Brewer’s Droop

(Climb date: Sunday January 23, 2011)

Sunday Jan. 23 the Crazy Pole (Rafal) and I headed to the Sheep River to avoid the avi hazard. I had wondered about the climbs Brewer’s Droop and Betty Davis’ Sneeze for years and thought this could be a great time to check them out.

The description in Jojo’s book is bit weird and vague for the approach. Turns out there are two similar routes about 1.5 km apart. There is a grade 4 route that matches the quoted grid reference (82J/10 665119) which is at the beginning of the Sheep River Gorge, but also a grade 4 route, a 45 minute walk up the gorge (about 82J/10 641113). We climbed both routes, the farer upstream route had a pile of old sling around a tree, thus it has been climbed for sure.

It took us about two hours to ski from the road closure at Sandy McNabb to reach the confluence of the Sheep River and Gorge Creek, just west of the road Gorge Creek Trail. We walk onto the Sheep River at the big culvert that drains Gorge Creek (660127).

The steep embankment along the roadside released big slabs when we descended, scary conditions for such a minor slope, all small slopes we encountered on the walk in were crazy reactive. The Sheep River was frozen and well covered by snow, easy walking. Soon we entered the Sheep River Gorge, interesting place, we walk about 45 minutes to reach a route that looked like the description for Brewer’s Droop.

We admired the cool gorge, mostly steep dirt on the south side and very steep dirt/rock combo on the north side. We passed several ice smears on both sides of gorge on the walk in. I bet in a big ice year the gorge holds many ice lines.

The route at 641113 was a nice grade 4 route. We did it in two small pitches, solid grade 3 for about 40 metres in two steps. Final pitch of about 35 metres of solid grade 4. Exit ice was sun affected and poor quality for the final 5 metres, but the rest of the ice was great.

There was a bunch of ice visible up stream (Betty Davis’ Sneeze?), but we headed back to the 60 metre grade 4 looking ice (655119). First section of this route was steep and thin, but good ice. The final curtain was steep (4+).  We rapped off and headed home. 

Not sure which route is Brewer’s Droop, but the Sheep River gorge has plenty of ice lines, worth the simple ski in. Great day with the Crazy Pole.