Nicolum Knob - Hope

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Dru
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Location: Chillidog

Nicolum Knob - Hope

Post by Dru » Tue May 27, 2008 1:45 pm

Nicolum Knob

Located on the north side of Highway 5 immediately north of the junctions of Highway 3 and 5, 5km east of Hope.

Topos:
see below

Topo Description:
Please note all topos are provided by and based on information from climbers and first hand observations. Please verify route lengths, bolts and descriptions on your own. SquamishClimbing.com is not responsible for the information provided on these topos.

Directions:
From Hope, drive 5km east on Highway 5 (Coquihalla) to the junction with Highway 3 (Hope Princeton). Cross the highway bridge over Nicolum Creek on Highway 5. The crag is immediately north of the north end of the bridge.

Parking:
There are two parking areas. The best one is on the south side of the highways bridge. There is room for several cars here. If you park here, walk north on the sidewalk across the bridge.

There is also a small parking area on the southbound side of Highway 5 that is closer to the crag, directly across from it and north of the bridge. To get here, drive past the crag for 6km to Othello Tunnels exit, follow U-turn route and drive back south for 6km to the crag.

Approach:
200m north of the north end of the bridge, a trail begins in the highway ditch. This trail is marked with hubcaps nailed to trees. Hike up this trail for 200m to a boulder with a large metal kiosk attached to it. This kiosk has information about the Hope Community Forest and the development of the crag and trail system.

Hike up the trail for another 200m to a cluster of boulders. There is a trail fork here. The left fork leads to a gully that takes you up to the top of the crag and a rappel route down the center of the wall. The right fork leads up on a series of ledges with some fixed lines to the base of the crag.

Sun Shine / Shade:
The crag is south facing and in the sun most of the day from early spring to late fall. A great place to work on your tan, but quite hot on hot days.

Type Of Climbing:
Slabby to vertical crack and face climbing.

Route Information:

Route Distribution:
<= 5.8 - 2
5.9 - 1
5.10 - 6
5.11 - 2
5.12 - 1
5.13 - 0
5.14 - 0

Route Types:
1 Sport Routes
10 Mixed / Trad Routes up to 4 pitches long. Bring gear to 3", heavy on finger sized pieces. Most routes have a few bolts.
~6 Boulder Problems, V0 to V4.

Access Issues:
Parking in inappropriate spots (especially in front of the crag trail on the shoulder of the northbound lanes) can result in tickets or towing of your car.

The access trails and rap route down the face were developed over several years with a lot of hard work by Hope locals who mostly wanted to have a rappelling practice area. Climbing development has been facilitated and benefitted enormously by this early work. As a result, please be courteous to and respectful of any parties you may encounter that are there to rappel. The access trail to the top of the crag is also a semi-popular training hike with JHope locals.

There can be ticks in the area, particularly in spring. Check yourself after climbing.

In the late summer and fall, wasp nests in the approach trail can be a problem, especially in dry years. One hiker nearly died after having an allergic reaction to wasp stings. If you are sensitive, bring an epi-pen.

There are no toilet facilities. Currently there is not a problem with human waste or flies. Keep things that way - poo before or after you visit the crag.

A number of rare plants grow in the area. The kiosk on the trail in provides more information about these plant species. Please do not damge them if you come across them.

Several multipitch lines are in a state of progress, with lower piches clean and upper pitches not yet clean. Please respect these projects. There is plenty of unclimbed rock available if you want to put up routes. Developing new routes here is scrub-intensive. There are also numerous potential unclimbed boulder probems in the forest below the crag.

Pictures
see below
Last edited by Dru on Wed May 28, 2008 9:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

Dru
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Posts: 396
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 2:00 pm
Location: Chillidog

Photo Topo

Post by Dru » Tue May 27, 2008 3:07 pm

I couldn't get the squamishclimbing.com gallery to upload my photo (what a n00b!) :roll: so this is linked from my Flickr photo gallery.

Image

Route descriptions:

From left to right:
A - this is a 4 pitch link up. The first two pitches are the climb HIGHWAY 12 (5.9 finger crack starting in dihedral; , 5.8 slab). From the top of Hwy 12, scramble up ledges to the start of TWO BEE OR NOT TWO BEE, which is also two pitches long (5.8 lieback flake, 5.10c chimney to finger crack to crux slab). Gear to 3", heavy on finger size. 2BON2B can also be reached from the gully to the left which leads up to the top of the cliff.

B - Kemo Sabe, 5.10c, 1 pitch. 3 bolts plus gear

C - Dead Soles, 5.10c. Sporty pitch with 6 bolts.

D - First Blood, 5.6. Hand and finger crack.

E - Kyle Hudie Route. 10d/11a. Start up First Blood and move right along thin crack to arete. Up arete, bouldery, 4 bolts.

F - this is a vegetated scramble/ 5.6 slab pitch with 2 bolts linking the lower tier (Kokanee Slab) to the upper tier (Ecology Ledge).

G - Exaggerator 5.10b. Two bolts up a thin slab lead to a pancake-thin laybck flake on a steep wall.

H - Land Down Under 5.10a. Thin crack to layback and stemming flake. At top, mantle past bolt on right.

I - Oddjob 5.8. Hand crack variation leading right from bottom of LDU and up ramp beyond. Kind of dirty at the moment.

J - Life on a Chain 5.11+/12- ? This climb may or may not have been redpointed yet. Very thin climbing past 3 bolts up a narrow flake leads to thin cracks and a slab to the top anchor. Bouldery and tricky clips.

Cleaned streaks above routes G-J represent projects that are works in progress at the moment.

bigwalldirtbag
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Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:09 pm

Post by bigwalldirtbag » Thu May 29, 2008 8:03 pm

thanx for the info dru! i've been looking at that area for a while! I'll be sure to check it out soon!

Chris21
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:01 am

Re: Nicolum Knob - Hope

Post by Chris21 » Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:16 am

This is very detailed! Thanks for sharing this Dru! I am looking for new locations to climb and this is perfect. Although the post is already outdated.

Thanks!

- Chris of SEO Geek Squad

JohnTravis54321
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:09 am

Re: Nicolum Knob - Hope

Post by JohnTravis54321 » Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:16 am

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