Ensakwatch Enchainment, 5.8
July 7 – 9, 2023
Earlier in the season when I wasn’t working yet, I spent a lot of time climbing and then skiing with Nicole which I very much enjoyed! Ever since I’d started my job though, my schedule sadly didn’t line up anymore with her nursing hours, so we hadn’t seen each other since March. Because of this, we decided to book off one of her rare free weekends in the summer to do some kind of trip together. The Ensakwatch Enchainment is one that had caught both of our eyes for awhile, and it seemed like a perfect climb for the two of us to take on.
On Friday afternoon after my shift, we took off on the drive to Chilliwack. We were a little nervous about her SUV making it to the trailhead, but the road was in fantastic shape and I’d imagine even my car might be able to do the road. After a little repacking, we set off on the trail around 5pm. Although this seems late, we reasoned that it didn’t matter too much what time we got into camp since we’d just be heading straight to sleep anyways.
We hammered off the approach quite quickly in the end, and made it to the famous flat rock campsite just after sundown. After a quick meal and review of our route for the following day, we passed out just shortly after our heads hit the pillow.
Leaving the trailhead with one heavy bag!
Nicole coming up the trail
A view of our route from the campsite
In the morning when we awoke, we had a speedy breakfast and were already on the trail before the sun lit up the sky. The trail consisted of mainly boulder hopping, which is a rather fun and engaging way to wake yourself up without coffee.
We’d decided our route for the day would be to go up the SW rib of the North spire, and then continue the traverse that way rather than going along the standard North ridge. This allowed for us to have a few pitches of awesome climbing, and although we miss out on that North ridge, I’ve heard it’s mostly a scramble and we were in this for the FUN! Meaning we wanted a few extra good pitches of real climbing. 🙂
Nicole approaching the climb
Nicole about to start up P1
The climb on the SW rib is actually STELLAR. The granite is so clean, and there’s some fantastic splitters for fun movement and great jamming. I only wish the whole rest of the route was like this too!Â
Once on the summit of the North spire, we began our traverse to the South one. This entailed mostly a scramble, with a couple short pitches that we roped up near the end. I get the impression Nicole might have been comfortable scrambling the entire traverse to the S spire, but personally I was happy to have the rope for a few moves.Â
The summit block on S Nesakwatch spire was quite the challenge. We’d thankfully brought a #6 cam specifically for the occasion, and Nicole made a really solid effort leading us up to the true summit. To be honest it felt quite silly since the pitch is so short, but I guess it’s cool to say you stood on top of the real summit.Â
I did hear from a friend that there’s an alternate route for which you don’t need a #6 – on the same crack but just around the other side of the summit block. This apparently runs at 10b (?), takes standard size gear, and is apparently the way the FA party originally climbed it. Don’t count me on this though since I wasn’t able to find it and didn’t try this alternate.
A particularly nice crack on the SW rib!
The very wide summit block of S Nesakwatch spire
From the South Spire, it was a short scramble and then one very long overhanging rap to get to the col below Mount Rexford. There are rings and bolts for this rap station, and it can be easily found with a cairn above it. A 70m rope was great for this rap, but I bet a 60m would be completely fine too with a little bit of extra scrambling.
From the col, we briefly refilled water at a small snow patch and then continued on our way. The climbing to get to the regular Rexford route is a little bit exploratory- in other words there isn’t really an established route, but many ways should go where you can keep the climbing at around 5.8 or below. I’ve marked out the approx route that we took on the image below, but I don’t exactly recommend following us since we had one quite cruxy section. For this, Nicole was on lead and yelled down to me that we might even have to downclimb since it didn’t seem to go. She did pull the move in the end though and bravely pulled us through the section and back into scrambling terrain.
An approx line I drew of our route up Rexford
Looking north at the Nesakwatch spires from Rexford
The scramble up to Rexford is one I’d done previously in the fall of 2022, so I was already familiar with this part of the route. Again, because I’d done it already, I also gave the final lead on Rexford to Nicole, who practically free-soloed to the summit by placing only a single piece of gear.
We spent a little while on the summit, and I signed my name again in the register right beside my name from before! With the sun starting to set though, we were eager to get back in time for some good food and rest.Â
The raps off the summit and then all the way down Rexford were fantastic, and must have been recently bolted since it was all anchors with slings back in October. Now, each station has a bright trail marker and brand new shiny rings for rappelling. What a treat! This certainly made our lives easy, and we hopped down from rap to rap pretty efficiently.
Nicole pulling the final moves to Rexford summit
Nicole on Rexford
Nicole looking down the first rappel
The beautifully marked rap stations!
Nicole with S Nesakwatch spire in the background
Me on one of the last rappels at sunset
Sunset over the Slesse valley
Once back at camp, we checked on the state of the snow that we’d left to melt all day while we were gone. It had been pretty warm, so all of it was ready to drink! Because of this, we had a very efficient dinner before the sun went down. The mosquitoes were relentless as we ate, so we hunkered down into the tent pretty quickly when the sun went down.
In the morning, we sorted and aired out gear on our big flat rock, and then began repeating our steps for the descent. We were back at the car by early afternoon, and happily home in Vancouver for dinner.
The snow that we’d left to melt for the day
Sorting & packing gear
Gear
- 70m rope
- Double rack of cams, a set of nuts, single #4 and #6 cam
- 8 alpine draws
- Ice axe (didn’t use)
- Camping gear