Peak 8,700, North Face/Downtown Creek, By Andy Traslin

Note: This trip report is part of the TetonAT Trip Report Contest. Andy is now in the running to win a FREE pair of Black Diamond skis based on viewer response and the TetonAT panel of judges! Good luck Andy!!

Andy Traslin on the way up Peak 8,700.

We got off to another early 9:30AM start from North Vancouver. From construction delays in Squamish, a car accident in Whistler, a funeral service running through the town of Mt. Currie, tree cutting on the Duffey Lake Road and active logging on Downtown Creek, The traffic was just brutal for 6 hour drive to the start of the climb . And we actually were going to turnaround on three separate occasions due to brotherly disputes. Proving that sometimes it is actually harder to get to the climb than actually doing the climb.

Skinning in front of the North Face.

Once Jordan sent me the photo of this line, I knew we had to ski it. I was little worried when there was no snow, I didn’t see any snow at all past the Duffey Lake Road, being we’re trying to ski in June. We found the logging road but still no snow.  Might as well keep driving. Some off-roading in the 1982 Volvo worked out well since they recently just graded the road. We arrived at the base of the climb at 2:30pm and figured we drove all this way, we may as well go for a hike. Even though I’m not a big fan of hiking, especially with skis on my back. We were hoping to get the reverse corn cycle.

Views from the summit.

The travel was quick and we got to snow and skinning at 6000 feet, then scrambled up the ridge to avoid solar exposure. We skied the north face, 50 degrees to start, then it tapered off after that. Great corn skiing to the rocks. Then we just followed the creek through a traveled trail to the rock garden, clear cut and car below.

Andy Traslin skis the North Face of Peak 8,700.

Well, it ended like it like it started. The 15km descent wasn’t the best, and brake failure lights in the car started to go on. Might as well push it a little more. We stopped and jumped down to the creek to get some water and cool the brakes. Luckily we didn’t launch off the side. We waited for an hour to cool off the brakes. After a little slow braking, and me jogging behind the car to lighten the load, we made it back to the road and the smooth drive back home.

Back at Downtown Creek.