Francis and I found ourselves scrambling for an objective for the weekend after a big low pressure system nixed our original goal. Joseph Logelin reached out to Trev and I inviting us to do the MMG traverse in Cathedral Park. Of course I had heard of the park and Grimface in particular, but I was not aware of the traverse before hand. It sounded like a cool low 5th alpine ramble for some cool summits in a part of the province I had yet to visit, so I was intrigued. Unfortunately, my work meant I couldn’t commit till last minute and the schedule didn’t work out to meet up with Joseph leaving a day earlier.
In the end, Francis and I met Saturday AM in Vancouver and I drove us out the 4.5h to the park. We drove all the way down Ashnola Road (cruiser 2WD) to the ~40km mark where a bridge crosses the river. We ended up meeting two climbers from Chiliwack at the TH who would also be doing the traverse that weekend.
The approach up Wall Creek to the meadows under Grimface was only about 12km and 1000m which turned out to undersell it. The first ~5km were great as we were on the maintained Centennial trail, but when it came time to branch into the Wall Creek valley, the severe effects of the recent fire in the park reared their head. We first crossed an unnerving widowmaker gauntlet of dead burnt trees swaying in the wind. We could hear some snapping during the gusts. After that, it was a few kms hurdling deadfall and blowdown, often balancing on fallen logs to cross the quagmire of others. I felt like a ninja walking on the rafters, although more laden with climbing + overnight gear in the bag.
Eventually we reached the lovely meadows with awesome views of the route we’d be doing tomorrow. There was still some daylight left, so after setting up camp we decided to run up The Deacon, the P100 above us on the other side of the valley. Easy scrambling and lovely golden larches (probably about 1 or 2 weeks from prime) were a nice change of pace from the rainy and green coast. Once on the Deacon, we still had an hour of daylight so decided to go tag Orthodox Mountain as well to clear off both P100s on the SW side of the valley. We found a decent gulley to descend down to make a nice loop and got back to the tent just before the headlamps were needed. We ate and then crashed, both feeling pretty unfit for how bagged we were for not that big of a day.
The next morning we woke up with the sun to bluebird skies and set off with our daybags, 2x 30m half ropes, and a single rack for the traverse, which has moves up to 5.7 and an optional short 5.8 handcrack. We climbed up to the shoulder of Matriarch and in a matter of 15 minutes, the sky went from bluebird to filled with smoke. The wind was very strong (as forecast, up to 40-50km gusts).
The climb is supposed to start with some exposed 5.4 exposed pitch, but I led us up a licheny route further climbers left also at low 5th and we ended up bypassing what I think is the normal first pitch. There was some pleasant ridge scrambling and then after dispatching a couple of small notches, we found ourselves below the optional handcrack, as well as the Chiliwack climbers racking up, who had made a nice bivy on the ridge instead of down in the meadows!
While there was a supposedly 5.3 chimney to the left, the handcrack looked quite fun. It was only ~3 body lengths long, so we both soloed up it and were promptly deposited on the summit of Matriarch! The views ahead of the ridge and our traverse were that of very cool Washington Pass-esque rock high above arid desert landscape. Very unique indeed.
The next summit was Macabre Tower, which involved mostly scrambling, and a few rappels. The wind was absolutely howling making saddle bagging the ropes necessary. Two of the rappels had some very exposed slabby moves just after them, so both times I climbed back up on rappel and clipped the bolts in case Francis wanted a belay. There was one interesting short blank wall right below the Macabre Summit that had a short 3-bolt bolt ladder! Francis had a connect-adjust so he lead the bolt ladder and I followed up.
From there, we did one more rappel down to the Macabre-Grimface col and then scrambled up Grimface! While this has “moves” to 5.7, they are certainly not sustained nor exposed, and the ascent mostly involved scrambling up gullies and under chockstones, with the occasionally “climbing” move.
Overall it took us about 3 hours to go from our camp at the meadows to the summit of Grimface. We ended up not placing any gear or belaying anything besides the rappel finishes + the aid pitch. I did the whole thing in approach shoes which made for a comfy and cruisy traverse. We then downscrambled the NW ridge of Grimface to a col above a large sandy wash leading back down to the meadows. This made for a simply lovely descent back down to the meadows, skiing down the sand more than half way back down to the valley, whereby we then hiked back to our tent.
At this point, we were both dreading the blowdown bonanza awaiting us back down Wall Creek on the deproach (as well as the widowmaker gauntlet that would be straight up dangerous in the high winds) - so when Francis suggested we schlepp our bags back up the ridge and take a high line out, I agreed.
We had a quick snack and packed up, then climbed back up to the ridge north of Grimface, gaining about 500m before we gained the Rim Trail north of the peak. From there we rambled over Smokey the Bear, the Giant Cleft, and the broad summit of Stone City Mountain - very cool terrain and some nice views into the lake / core area on the other side of the park.
After a few kms, we bailed off the trail and descended the shoulder of a ridge to shortcut back onto the upper Centennial Trail, which would take us out. We chose this line almost perfectly and had to do no bushwhacking nor deadfall hurdling. From there it was a long but cruiser hike out on the trail. Even though this was an extra 600m of gain and probably ~4km more, it took the same amount of time as our approach did.
Overall this was a great trip to a very unique part of the province, new to both of us. The alpine route was great fun and the high route deproach definitely let us see the “other” more broad and open side of the park versus the techy and craggy Grimface / southern sector.
Thanks to Joseph for the inspiration for this area, and Francis for the partner for another alpine climb before the rain ends the season!
