climb in Argentine Patagonia. I had already put time into this range, establishing one new route and two first free ascents during the 2008 season with Will Stanhope. This year I was hoping to build on that success and establish another long rock freeclimb. I brought along the two best team mates I could think of for the job - the talented Americans Jon Gleason and Matt Segal. I was confident, given a decent weather window, we could achieve our goal. As it would turn out, the only thing one can be confident in is the amazing bouldering to be had just above town.

Matt and Jon.  We voted ourselves 'best sunglasses' out of any team in the range...

We had spent a month in town, occasionally hiking to high camp when I was idealistic enough to think we might get a few hours of good weather in. Every attempt would end in snow. It sure did seem to be snowing a lot up there. Several of our friends, all seasoned vets of the range, hadn’t left town all trip. The Huberbuam came and left.

Great bouldering weather in town but nuking in the mountains...

 Crossing the Rio Fitz Roy enroute to the Torre Valley.  Foolish attempt #1...

 Gleason approaching our first of many fun 'snow camping trips'.

 Summertime in Patagonia.  We should'a brought skis to shred the gnar out on the icecap.

 I got lots of good hiking shots that first month, usually hiking away from the mountains...

 Another attempt/snow camping mission.

At least we had the bouldering. We started checking the meteogram forecast for town, trying to predict the good bouldering windows of crisp temps and slight cloud cover. At night we’d thrash ourselves on ‘Coach’ Josh Wharton’s ridiculous power problems on the little plywood wall in the rec centre.  I was approximately twice as strong as I needed to be to climb any of my dream routes in the range.

The Gato Negro V9/10 - one of the better problems in Chalten and world class anywhere!

 The sport climbing near town is also quite fun.  Here is SLC crusher Ben Ditto on an 8a+.

With so much snowfall, the mountains turned into giant popsicles.

Time was running out for Matt. He had to leave early. We still hadn't managed to climb anything in the mountains. Finally, the meteogram weather forecast looked promising for most of one day, so we hiked in again to have a go at the smallest, easiest summit in the range, the De La S spire.

The standard route from the Torre Valley starts with a stiff 2000' approach to a low-angle snow/neve couloir. From there a couple easy mixed pitches leads to 4-8 pitches of easy rock ridge. Easy, right?  Conditions turned out to be a bit more mixed than anticipated, so for speed, I led the entire route. Matty and Gleason were glad to have a Canadian along for the frosty bits. We topped out to strong wind gusts and incoming weather over the mountains and wasted no time in rapping and reversing the route.

The S was a good reminder that nothing in this range comes easy. Matt left, our cumbre on De La S wetting his appetite for more alpine hits in the future. I decided I no longer wanted to try out of condition rock routes. Instead, I wanted to focus on some of the amazing ice and mixed lines that were back in condition. Jon wasn't interested, so we amicably parted ways. Too bad, as Jon is a top notch dude, and I wanted nothing more than to go 'ballistic' with him in the mountains...

What to climb now? My original objectives would be out of condition for the rest of the season. How could I make the most of my remaining time? Over muchos grande Quilmes cervezas I drunkenly declared I would lead every pitch of the classic ice route Exocet on Cerro Standhart with anyone who was willing to jumar behind me. 'Uh huh', everyone rolled their eyes at my youthful bravado. The only one to take my bait was Hayden Kennedy, the 18-year-old son of American alpine climbing legend Michael Kennedy.

Hayden and I were psyched, and the weather was looking like it was getting good...

Click here to go to Part Two

Sometimes you need to forget...

Alpine climbing is a stressful game. Generally, you are uncomfortable and scared. I spend most of my time absolutely hating it. It has its obvious rewards and some truly special moments, but most of the time I just end up asking myself why? I guess it's a blessing and a curse then that I am so drawn to it.

I cope. I diversify my life, meaning when I am not alpine climbing, I am really not alpine climbing. It's good to focus on other things to to shorten the amount of time it takes to remember how tired/scared/uncomfortable you were the last time you went to the mountains.

One such passion of mine is dance music. Making, playing, and dancing to music is one of the furthest things from climbing that I can think of. I generally don't pigeonhole myself and classify what dance music I like into a certain genre. I like to hop between genres and just play anything that makes you move.

