In the summer of 2009, Alex Meyer, Shingo Ohkawa, Ben Sukow and myself piled into my little Subaru (well, Alex flew) and drove 2100 miles to Watson Lake in the Yukon. Where we waited for a day for forest fire smoke to clear and then loaded all our gear onto a DeHavilland Beaver to fly in to the Northwest Territories. Once at the lake, Shingo and Ben started the brutal approach. We had heard stories about this taking groups up to 10 hours, but our two guys did it in just over three. Alex and I waited at the lake and then talked our way into a free ride on a heli. It took a couple minutes.
Alex and I got straight on Lotus Flower Tower the first morning, but due to very wet rock, tired bodies, and basically poor tactics, we ended up bailing from the 13th pitch after we found ourselves resorting to aid even on easy 5.9 climbing.
Back in camp I had a really hard time dealing with the failure. I have failed on plenty of things, but never on something that I was so sure I was going to do. While Alex and I rested, Ben and Shingo did the Lotus Flower Tower in fine style. They started at sunrise, topped out at sunset, and rappelled all “three and a half hours of night” according to Ben. It was the first time they had ever shared a rope.
After another day of rest, Alex and I got our motivation back and got on the route. We did it in 13 1/2 hours bottom to top and had enough daylight to rap back down and start the hike back to camp. We were slowed drastically because it rained on Alex’s entire final block (pitch 15-19), but we made very good time up until then and had a kickass time. I can honestly say that the Lotus Flower Tower is the best rock route I’ve done up until now.
By the time we finished climbing, it was raining, and then it kept raining, hard, for the rest of the trip. We got in a couple hours of cragging during a dry spell, but mostly just hung out and killed time talking to the Germans, the Italians, and the French. We were the only group from North America. Even with all this rain, the trip was a huge success and I recommend it to anyone.
Signpost forest in Watson Lake.
Yeah, this place is in the middle of nowhere.
Starting to gear up.
Wasting time during the fire.
My first bush plane.
The scale at the dock. We were overweight.
Heading out.
After landing at the lake.
Psyched to be riding in a heli.
Sketchy anchors.
Alex following pitch 1 on the first try.
Pitch 5.
In the chimney.
Pitch 12.
Bailing.
Back in camp.
I hate Marmots.
Camp.
Lotus Flower tower and Parrot Beak Peak.
Washing away the failure.
Cleaning up.
Gearing up again.
Shingo reviewing the rap topo.
Ines Papert with the dropped Green Camalot that Alex found.
Ines Papert and Alex.
Linking the first two pitches on the successful ascent.
Alex following pitch 5.
In the chimneys.
Alex on pitch 10.
The awesome start to the upper headwall.
Pitch 12.
Pitch 13.
This thing is amazing.
More of the goodness. Pitch 14.
Lots of air down there.
Following the hand crack over the roof.
On top!
Headed down.
Italians preparing for a bivy.
Italian crew in base camp.
Our crew in camp.
Ben after bathing in the creek
The Penguin (5.13)
Shingo and Alex approaching East Huey Spire.
Shingo dealing with his foot blister.
Alex hiking around camp.
Chilling in the cave camp.
Hours of chess.
Drying socks.
Flowers in camp.
Chilling in one of the most beautiful places anywhere.
Shingo on the first ascent of Some Low Angle Bullshit (5.9, A0).
Mt Harrison Smith.
Shingo on the first ascent of Some Low Angle Bullshit (5.9, A0) after a rainstorm.
Hiking back to Glacier Lake.
Flying out.
