mapHOME

Island Stories:

newDanzig Mine
newZeballos Iron Mine
newConuma Peak 1910
Alexandra Peak
Argus Mountain
Bate/Alava Sanctuary
Beaufort Range
Big Interior Mtn
Big Interior Mtn 1913
Part 1
Part 2
Bolton Expedition 1896
Cliffe Glacier
Clinton Wood
Comox Glacier
Comox Glacier 1922
Comox Glacier 1925
Comstock Mtn
Conuma Peak
Copper King Mine
Crown Mtn
Elkhorn 1912
Elkhorn 1949
Elkhorn 1968
Eugene Croteau
Golden Bullets
Golden Hinde 1913/14
Golden Hinde 1937
Golden Hinde 1983
Harry Winstone Tragedy
Jack Mitchell
Jim Mitchell Tragedy
John Buttle
Judges Route
Koksilah's Silver Mine
Landslide Lake
Mackenzie Range
Malaspina Peak
Mariner Mtn
Marjories Load
Matchlee Mountain
Mount McQuillan
Mt. Albert Edward
Mt. Albert Edward 1927
Mt. Albert Edward 1938
Mt. Becher
Mt. Benson 1913
Mt. Benson
Mt. Doogie Dowler
Mt. Colonel Foster
Mt. Hayes/Thistle Claim
Mt. Maxwell
Mt. Sicker
Mt. Tzouhalem
Mt. Whymper
Muqin/Brooks Peninsula
Nine Peaks
Queneesh
Ralph Rosseau 1947
Rosseau Chalet
Ralph Rosseau Tragedy
Rambler Peak
Red Pillar
Rex Gibson Tragedy
Sid's Cabin
Steamboat Mtn
Strathcona Park 1980's
The Misthorns
The Unwild Side
Victoria Peak
Waterloo Mountain 1865
Wheaton Hut/Marble Meadows
William DeVoe
Woss Lake
You Creek Mine
Zeballos Peak

Other Stories:
 Sierra de los Tuxtlas
Antarctica
Cerro del Tepozteco
Citlaltepetl
Huascaran
Mt. Roraima
Nevada Alpamayo
Nevada del Tolima
Nevado de Toluca
Pico Bolivar
Popocatepetl
Uluru/Ayers Rock
Volcan Purace
Volcan San Jose

Biographies
Island 6000
Cartoons

Order the Book
Contact Me
Links

 
Mount Colonel Foster

At 2,135m (7,005ft), Mount Colonel Foster is the forth highest mountain on vancouver Island. It is a massive mountain comprising of six individual summits with at least five of them over 2,000m and the sixth just below that mark. The highest point happens to be the middle summit thus making it challenging to reach. When viewed from Landslide Lake, the huge 1,000m East Face presents itself as a stunning feature; from the Southeast Summit above the South Col to the North Tower above the North Col. From below it is not easy to decipher which is the highest point and in the 1930's and 1950's when climber were attempting the scale the peak, the Southwest Summit was considered to be the highest and they wrote up their accounts as 'first ascents.' In the mid 1960's, after researching with the Mapping and Survey Office in Victoria, Mike Walsh deduced the highest point was the middle summit and climbed it on a solo reconnaissance in 1968. In 1982 a party from the Vancouver based BCMC climbed the Main Summit and used a precision level to confirm that the middle summit was 3 metres higher than the Southwest Summit. In 1986, Greg Foweraker and Peter Croft attempted to complete a traverse of the Elk River horseshoe by beginning at Puzzle Mountain, then traversing Mount Colonel Foster, Rambler Peak, Elkhorn South and Elkhorn Mountain and finally finishing at Kings Peak in under 24 hours but unfortunately they ran out of time after traversing Mount Colonel Foster. In July 2005, John Waters, Mike Waters and Rene Monjo also attempted to complete the horseshoe traverse but at the time weren't interested in doing it in 24 hours. They spent 3 days on the route beginning at Kings Peak and finally descending off the north end of Mount Colonel Foster to the Elk River Trail (Island Bushwhacker 2005 p. 14-16). In 33 kilometres they ascended and descended approximately 9,200 metres. Greg Foweraker still believes the traverse can be completed in 24 hours and has been spuring John and Mike Waters to make a serious attempt at it.

