Climbing Dairyland: A Week of Wildness

TLDR: I encountered the my limits of recovery after 3 last minute trips with limited sleep between. Sleep is important, to say the least. Here's how Part 1 of 3 unfolded...

It was the beginning of June, 2023, a few weeks after summiting Mt Baker. I'd just finished my Bachelor's of Kinesiology degree at UFV, and was working part-time at Mt Waddington's Outdoors. Luckily, the shop was closed on Mondays, and weather was looking stunning! My friend Mike was free, so we brainstormed some options for a day out in the Chilliwack River Valley.

Maybe Canadian Border Peak? Nah, too chossy and loose for Mike's taste.

Perhaps Dairyland? Although it was a goal of mine to climb, I'd pushed that off to the future as it was quite a difficult climb... but with a strong climber like Mike, it might just be doable.

"Well, what the heck is Dairyland?!?"

I'm sure you are wondering, and I'm glad you asked.

Dairyland is the name of an alpine multi-pitch rock climb up South Nesakwatch Spire in the Rexford basin, up Chilliwack Lake Road. Rated at 5.10d, it is a respectably difficult alpine climb. Mountain Project provides a short description and photos, and Alpine Select offers some information on the climb for prospective ascentionists like ourselves. We took some screenshots to help us identify the start of the route and key features to follow up the spire.

I'd climbed South Nesakwatch Spire in 2022 with Ben, but we took the easiest way up from the north ridge during the Nesakwatch Enchainment. Meanwhile, Dairyland traces its way up the West Face through a maze of vertical blocks of granite. I was familiar with the approach trail, and the descent off the spire, so all we had to worry about was the climb.

I gathered some info for what gear we should bring from some friends who had climbed it. Armed with some beta for the climb, we packed our climbing bags and set our alarms for early Monday morning.

The Approach

The Chilliwack River Valley is truly spectacular. Every time I set out on an adventure, I am stunned by the towering mountains and jagged landscape. This time was no different. As we plodded our way up the steep trail, we frequently paused to admire the backdrop of Slesse and Mt Baker. We reached the snow-covered boulder field in about 3 hours, and proceeded to the base of the climb. We walked below the SW Buttress of North Nesakwatch, which I'd climbed with Ben in October of 2022 during the Nesakwatch Enchainment. It took about an hour to cross the snow field and standing at the base of the multipitch.

We decided to ditch my backpack and climb with Mike's smaller pack with food, water, and an extra jacket. With that, Mike racked up with climbing gear to lead the first pitch while I uncoiled the rope.

The Climb

It was cold in the shade as Mike pulled onto the wall for the first pitch, rated at 5.9. It was one of the wildest alpine pitches I'd seen: two splitter hand cracks in the back of a corner, facing opposite directions. There was ample gear, but it was a burly way to start climbing. Mike cruised up, and started belaying me up after him.

I took over for Pitch 2, which was rated at 5.8. Nice and easy for me to get warmed up to lead climbing. As I continued up, I placed a few mediocre pieces and mantled onto a ledge. On the ledge, I found myself dead-ended by a blank slab of rock with no cracks to protect a fall with.

I alerted Mike that I was going to downclimb. As I palm-pressed with one hand on the ledge and reached down with one foot to a small nubbin, my weight broke my other foothold and I started to fall back. Reflexively, I pulled hard through my right hand and caught myself, dangling from one arm moments later.

Shock hadn't kicked in, but Mike was concerned. After he heard me fall but didn't feel my weight through the rope, he asked, "Is the rope cut?" I called back, "No, I just caught myself, that was insane!" I proceeded to reverse my moves back to a large platform to reassess the situation. From there, I decided to climb a hollow-sounding flake to traverse to the left, below the dead-end I had just discovered. After a series of easy cracks, ledges, and a few pieces of gear just in case, I set up a belay for Mike to follow up Pitch 2.

Pitch 3 is rated at 5.10a, and starts with a funky chimney with a hand crack in the back. I set up my belay and swapped the gear over to Mike for his lead. We surveyed the photos and chose our line above to make sure that we ended up below the next pitch! Mike did a stellar lead, and I followed, groveling my way up the chimney with the backpack on. After a few tricky moves and some beta from Mike, I stepped sideways to a 2x3 foot belay ledge. We had a short discussion, and Mike offered to lead the next pitch, the crux pitch rated at 5.10d. I gladly accepted the offer, as the adrenaline had worn off after falling and catching myself. We exchanged gear on our cramped ledge, as Mike prepared for to climb.

