Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

October 5, 2017

2649m

Revelstoke, BC

Despite a close proximity to the civilization Mt. Tilley seems largely unknown on the internet. The reason is very simple. The nearby Revelstoke classic Mt. Begbie draws everybody’s attention leaving this little neighbour next to unexplored. The two share the same approach but to get to the base of Mt. Tilley’s south slopes (easiest route) an additional 5 km or so has to be covered with much of this stage on unpleasant boulder fields or bushy slopes. The exploration from Begbie’s bivy down to Revelation Lake and then up the south face of Mt. Tilley is a unique experience in its own way, but I doubt anybody, other than the locals or the stubborn peak-baggers would actually bother to put in those efforts. A determined party can possibly do it in a day but most would require at least 2 days if not more.

The plan among Adam (Gimplator), Al (Spectrum) and myself was to ascend Mt. Begbie and Mt. Tilley together in two days. On the first day we completed the mission of bagging Mt. Begbie but after so we weren’t 100% certain about Mt. Tilley. This peak simply doesn’t look attractive enough and the approach looks like a bit of a pain in the ass. The morning we woke up at sunrise and discussed some possibilities. In the end we concluded it’s either Mt. Tilley or going home and in this case we picked the former. Would be stupid to waste a gorgeous day like this.

Right off the bat we faced the first section of unpleasant terrain. What looked like a walk on the map turned out to be a mile-long stretch of boulder fields with some on glacial ice (hence loose like hell). This wasn’t the worst I have done, but close enough such that it’s guaranteed this place will never see me for a second time. In short words, it’s NOT fun.. After the boulder fields we joined a creek and descended (easily, on grass) to the shore of Tilley Lake. The traverse across this lake on its east shore was again, on mostly unstable boulders which made 4-letter words flying around for another round. The good thing, we already got some neat views of this rarely travelled valley.

The descent from Tilley Lake to Revelation Lake was worse than the previous stretch. First of all we had no further information other than “we had to descend to the next lake before going up again” so we had to figure out the micro-terrain on our own, and trust me there’s lots of micro-terrain. There’s the main outflow drainage which we used as a directional guide. Staying on the north side worked out initially but dumped us in some very steep bushes. It’s too slippery to continue so we back-tracked and hopped across to the south side and then found more gentle terrain. At the shore of Revelation Lake with more than 300 m hard won elevation lost from camp, it wasn’t obvious where exactly to go up again so we kept traversing until a band of thick brushes blocked the way. Then we took a sharp turn ascending steeply with a general leftwards bearing. A couple minor obstacles required some degree of route-finding and scrambling but I think we did excellent in finding the path with the least resistance to get onto the south face.

A mandatory break was then taken but soon enough we got going again. The task was simple now that we just had to shoot straight up the south face/ridge to the summit although the top section looked a bit interesting from below. This whole process would involve about 500 m of gain but the first 400 m was just a mind-numbing plod. The only thing worth noting is the terrain, gradually transitioning from “good rock” to “mediocre”. Near the top the easiest line looked to be on the climber’s left side with a bit of traversing but I wanted to go straight up over a band of cliff. This turned out to be harder than expected with one short 4th class step. The rope was taken out and thankfully I also brought a quadruple-length sling which fits perfectly to a bomber boulder.

Once everyone’s cleared this crux step we resumed on. There’s still a fair amount of 3rd class scrambling with route-finding although the rope stayed in the pack now onwards. The summit was reached shortly after and I actually think this one offers better views than Mt. Begbie does.

About half an hour later we decided there’s enough October sun tanning, so down we went. There’s some strategies about this crux. Al went around on down-climber’s right, Adam rappelled off while I cleaned the station and gingerly down-climbed. The one cruxy move turned out to be a bit more awkward than expected but at that point I was already committed to the down-climb. Al’s route turned out to be the fastest so scrambler wins on this one.. The rest of the descent down to Revelation Lake wasn’t too bad although I had to pull the GPS out many times in order not to miss some key corners. We still ended up getting lost briefly but again, with the GPS handy any form of back-tracking would be a short one as I never allowed us to deviate too far from the up-track.

And then there came the 300 m grunt back to the campsite with again, much on unpleasant terrain. Slogging back, and then around Tilley Lake wasn’t too bad but then negotiating that long stretch of boulder field was mentally taxing to say the least. Adam led a line further north (left) which seemed to work a little bit better. At least we avoided that rock-covered-glacier section. After what seemed like eternity we eventually crested the ridge and then got back to camp right in time for sunset. There’s not a lot of extra time to kill as we had to immediately break camp and head down. Much of the final 1500 m elevation loss was down using head-lamps and it was not fun..

In the end, Mt. Tilley was a great adventure but not one I would do again. Period. Type II fun at the maximum although the views were awesome. Mt. Begbie deserves its classic status but the only downside, Revelstoke area is a bit far from anywhere, whether you are from Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver or Seattle.