Nesakwatch Spires/Mount Rexford

[bennygroundh20]

Sunday I made a trip into the Mount Rexford area to climb the north ridges of N and S Nesakwatch spires. The Nesakwatch Creek FSR is in fairly good shape and is passable with a Subaru Forester type SUV with some caution.

The Approach trail is in good shape marked with pink flagging, and the Blueberries are ripe for picking making a delicious trip to the base of the climbs. The creek at the top of the cutblock was running enough to fill up water bottles without concern. Bring ski poles for the hike in but more importantly for the hike down.

We started by climbing the North Ridge of North Nesakwatch Spire, not very much loose on this pitch and a great low 5th route. Descended the South Ridge and soloed to the 5.7 pitch on the North Ridge of South Nesakwatch spire. During our ascent we witnessed a serious rock fall event that occured in the basin East of Rexford/Nesakwatch South, large blocks thundered down the gully below the pocket Glacier below Rexford and Nesakwatch South.

the route up the N Ridge of South Nesakwatch Spire is an Awesome moderate that any 5.8 Squamish climber with some rope management skills could manage speedily. Great position and a great route indeed. Rappelled off the South Ridge using super bomber rap stations left by previous parties. 60 M rope did the job with 2 rappels. Descended the gully between Rexford and S Nesakwatch Spire. We took a light alpine rack (1 set nuts, BD Camalots .5-3 and several slings.)

Seems like there is plenty of potential for new routes up in this area with an awesome bivy site at the base of the climbs. I'll be sure to return to this spot with a slightly larger rack and some binoculars..

[Drew]

Seems like there is plenty of potential for new routes up in this area with an awesome bivy site at the base of the climbs.

After the last decade the ones that are left unclimbed need some serious cleaning first.

[bennygroundh20]

Drew is there somewhere I could find a Definitive guide to all the climbs that have been done up at the Nesakwatch Spires? I'd love to see what routes have been done, and what need some cleaning to come into their own..Some pretty Plumb lines right to the top of the south spire I saw with some fantastic corners.

[Brendan]

Drew is there somewhere I could find a Definitive guide to all the climbs that have been done up at the Nesakwatch Spires?

Yes there is..it's in Drew's head.

[J Mace]

Thankfully he occasionally writes stuff down for us with out photographic memories. I guess its also in the new red fred



This is the updated version of the South Nesakwatch-West Face topo as of 2004, that will appear in the upcoming Beckey guide 3rd edition.

PINK: Unnamed 4 pitch 5.9 route. FA: Jeremy Frimer and Matt Buckle July 2003. Location approximate.
PURPLE: Alpine Gardens 5.11b FA: Janez Ales and Nivea July 2003.
GREEN: Frog Face 5.10b/c FA: Shaun Neufeld and Dwayne Barg June 2002
RED: Dairyland 5.11a FA: Shaun Neufeld and Dwayne Barg June 2002. 5 or 6 pitches
BROWN: Bugaboo Crack 5.11a. FA: Ken Laing, Mike Spagnut 2003. 5 pitches. Climb first 2 pitches of Dairyland then go right.
LIGHT BLUE: Sublimation 5.10 C2. FA: Jeremy Frimer and Cedric Zulauf June 2004. 6 pitches of chimneys
ORANGE: Fairytales and Fantasies 5.11+ 7 short pitches. FA: Craig McGee and Jim Martinello, July 2004. This route climbs a couple of pitches on the flake right of Sublimation and then climbs the upper chimneys of that route free.
It should be noted that the line shown enters the Sublimation corner too low. On the free ascent, Craig and Jim continued up the dihedral directly above where the line drawn enters Sublimation, for another pitch before trending into Sublimation at the obvious spot visible in the photo.
YELLOW: West Buttress Direct 3 pitch 5.9 variation start to West Buttress. 5 pitches total FA: Andy Cairns and Mike Spagnut August 2003
BLUE: West Buttress. 5.10b FA: Drew Brayshaw and Shaun Neufeld August 2002. 4 pitches.

I believe that something has also been climbed as a variation between the middle pitches of Frog Face and Dairyland, but I dont have any good info.

[bennygroundh20]

Thanks J Mace, some great lines on that picture, glad to see people are getting after it up there.

[Drew]

That's the 2006 version, I haven't got around to updating yet but the new version will be in KM's next edition of Alpine Select

[bennygroundh20]

Thanks Drew. Any word on when edition 2 is going to be available?
Ben.