[MCR] Farnham Tower

A couple friends and I put up what we think is a very fun new route up the true SE corner of Mt Farnham yesterday, starting from the valley of MacDonald Creek (4x4 no longer required as the road has been upgraded and bridges replaced a couple of years ago), up the east ridge to the tower, then traverse the red shale band to the south facing portion of the true SE corner.  Follow excellent and surprisingly solid and clean quartzite cracks for 5 – 60 m pitches, mostly alpine 5.8 with hints of 5.9 to the false east summit, rappel down into the icy abyss splitting the summits and climb out west up a steep chimney to reach the true summit.  Descend the south side of the tower. Round trip took us 19 hours.

 

The entire Farnham Tower is now essentially snow free as is most of the normal route up Mount Farnham.  On Mount Delphine, all the north facing couloirs are black dirt smeared ice and over the past 5 years the ice has receded very rapidly making some routes non-routes.  The normal glacier route up Delphine from Peter’s Pass still looks to be in good condition as do all routes up Commander Glacier including the Cleaver, Commander, Guardsmen, Jumbo (more blue ice showing now than previous years) and Karnak. The north couloir up Mt Peter is essentially out of condition and has succumbed to massive ice retreat.

 

Enjoy,

 

Kirk Mauthner; ACMG/UIAGM Mountain Guide

PO Box 399

Invermere, BC Canada V0A 1K0

ph/fax (250) 342-6042