Tricouni North Arete
 

Finally, after a long time, I bagged a summit, on the first try, and on a fun alpine route.

It came with a price tag of a chilly night during an unplanned bivy.

After scoping some TR's on the Tricouni North Arete (like this one http://www.poulinenvironmental.com/p...Peak_2008.html) I got really hooked on this route, and though it would be an easy, if long day out. Our plan was to follow this route as closely as possible from Roe Creek, climbing the arete, and finishing off with a ridge walk back to Cypress Peak and Roe Creek.

Lauren and I started into the bush at dawn on Satuday, navigating with GPS through the trees and bush, heading towards the lower valley below Tricouni. We didn't expect a waterfall at the head of the slot canyon, so we headed climbers right upslope through B5 bushwhacking. Fun! Once into the mature forest, we found more cliffs barred our upwards progress....

We descended back down towards the valley, trying the slot canyon again, hoping for a ramp. Nothing.... so we turned around, and this time, gave it one last go and tried climbers left upslope. This time, we found steep hiking through mature growth into the alpine. Success! It was an unspoken agreement we wouldn't be heading back down the same way.

Once finding our way into the alpine, we climbed bushy moraines to the bottom of the N Arete. We were constantly discussing route options, but generally agreed the W side would be better so as to avoid the glacier on the East Side. Ledge and step systems (4th to low 5th) got us quite high, until we decided to rope up and climb low 5th mossy cracks to the top of the arete. The moss was a bit unnerving, as the exposure was significant, and you never really knew if you were on solid ground or moss.....

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Once on the arete, the going was pleasant. We simul-climbed most of it, except for the trickiest sections. We topped out at 6.30pm, and then the real fun began. The sun was quickly setting. After a quick moment of happiness, we got the hell off the summit, heading to talus slopes below. Once we scoped our ridge route to Cypress on the map, we decided on a lake at 1700m close to the ridge. In headlamps, we got to the lake at 10pm. We threw down the rope, and got cozy. I was the big spoon.
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A long night broke with a beautiful morning. We quickly got up, got moving, and were gaining the ridge to get back to the truck. A scrambly ridge walk got us to Cypress Peak, which we bypassed for the sake of time. With tired bodies, we got back to the truck at 3pm.

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Hats off to the BCMC crew who did this in 11 hours car-to-car!

Interesting route up! We took the glacier and got stopped by a massive randkluft. It's really good to know you can avoid that entirely! Wish I knew that before...thanks for the report :D

Funny thing. When we did the North Arete last year, we also got stuck on the mountain and ended doing an unexpected bivy on the mountain. Not such a pleasant due to the large amount of mosquitoes we had that night.

It was cold enough to not be bothered by mosquitos, but it did make for one uncomfortable night! I think where we lost a lot of time was climbing up the west side of the arete on 4th-5th class stuff. I think the east side might be a better way to access the arete, but for the randkluft.

Thanks! Ya, as I mentioned, the terrain on the west side avoids the glacier, but it slows you down quite a bit compared to the "standard" route. If you're ready for a night on the mountain though, it makes for quite the enjoyable route!