I was really happy and excited today because I am leaving for Argentine Patagonia on Friday. So happy and excited that I felt like having a dance party by myself in my room. I started playing music with Ableton Live on my computer and on impulse pressed record, then mastered what I had recorded a little. The resulting 20 minute mix is super cheesy but pretty fun, with new and old favs. Bmore, Carioca Funk, and everything from Annie to the Bloodhound Gang.  Listen here:

If you want to download it, click here

The Final Countdown

It's only ten days until I depart for Argentina. I love the pre-trip process of planning, packing, ordering gear, everything. Vancouver has to be one of the best cities in the world to be based in for expedition climbing, it really has it all. These past few weeks of city life have been about training, preparing, family, seeing old friends and making new ones.

I was poking through photos and video from the '08 trip to the range with Will Stanhope. Wow, fun times. The experiences we shared mark some of the most intense times of my life. Here is a couple candid shots of Willy in the thick of it all:

Patagonia Nightmares from Jason Kruk on Vimeo.

My partners this year, Matt and Jon, have never met each other. Both are bad to the bone - I am sure they will get along famously. Matt is a professional climber, 5.14 trad monkey, and strong little mofo. Jon is a Patagonia veteran, former Yosar dude, and a MOG (Man-of-Girth).

Segal's $400 haircut in the Utah desert

Gleason saving lives in Yosemite

This is the playoffs

Thanks

After Yosemite, I drove straight to Boulder, Colorado, to meet up with Matt Segal. I was excited to be in town the week of the Adventure Film Festival, an amazing celebration of mountain culture with many good friends. This was an especially important year - we all miss Micah, Jonny and Wade and I was honoured to be able to celebrate their lives with family and friends and the Colorado climbing community.

After the festival, Matt and I drove out to Indian Creek for some splitter training. I was excited to be on a stress-free rock climbing trip, something I haven't done in a few years. Over the weekend, half of Boulder seemed to come and join us for a truly special Thanksgiving dinner in the desert. The Turkey tasted even better than at home (sorry Mom) and everyone contributed their favourite side dish. There was so much food you could only sample one bite of everything before your plate was overflowing! The following day Phyllis and Jon Copp Sr. literally drove for hours around the desert trying to find us on their way back home to southern California. We convinced them to spend the night out in the desert with us. Jon brought out Jonny's guitar and played around the campfire. Renan was ever present with his camera and took about 3000 photos, editing them into a beautiful video on his drive home. Jon Copp's rendition of Take Me Home, Country Road provides the soundtrack:

Indian Creek t-day from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

Back in Boulder I got the news: Will Stanhope bailed on our expedition to Patagonia that was coming up in a month. At first I was quite bummed as Willy is definitely my best partner and we seem to be able to pull off amazing stuff together. But I immediately asked Matt Segal if he wanted to go. After 5 minutes of phone calls to the North Face, Matty was in one hundred percent. Then I managed to convince Big Jon Gleason to be a third. I am really happy now with the team we have lined up for our objective.

Segal toasting the booking of our plane tickets with a bottle of Basil Hayden's Bourbon.

I forgot to mention how much fun it was to shoot guns in the Utah desert with Pete and Jose... I'm a nice Canadian boy so had never done this before...

It was so, so hard to leave Boulder, and when I finally did I accidentally ran out of gas somewhere in Wyoming. That was a cold, cold walk...

It's good to be home in Vancouver. I was really excited to get ice climbing and skiing upon my return, but conditions were perfect for rock climbing and little else. Conditions were so good I even went up to the roof pitch on Freeway to check out a hard project with local badass Jer Smith. That was a bit optimistic as although it was clear, winds were gale force and tried their very best to blow us off the mountain while chilling us to the bone. Needless to say we didn't send, and I had nightmares of Patagonia for days after.

December bouldering at it's finest! Magic!

Coastal ice was slowing creeping in so on thursday I got out with long time Canadian ice climber and sender of Everest, Michael Down to see what we could climb. We stopped at Carl's Berg on the Duffy. It looked climbable, but certainly not in its classic WI5 shape. I was keen to try though, and found lots of steep and technical aerated ice with little pro for the bulk of the pitch... It was a good first pitch of the season for me... sort of...

Full value on Carl's Berg