Talchako Mountain Northeast Ridge

In the summer of 2003 I was lucky enough to join a party to climb in the Monarch Icefield. Just before we left I had seen a photo of Fred Touche's on http://bivouac.com displaying a peak called Talchako I believe this word is Nuxalk for whitewater based upon readings of the book Bella Coola Man by Clayton Mack. Talchako Mountain is at 9964ft elevation. Knowing we might have a chance flight in the general vicinity of this peak I suggested we “take a fly by” because it looked like it had some nice ridges and features. As we approached it was impressive indeed and we saw a couple of possible lines… The idea went on the back burner until summer 2004 where I talked Drew Brayshaw and James Nakagami to have a go at one of the ridges. I knew right away it would not be the greatest rock but the line I wanted to try was well defined and a distinct feature that sat in the back of my brain pestering me to have a look.

At the end of July Drew Brayshaw, James Nakagami, Fred Beckey made our journey from Seattle and purchased a flight from pilot Richard LaPointe of West Coast Helicopters of Hagensborg, B.C. While at the airfield we managed to have a brief encounter with Glenn Woodsworth the famous geologist/climber who had written one of the original guidebooks for the Coast Range. When the helo lifted off James and Drew got a view up the skirt into the local hills for the first time. Many peaks in all directions, and bushes galore for sasquatch to hide in. We took a tour directly over Mt Saugstad, 9541 ft. First Ascent by Pete Schoening , J. Dudra 1951. Soon enough the icefield was in view to the south and the northeast ridge of Talchako was viewed for James and Drew. Our pilot took a pass between some spires just north of the peak and directly across from the ridge giving us the literal bird’s eye view of our intended objective. What a luxury.

After setting up a plush camp among smooth flat rocks near a small tarn across from Ratcliff the sun soon went down. The next morning Drew and I headed off to do a scouting mission intending to climb a route on an unnamed set of spires just northeast of Talchako Mountain.. After crossing moraines, streams, and working our way up thousands of feet of scree and gully systems we were content with not reaching out actual goal for the day. We made the summit of one spire out the group of four where we took some great photos and enjoyed surrounding terrain. Across the valley a raging fire was blazing sending smoke like a volcano eruption in all directions. Lucky enough it didn’t hinder our views much that day.. About 12 hours after leaving Drew and I made it back for dinner where James and Fred were hanging out. The next day would be a rest day. Our scouting mission took way longer than either of us had anticipated. We silently were humbled after coming to grips with the vast ruggedness of the terrain. This is not a land of trails and roads. The nearest trail was probably more than 10 kilometers straight line in the vicinity of the well known Ape Lake. The next day Drew had mentioned multiple times intentions of not climbing the northeast ridge. In fact he claimed he believed one of the other ridges on the east or southeast would be better choices. Although I played with the idea in my mind it really didn’t look like the line I wanted to climb. "What the heck?" I thought. I had sent James and Drew the picture of the “line” last year. Now they want to change the plans? James didn’t agree with that new idea either and we told Drew that we still intended on sticking to the original plans. Drew stated that we would climb a couple pitches and declare it a chosspile route and retreat. He was going to follow us over and then when we were done proving him right we would climb the other line he suggested.

So we fucked with the rack a bunch and finally went to sleep. In the morning we rose early and were packing. I mentioned that my opinion was that we would need about 5-6 ice screws but Drew insisted on bringing several pickets instead. My previous local experiences were in contrast to this but Drew is sometimes hard headed and all knowing. So finally he won and we took about 3 ice screws and 2 pickets. I refused to carry these pickets since I firmly believed it as dead weight. James took the one slated for me. Being the person of reason that moment. A few hours later we had humped our sorry asses to the base of the chossy ridge. I had no vision of bomber granite and splitter cracks. In fact the rock looked just manageable to me… I took the first couple pitches after Drew tied in. He never decided to wait for us at the bottom as he declared the day before. After switching leads a number of times we hit some gully systems that lasted for several hundred feet. Mostly we stayed on the eastern side of the ridge. Then we hit some snow and crossed over to the northern side of the peak where a killer ledge was found. I thought it was a good bivy spot as well as James and we all agreed we would bivouac here. We sat around making ourselves comfortable as possible and I saw Drew was eating sugared up rice cakes. Just then I brought out a tasty can of Biftek Stew. Yum! I saw Drew’s beedy eyes greedily staring at my grub. Jealous F****er He should have brought better food. Maybe he was going light but I definitely wasn’t moving fast so I figured what the heck. Drew eventually got the leftover scraps and tossed the garbage down from the ledge. It reminded me of the dog in Mad Max licking the can after Mel Gibson. The night was cold but bearable since I brought a claustraphobasack (bivy sack) to keep the wind off. James didn’t say much but I think he was cold in that wanna be sleeping back he borrowed from me. He was tough and didn’t complain though. No surprise to me.

Morning didn’t come soon enough. I had a stove and small pot to brew warm liquid before Drew led a pitch of ice to the ridge crest. This was followed by some tricky mixed section to gain rock where we used one piton for safety, one of the cruxes. Nice leads by Drew… There was no real belay in between because we didn’t bring those ice screws I wanted to have along. Boy those pickets didn’t get any use…. Continuing on James and I climbed with crampons upon the rock because we didn’t want to waste time taking them off. The wind was picking up and the clouds were thickening. I was certain it was going to piss rain on us. But I was totally wrong on that call. Good thing. More shitzite (this is a newly discovered type of rock unique to the region) rock up and up towards the second ice arête. We managed a 5.8 section in our boots. Pretty damn good climbing in some sections and shitty on others.. Eventually we hit the second ice arête feature. We skirted it on the east via ledges and ice climbing with the immense east face below our heels. The east face looked like the Eiger to me. I was also impressed by the east ridge. It looked tougher and will be a hard man route some day I bet. There were more tricky rock sections and ice before we hit the eastern summit around 1pm. Lucky for us we could unrope and eat lunch. At least those of us who had food. I was immediately the “cool guy” with biftek can number 2. Maybe Drew will give up those sugar pepped rice cakes next climb.

A couple of gullies across and we were on the central summit. We saw evidence of the previous climbs – only two entries were in the can. George Whitmore climbed the peak back in the 1960’s declaring that local indians had beat the white man to this summit. Across the way Beelzebub was sticking out of the clouds. Drew and I argued about the descent gully for a few minutes. We were both wrong it turns out and we made our way down several thousand feet to moderate terrain below. Then after getting onto somewhat easier terrain we crossed a small canyon with a waterfall and more gullies back to our camp at about 5400ft. Fred cooked me a meal for the first time ever. Horsecock voila.

What a good outing for me. I think all 3 of us had a good time climbing. The next few days were lazy ones. I have clear memories of James getting hammered fuckin drunk and singing the Oreo cookie song to me volume 11 “O-R-E-O!” then throwing large rocks through Drew’s tent. Ha! A couple of days later Richard took us back to civilization. I never did see any animals besides birds out there above the Talchako River. That was weird. I thought for sure at least one bear or something would show up after smelling our cooking in the area.