Burgundy Spire - North Face (attempt), July 2007
Yep, another east-of-the-crest objective courtesy of the summer of THE SUCK! Yeah yeah, I've lamented the lack of summer enough as it is this year, but man it's sure hard to keep a positive attitude! Anyway, following an enjoyable climb of Goat Wall's Prime Rib the day before, Martin and I set out early Sunday morning from James' house in Winthrop (much appreciated James!). We parked at the large pull-out off hwy20, shouldered our packs and proceeded to hike down from the road (yes, down...not up) towards Early Winter Creek before beginning the steep, dusty grunt up to Burgundy Col. I've hiked this trail twice before, both times on the approach to climb Silver Star Mountain. I can tell you that the trail to the col is still as much of a pain-in-the-ass as I remember it being. It took us somewhere under four hours to reach the col I think
Martin and I were entirely unprepared for the arctic wind that was blowing at the col and we froze our asses off waiting for an impossibly slow party from BC to climb up the first gully pitch. It isn't entirely obvious where the climbing to the ledge above really starts, but suffice to say that if you see some runners while looking up one of the many gullies slightly below and skier's left of the col, that's probably the way up. Easy, although somewhat licheny and loose climbing leads to the prominent sandy ledge beneath the North Face proper. (more...)
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