Once again, Mike methodically made each move and cruised his way up the 5.10d pitch. Before I started following, we radioed to each other, "on belay; climbing!" I pulled my way through the first few moves, taking out the cams that Mike placed to protect a potential fall. One of the cams I just couldn't get out. Hanging on a good ledge with my left hand, I tried using my right hand to free the precious cam (they're $100 each!). Alas, this was a two-hand job, so I hollered up to Mike to "Take" in the rope slack. I placed a redirect cam above me and used my nut-tool to finagle the stuck cam free as I leaned on the rope. After pulling through the following moves, I got into a flow, jamming my fingers in the narrow cracks and smearing my shoes up on the lichen-covered granite. Soon, I arrived at Mike, standing on a large belay ledge below Pitch 5.

Looking up, I was astonished by the crack splitting the granite headwall above us. On either side of the crack was nearly featureless rock, which would be impossible to climb. But, this perfect hand-size crack provided passage through the vertical terrain. Mike geared up to lead what guidebooks hailed as "the money pitch": 45 metres of hand and finger crack to reach the summit plateau. As per usual, Mike jammed, stepped, and danced his way up this beautiful pitch, taking the harder right variation to a finger-crack finish. I was pretty unsure how I'd do following with the backpack as the moves looked pretty challenging. But, I set off, just one move at a time. The hand-jams were amazing, and I soon found myself high up on the pitch making the same stance as Mike, ready to move into the finger crack.

At this point, I was extremely pumped in my forearms and starting to lose grip. I was determined to climb as far as I could and fall rather than rest on the rope. So, I pressed on, straining as I shifted my weight onto my fingers in the small crack. Smearing on some lichen, I pulled up for a few moves until I reached a good rest where I could shake out my forearms to get rid of the pump. From there, I tried my absolute hardest, locking my fingers into the crack to pull each move until I could get a solid stance in a corner. Mike peered down at me from above, offering encouragement that the last moves were easier. With that, I found myself pulling up over the edge and standing next to Mike! We did it! Aside from a small take to rescue a cam, I was stoked that I pulled every move without resting on the rope. I was really proud with my effort on the last pitch; I hadn't tried that hard on a climb in a long time.

We scrambled about 10 metres to the plateau below the summit block, Pitch 6. Here, much to our surprise, we discovered another trio already on the plateau! Kyle, Darien, and Sandro hailed from Squamish, and had just climbed South Nesakwatch from Centre Creek up the East Buttress. We asked them to snap some photos of Mike and myself on the summit block. The easiest way up is a 5.7 offwidth crack that is unprotected unless you have a # 6 size cam... which we forgot. Mike decided to climb the north side of the boulder, which fit a # 3 cam to protect a harder ~5.11 move. Mike then belayed me up the 5.7 off-width to the top. The sky was perfectly clear as we soaked in the views atop our achievement.

The Descent

There are perfectly placed rappel rings for a 35 metre rappel into a gully, and then a steep descent on foot to the snow field. We quickly realized that the snow in the gully was quite firm and we took our time down climbing. I ended up wedging myself into the shallow bergschrund between the snow and rock all the way down to the snowfield. Once down, we crossed back over to the trail and boogied down to avoid the darkness. Alas, darkness caught up to us, and we sang songs into the pitch black to fend off bears, including Mike's stunning rendition of the rap-musical, Hamilton.

We started just before 7 am, and, summited at 6 pm after 6.5 hours on the route, and got back to the car just after 10 pm. 15 hours and 20 minutes car to car.

Epilogue

This trip was a big boost in my climbing confidence in the alpine, and was by far my hardest climb to date. Having a strong climbing partner like Mike to lean on for the hard pitches was a big relief and made the day a lot more enjoyable for both of us - Mike enjoyed lead climbing and I enjoyed following! One day, I'd like to come back stronger and lead those hard pitches myself. For now, I have satisfaction in climbing Dairyland with Mike and taking a backseat to enjoy the ride.

Read Part 2 here:

Part 2: Climbing Mt Rainier

Gear:

70m 9.2mm Sterling single/half/twin rope. Rack: doubles of .1-.4, quadruples of purple .5 and green .75, triples of 1s and 2s, double 3s, and a 4. One set of BD nuts. Maybe 3 nut placements total? Could've left the 0.1s, and didn't need necessarily need quads of purple and green.