Mt Slesse, Fraser Ribber

Written by Peder Ourom

The Fraser Ribber  (Mt. Slesse, Fraser Valley, BC)
Grade 5, 800M, 5.10A
Summer 1982  

Hamish Fraser
Peder Ourom

It was important to me to have a first ascent route on Slesse. Sensing my chance, in 1982, I convinced Hamish Fraser to attempt a new route with me.

Now Hamish is not really an ice climber or wall climber or mountain climber, and I didn’t enlist him for these skills. Way back in the early eighties Peter Croft and Hamish were the best rock climbers in Canada, and I had convinced one of them to join me!

Over the years, I had manipulated him into attempting many mountain activities, usually placing him in great peril. Knocked unconscious on Carl’s Berg ice climbing, check. Destroyed by the hauling and piton cleaning on the Dawn Wall, check. To complete the trilogy of his “climbing that I don’t do” list, I needed to fill in the final missing link. Having eyed an exceptional unclimbed ridge years earlier, well off to the right of the Lowe route on the north face of Slesse, I convinced him that it would be a great mountain rock climb. We both hoped it would go better than our previous ice and wall climbing experiences.

So once again gear was sorted and packs were filled, A &W was visited, and the drive was completed. This was now very familiar territory for me.   We camped at the end of the logging road just where our future descent kicked you out of the woods, very close to the plane crash debris field. Attempts had been made in the following years to make this side of the mountain “off limits” to climbers and a memorial park created, however the actual management of this proposal was found to be impossible because of the anarchistic mindset of the climbing community. Eventually the “Propeller Cairn” was built as memorial to the crash in an attempt to find a middle ground that satisfied the wishes of both groups.

Now as the tale goes, Fred Beckey found a thick money pouch high on the east face, around the time of the crash. Over the years, I have spent many days waiting in the mountains with Fred. A couple of times I attempted to squeeze the details out of him, and as usual he kept his cards close to his chest. All I could get out of him is that he was up at the crash site looking for remains soon after the crash site was finally discovered and that he found some “things.” The myth of Fred lives on.

The climbing style that Hamish and I used was a lot different from when Joe and I climbed the N.E. Buttress in 1979. We would climb light and fast, carrying tiny daypacks with no bivy gear. This was an ambitious goal. A long approach, then a 2000-foot technical climb, ending with a Crossover peak descent to finish. A “my best vacation is your worst kind of nightmare” day. Bringing Hamish was a stroke of genius. If the climbing became too hard, he would lead it. If it became too dangerous, he would lead it. Pretty much no matter what we encountered, Hamish would run up the rock and find a belay. It felt like cheating to be attached to a rope gun like this.

The climb worked out exactly as planned. At the end of the long traversing snowy ledge the route rose directly above us following a very direct “rib.” We swapped leads all the way up the route, and most of the 20 pitches were in the 5.9 to “easy” 5.10 range. It featured run out climbing with minimal gear. By early evening we had arrived at the summit of the Fraser Towers, the end of our route. I was familiar now with the Crossover descent, and we tumbled down the steep hillside and arrived back at our bivouac in the last light of the day.

I am uncertain if this climb has ever been repeated, unlike the more famous Lowe route that ascends from the far left side of the snowy ledge encountered at the start. The Fraser Ribber follows a direct line up a beautiful ridge, and it also has one of the best route names in southwestern BC.

It may not have ever had a second ascent, probably because we never wrote a detailed description or made a “topo” drawing for the route.

It took three climbs on Mount Slesse in order to have my tactics figured out. Light and fast with no overnight camping gear carried. Pick a world class rock climber as a partner. Have the descent dialed in on previous climbs, and drop everything else to climb when the summer high pressure ridge sets up.

Go Rudi go.