Winter Ascent: Stewart Pk NE Couloir and Baby Munday S Ridge

A not-so-early morning approach

Trip dates: 18 -19 January, 2025
Trip participants: Evan Beatty, Nick Hindley

Winter ascent of two routes in the Cheam Range; the NE Couloir of Stewart Pk and the South Ridge of Baby Munday. Good access via logging roads then avalanche slopes leading south from Wahleach Lk.

We drove up to Wahleach Lake late on Friday night, stopping to camp at around 850m elevation on a high spur of the Jones Lakeshore Branch, which would provide the most direct winter access to the north faces of the Cheam Range. Skis on from the truck, we set off at a leisurely 0830 under crisp, clear skies. The packs were heavy; loaded with bivy gear, ropes, ice tools, a mixed climbing rack, and freshly sharpened crampons. Over-sharpened, as I would imminently discover. Some quick first aid was required not even ten minutes from the car as I sliced my knuckle open while cinching up a strap on my pack. Within an hour we were crashing into the forest at the end of the logging road, and another hour to reach the firm avalanche runnels leading up to the base of Stewart Peak’s NE Couloir.

We roped up to start climbing at 1345. Evan took the first lead through soft snow, then mixed firm snow and ice. We swung leads four times as we simul-climbed the 600m couloir – placing cams, ice screws, and pickets along the way. During the third block, Evan grew fed-up with snow wallowing and instead quested up an alternate gulley, which turned out to be a dead-end. He slung the rope around a convenient ice column and rapped back down to quickly get us back on track. It was slow going, and the sunset snuck up on us as we were maybe half way up the couloir, around 1700. Thus began my final block, marching up the never-ending, firm ~55° snow slope under moonlight and the narrow beam of my headlamp. It must have been about 2030 by the time we crested the top of the slope. We got to work melting snow for water and digging a cave into a nearby snowdrift.

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Evan enjoying the views

In the name of fast-and-light, we brought only one 110g fuel canister on this trip, which yielded a grand total of about five litres of warm water that evening before feebly sputtering out. If warmed in the jacket first, there may have been a small reserve of fuel left to be extracted, but we didn’t end up using it. We tucked into the snow cave for the night around 2230.

Sunrise on Baby Munday, from our snow cave bivy

The next morning we skipped out on the warm breakfast and coffee. The rationed 1-litre of water for the day was continuously subsidized with snow. Wind and spindrifts began to pick up as we packed up the bivy and discussed our options for the day. Around 0830 we set off up the final slopes of Stewart Pk to tag the summit. Back down and setting off once again by 0945, towards Baby Munday. We traversed over an incredibly windy saddle north of the peak, then booted down to the west side of the mountain. We stashed packs here and set off to the south ridge with only climbing gear. Moving unencumbered was a relief.

Temps sat around -12°C with a strong, cold easterly wind, from which the ridgeline offered no shelter. Again we simul-ed 40m apart through four long pitches of firm snow and a couple brief sections of steeper ice or rock. Exclusively cams or nuts with long runners were used for protection, though the options for pro were quite sparse. Crampons scraped on bare rock for a couple of exposed moves around the corner, then leading to a short pitch of ~low-5th rock and snow up the final 30m to the summit.

Evan follows along the crest of the S Ridge

Evan follows along the crest of the S Ridge

Snap a few photos, then a 55m rappel off the summit block and down to the steep snow slopes below. We hoped to descend the route by traversing lower across the face, in order to avoid down climbing the section of steeper ice. However a slight miscalculation placed us directly over top of the ice section once we regained our previous track up. We booted up a bit and built second rap anchor; a sling equalized off of a directional horn and an okay nut.

Once back at our packs, we skied out via the unnamed glacier between Stewart Pk and Knight Pk. A quick skirt around the cornice led into a short, steep entry to the glacier. The 400m descent down the glacier yielded some surprisingly excellent skiing, considering the snow conditions we had encountered everywhere else that weekend. My legs were absolute noodles at this point of the trip and I could barely link four turn together, but it was a very enjoyable ski out nonetheless. We traversed northeast back to our original uptrack as we descended. A short bootpack through the alders led us to a familiar crash through the forest, and eventually back to the logging road. We arrived back at the truck by 1830.

Summit cheeses

Cold face summit cheeses

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Approximate route; Green=Approach, Red=Climbing, Blue=Ski Descent

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2 Responses to Winter Ascent: Stewart Pk NE Couloir and Baby Munday S Ridge

  1. Stefanija Rekasius says:

    Sounds like a fun trip and amazing photos!

  2. Tom Curran says:

    Neat to read! Good to see people taking advantage of the stable avalanche conditions.

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