Climbing in the mountains is dumb yet somehow insanely rewarding and addicting. You know you really shouldn’t be doing it, but you do it anyways for some perceived but imaginary reward. It is a fruitless labour pursued for the sake of the path taken, the experiences granted, and introspective moments you have when disconnected from the world below. At times you wonder why, some moments you question your sanity, while during most of it you focus on continually moving forward.

The day started groggily at 4:30 am hitting the snooze button and finally making my way to the base of the Grouse ski hill shortly before 6. Here under headlamp I started the warm up hike of a little less than 900m of gain and caught some sunrise photos over Vancouver. The route I was taking involved another “500m of gain” but it felt like more considering the gullies you have to descent into. The abundance of snow made for some slow goings, but thankfully there were tracks from a friend that did the route the previous day.

Coming up to the route, the sun was hiding behind a large section of clouds providing favourable cold conditions to suppress avalanche danger. I made the decision to alter my route and take a slightly more serious and strenuous path up the crater couloir. The hard snowpack provided amazing climbing conditions up the slabby col. and a comfortable level of hazard/difficulty. One section of tricky rock required a few mixed (rock/ice) moves that would be very difficult to down climb so I paused a few moments before committing. While the route was in prime condition at that moment, I learned a very serious lesson on how quickly the weather can change. Not three seconds after i climbed over the difficult to reverse moves, the sun came blasting out from behind the clouds threatening to melt the entire route.

After the sun came out, the climbing changed very quickly and drastically. The ice tools struggled to purchase into the softening ramp and just slid down through the snow when I applied weight to them as if they were a hot knife going through butter. My feet would also sink at random times making me feel extremely unstable. I altered my technique to attempt to kick my feet more deeply into the snow and use my ice tools differently by holding the head and sinking the thicker shaft into the soggy couloir. For the most part it was working but with the route getting warmer by the second, it was time to pick up the pace and get out of the gully. Slipping slightly near the top, i dropped an ice tool but maintained my balance. I finished the climb with one tool and considered it a cheap 255$ lesson in humility. The mountains do not care who is climbing them, nor if they are climbed, nor if they are not, nor if you die. I sat for a few moments at the top of the gully to reflect, snapped a picture of the summit/Camel mtn. and decided to continue upwards as the hazards were minimal at this point.

There was still plenty of time left in the day so i quickly scrambled up the left shoulder of crown and took some summit photos before descending.

I returned to the base of the gully to retrieve my gear stash but no ice tool was to be found (probably stuck midway up the col). The sun continued to send small cascades of snow and rockfall down the east face adjacent to the gully so I sat to have lunch with the small hope the mountain would regurgitate my ice axe. Unfortunately it seems swallowed for good. Having another storm system move in currently, It will likely get buried and found by some hiker in the spring. I made my way out and snapped some more pictures of the north shore to add to my collection. I reluctantly paid for the 4min gondola trip down to the base of grouse to save my knees from the final 900m descent.