Mt Slesse, Fraser Ribber

Written by Peder Ourom

Mt Slesse in the distance, viewed from the summit of Mt Rexford, 1980. Photo by 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 did not enlist him for these skills. At this point in my climbing career, I was already pretty experienced with these activities.

The actual reason that I wanted him to join me on the attempt was that way back in the early eighties, Hamish was one of the best rock climbers in Canada and with him as my partner a successful climb was close to guaranteed.