Rexford Date Night
- Greg Luesink
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
A little while after the Rexford-Slesse Horseshoe, Jas asked me:
Do you think I could do Rexford?
To which I responded:
Abso-freakin-lutely, my dear!
Below is a Video we made of the trip, and blog post continues below for a short recap!
If you have read enough of my blog posts, you will likely conclude that I will never get tired of Rexford and Slesse. Not only are these peaks iconic, but it is nigh impossible to have a bad day scampering up, around, and over these granite playgrounds. I've long wanted to take Jas up Rexford, but I came to realize that I couldn't force it; she would have to choose to go up. For our 2nd anniversary, we scrambled the Markhor-Needle Traverse as well as Tomyhoi, which Jas really enjoyed. Those positive experiences gave her the confidence to ask about doing Rexford. When she asked me, I was elated to show her one of my favourite places in the Wackyard.
Weather looked impeccable for June 20-21, the longest daylight hours of the year. Instead of an early start, we settled for what has become our typical routine for overnighters: a relaxed wake-up with the morning spent at home, making some breakfast and prepping our lunch. We left at around 10:30am and drove the hour from our house up Chilliwack Lake Road and turned off onto Nesakwatch Creek FSR, only to be halted by the washout less than 1km from the trailhead. The washout was there in previous years, but has gotten much worse, making it impossible for any vehicle to pass. We ate our sandwiches for lunch before we left the car at noon: less to carry up with us!
The first bit of hiking is up an old FSR scourged by water-run-off, making it quite impassable with a vehicle and tedious hiking over medium sized rocks and boulders. After about 2.5km, the FSR ended and the trail began climbing steeply through the second growth trees. Some nice mental-landmarks along the way are:
The gully-washout below Chinese Puzzle Wall, where there is a bat-man rope to ascend a loose slope to regain the trail. Good to note that the original path went straight across and is very eroded and steep now, but an easier option is upstream about 50m with the rope.
The next landmark is the stream below the Illusions, which tends to flow all year round. This stream is pretty much perfectly halfway to the boulder field, 600m of vert above the parking and 600m to gain before the boulder field.
The final segment is the "Rockwall," where we continued up a sandy trail at the base of an impressive, nearly vertical wall on the left-hand side. There are seemingly endless routes that could be climbed here, but most people are keen on tagging a summit in addition to rock climbing.
Jas and I took our time, enjoying the views of Slesse across the valley, as well as the purple wildflowers along the way!
Pretty soon, we were at the boulder field, which was much less snow-covered than I expected, even for a low-snow year. We hopped our way over the large boulders, eventually transitioning to snow for the rest of the way to Bivy Rock. We took a little break just after 4pm for about 30 minutes, then staked our claim on our rock with our bivy gear. With helmets, harnesses, and a light pack, we set off for the toe of the West Ridge. I had a rope slung over my shoulder just in case Jas wanted to tie-in for a section, but we just kept cruising up without skipping a beat. She was really enjoying the scramble, so things were looking good for her first "alpine climb" as we reached the shoulder of the ridge.
I pointed out Ben's and my bivy spot from the second night of the Horseshoe Traverse, and we navigated our way over easy rock slabs and boulders higher and higher. We started to see more of the features on the Nesakwatch Spires, and even south to the Pillar of Pi and beyond into the North Cascades. Jas was scrambling like a pro, with only a small booty-boost here and there ;)
We rounded the north side of Rexford's flank to the base of the steeper scrambling. This is where I was uncertain if Jas would want to rope up. I've scrambled this section many times before (perhaps only the first time doing Rexford did I rope up for this and simul-climb), so I knew she might be fine without a rope. But, with it being quite exposed, I offered to Jas that we could tie-in for a pitch or two.
"Well, let's just see how it goes for a bit more," Jas said.
And just like that, we kept on climbing higher and higher until we found ourselves on the plateau connecting all three summits of Rexford. Jas really enjoyed this section on the way up, but we both agreed that it would be nice to use our ropes to rappel on the way down. We traversed around the middle tower to access the "chimney pitch," a 5.5 section of climbing to reach the true summit. Jas and I flaked the ropes and tied in before I set off up the familiar section of rock. I put Jas on belay and after a little bit of time she figured out how to exit the steep chimney to the easier terrain above.
Woohoo!! Summit!!
We enjoyed the beautiful clear skies and soaked up the splendid views of Slesse, the Chilliwack River Valley, and the glacier-strewn peaks of the North Cascades.
If Slesse is the Crown Jewel of the Valley, then Rexford is the Throne Room. There is no better spot to observe her beauty!
We began our descent with a rappel off the summit, then traversed back to the next rap anchor (thanks for these Andy!). A long rappel brought us below the steepest bit of scrambling, and we did a 3rd rappel from the last anchor for good measure. Finally back on the easy terrain of the West Ridge, we enjoyed the evening light on Slesse, the Spires, and the Illusions. The final two rappel anchor stations are somewhat optional, as it is pretty easy to down-scramble. A large patch of snow was covering the last anchor so that made for an easy decision to just keep the rope on the bag and reverse our path down the toe of the ridge.
Pretty soon we were back at camp to boil some water for our dehydrated dinners and set up our tarp-tent for the night. The sunset was absolutely stunning as we sipped LMNT hot chocolate (highly recommend) and feasted on the rehydrated meals.
Unfortunately, neither of us slept very well. I was readjusting to sleeping on my thin z-mat, and Jas was struck with an unexpected bout of food poisoning. Perhaps it was the old package of beef stew I dug out of the gear bin... for whatever reason I was totally fine after eating half of that one. Regardless, Jas woke me at 3am stating,
Honey, I think I'm gonna throw-up... blehhhh
Let's just say that Happy Yak takes on a whole new meaning after this trip. I grabbed Jas some water and she felt a lot better afterwards, so we got a bit of sleep until dawn.
Our fitful night finally finished, and the day started like as the last one ended, with a stunning view of Slesse; but this time it's steep walls received a barrage of fire as the sun rose behind Rexford.
After eating some cold-soaked chia oatmeal, we packed up our gear and set off for the car, arriving back around 9:30am. For many reasons, this will forever remain an exceptionally memorable trip.
P.S. I love you Jaseroo! So proud of you for being brave and wanting to try a new hard thing :) You absolutely crushed it <3
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