North Shore Peak Bagging Part 3: Crown Mountain attempt #2 - Are we ever going to get to summit?

Last Thursday was yet another beautiful day to some hiking. Dave and I grabbed our gear and headed to the base of grouse with the intention of summitting crown and climbing the camel; it was 11:30AM. For times sake, we took a cat track that avoided summitting grouse and then we found the "Alpine route" which skirts the slopes of Dam Mountain and Little Goat and brings you out at the top of Crown Pass. It was actually a really steep route and kind of sketchy at parts. Luckily, at this point, Dave and I were sure-footed with our crampons.

We began our descent down the 1,000 feet steep descent that is Crown Pass (we hadn't put our helmets or our safety-line on yet). The sun was shining at it was a beautiful day. Part of the way down I slipped and begen to slide down the steep slope towards the trees below. I plannted my axe by the shaft (improper self-arrest, I was supposed to use the blade). This resulted in me losing my axe and slightly faster and faster about 50 feet down the slope before I somehow manged to plant my crampons and stop myself. It was pretty scary, but all's well the ends well.

We came to Crown Pass where a couple of skiiers emerged from the Lynn Valley route. We couldn't find the path up the mountain (our big mistake). So we bush-whacked through the desnsest brush I've ever seen save from Brushing. It slowed us down greatly. However, we eventually made to the line of cliffs that demarcate the boundary between the steep lower slopes of crown, and the summit. I figured that we could save some time by simply rock-climbing and scrambling up the cliffs to the upper levels. We scrambled and climbed up the clifffs for a while before we realized the waterfalls and streams were making the rock dangerous for ascent. We came back down and realized we were out of time (so close). So we began the trudge back down, when we found the path.

We climbed Crown Pass in 45 minutes and made it back to Grouse as the light was failing at 9:30 PM. 10 hours of slogging it, I was beat for the next few days. I figure we might have to wait for all the snow to go before we can really get up to the summit. Third time's a charm maybe?