础听recent Tuesday began as any totally incredible guiding day should: coffee at 6 a.m. while watching the impending grey doom swirl around the summits of the Stawamus Chief. The weather was the issue, scratching at my brain and eroding my positive thoughts with every darkening cloud. I met Gary at the Apron parking lot. We looked at each other and said in unison, 鈥淲hat could possibly go wrong? We鈥檝e got to at least try.鈥� After that moment momentum gathered.聽
We found the trail with uncommon ease, shouldered packs, stripped down for the sweating to come and started up. As we hiked fine drizzle filtered down through the canopy. 鈥淛ust keep walking and pretend you didn鈥檛 notice,鈥� I told myself.聽
Gary did the same I suspect. The convoluted trail led us to the base of New Life, a steep line of white corners that wind their way up the northern end of the North Wall of the Chief, that same wall which drips with life much of the year, oozes slime, shuns the sunlight like the Chief鈥檚 alter ego and also heaved off many tonnes of rock last spring in a massive rock fall event.聽
As we lay packs to the ground the drizzle increased to rain. Again the phrase of the day became, 鈥渓et鈥檚 just wait five minutes.鈥� Rain turned to drizzle, turned to clouds and wind, turned to us leaving the ground. The climbing went well, with each of us forging forth with much heroism, but that鈥檚 not really what this column is about.聽
It was 12:30 p.m. and we had the second half of the day to play with. I immediately suggested hiking southward, along the base of the North Wall itself, through the Zone Of Devastation left by the rock fall and to the base of Astrologger, a pitch just right of the base of Alaskan Highway and one of the proudest cracks anyone will ever climb. 鈥淵ou mean, through the debris and underneath the wall?鈥� Instantly I knew Gary was as keen as I was.聽
Secretly, I just wanted to walk along under the North Wall and see what had become of the area formerly known as the forest below Alaskan Highway in the wake of such immense rock fall, and also to gaze upwards at that amazing line. It had been a few years since climbing AK Highway but as anyone who鈥檚 climbed it knows, it leaves a mark. We floated our way through leagues of brush, so thick were the thimbleberry bushes along the base trail. Moss, ferns, bushes and trees grow in chaotic and intimate layers along the base where the water seeping out of the stone feeds the plant life.聽
We never saw below our waists as we parted the green sea to find passage through. And then, like in a movie where a jarring cut comes so you see who鈥檚 been standing silently behind you, the forest just stops and fresh, white and pink granitic rubble begins. Trees are torn in two, trunks shaved like pencils. The afternoon sun shone down into the roughly circular area where around 1,000 cubic metres of rock landed. Several large boulders dominate the pummelled landscape, showing off some attractive faces and features, which have already seen the light touch of the boulderer.聽
The hulking face above seems relatively untouched and as I remember it, which is in strange contrast with the open, down sloping rubble field that once was rainforest. Our voices hushed and we stepped just a bit more carefully still once we entered this arena, like we were entering a forbidden space. We crossed the slope and climbed Astrologger, bathed in brilliant sunshine like never before, but the glances upwards came with increasing frequency. We packed quickly and skedaddled out of there.聽
After, on our way down as we picked up the Angel鈥檚 Crest Trail, we talked about how that rock had hung on above our heads for so many years, with many of us walking underneath, blissfully ignorant. Was it an unnecessary risk to walk there after the fact, was it always too risky but we never realized, are all the faces of the Chief holding rockfall in their grips, just waiting for the time, or is it simply an accepted, rarely spoken-of risk inherent to climbing or even just walking below big cliffs? It鈥檚 a moving experience walking in and viewing the rock fall impact sight; you choose for yourself whether it鈥檚 worth it or not. However, Astrologger is even better than before.聽