Below is an attempt to record the ascents of the various routes on Mount Colonel Foster outlining the date, route and summit/s climbed and the persons involved. It is as comprehensive as possible, however, not everyone has recorded their ascents and as information comes to light the list will be updated. In a number of situations, the Main Summit was not reached by the climbers for reasons unknown. Maybe they ran out of time or they were just putting a new route up, therefore only those who have reached the Main Summit are highlighted in red. In some cases first and second ascents of new routes will be indicated as well winter ascents. Only the early ascents of the Southeast Summit have been recorded as this summit is relatively non-technical and many parties have reached its summit over the years. It is the other summits that are more challenging and require a greater commitment and higher skill level.
1936
Southeast Summit from South Col
Alfred Slocomb and Jack Horbury
1954
Southeast Summit
Syd Watts, Patrick Guilbride, Bill Lash and Mallory Lash
1954
Attempt on the Evacuation Gully
Karl Ricker, Sylvia Lash and Noel Lax
1955
Attempt on the Snowband Route
Ulf and Adolf Bitterlich
July 31, 1957
Southwest Summit via west gully - 1st ascent
Ferris Neave, Hugh Neave and Karl Ricker
Aug 1, 1966
Southeast Summit
Ralph Hutchinson, Mike Hanry, Ron Facer, Bob Tustin, Ray Paine and Mike Walsh
Aug 1, 1966
Southwest Summit - 2nd ascent
Ralph Hutchinson, Mike Hanry and Ron Facer
Aug 2, 1966
Attempt on the Snowband Route
Ralph Hutchinson, Mike Hanry and Ron Facer
Aug 1966
Southeast Summit
Syd Watts, Doreen Cowlin, John Cowlin and others
July 19, 1968
North Tower - 1st ascent
Mike Walsh (solo)
July 20, 1968
NW, NE and Main Summit - 1st ascent
Mike Walsh (solo)
July 1969
NW, NE and Main Summit - 2nd ascent
Mike Walsh, Blair Patterson and Steve Weber
July 2, 1971
Summit traverse: NW, NE, Main, SW and SE Summits
Mike Walsh and Bill Perry
July 2, 1971
Attempt East Face route on North Tower
Ron Facer and John Goldich
1972
Climb of North Tower
Bill Perry, Joe Bajan, Ralph Hutchinson and Ron Facer
Sept 2-5, 1972
Culbert route on East Face - 1st ascent
Dick Culbert, Fred Douglas and Paul Starr
Aug 1973
Attempt to reach SE Summit from Snowband
Joe Bajan and Ray Paine
Aug 31, 1973
Summit traverse: N Tower, NW, NE, Main, SW and SE Summits - 1st complete traverse
Mike Walsh and Joe Bajan
Aug 1974
Grand Central Couloir on East Face - 2nd ascent of face, 1st of GC couloir and 1st solo of route
Joe Bajan
March 1974
Inspection of East Face
Mike Walsh and Joe Bajan
June 26-27, 1974
Climbed Snowband route to second snowfield - 1st ascent
Mike Walsh and Joe Bajan
July 1976 SE, SW, Main, NE and NW Summit Traverse Chris Barner and Frank Sommer
July 26-27, 1977
Culbert route on East Face - 3rd ascent of face, 2nd of route
John Put and Perry Beckham
July 25-28, 1977
Culbert route (slight variation) on East Face
Steven Howie and Paul Welle
Aug 1977
Ascent of North Buttress route on North Tower - 1st ascent
Perry Beckham and Scott Flavelle
Jan 1978
Winter attempt of Directtissima on East Face
Joe Bajan, Ross Nichol and one other
Aug 1978 Climbed Snowband route to Main Summit Joe Bajan and Paul McEwan
Jan 1979
Ascent of Directtissima on East Face - 1st winter ascent
Joe Bajan and Ross Nichol
July 7, 1980
Southeast and Southwest Summits
Sandy Briggs, Don Berryman and John Pratt, and Kevin Taylor and Steve Robinson
Aug 1-2, 1981
Northwest Summit return
John Pratt and Don Berryman
June 1982
North route traverse to Main Summit return
Alex Davidson, Geoff Mumford and Alfred Menninga
Aug 1, 1982
North route traverse to Main Summit return- bivvy near summit
Sandy Briggs, Don Berryman and Rex Brown
Jan 1985
Winter ascent of Grand Central Couloir - 1st ascent, bivvied on face and Main Summit
Doug Scott, Rob Wood and Greg Child
July/Aug 1986 Unfinished route to the left of Lost Boys on North Tower Rod Szasz and Scott Sommers
Sept 1986
A summit traverse (including North Tower) that began at Puzzle Mountain and ended at Rambler Peak
Peter Croft and Greg Foweraker
1987
Main Summit
Rick Eppler, Rob Macdonald and Don Berryman
1987 Climbed rock of the Snowband Route to the top of the second snowfield Rod Szasz and Scott Sommers
July 10, 1988
Ascent of Beckham/Flavelle North Buttress on the North Tower
Philip Stone and Chris Lawrence
Aug 6-7 , 1988
Ascent of Cataract Ridge on East Face to Main Summit - 1st route ascent, 1st female ascent
Philip Stone and Sarah Homer
Sept 3 , 1988
North route to Main Summit return - Bivvied on NE Summit
Sandy Briggs, John Pratt, Don Berryman and Wendy Richardson
Feb 1989
Winter ascent of Directtissima on East Face - 2nd route ascent, 3rd winter
Rob Wood and John Kelson
March 1989
Ascent of Directtissima in 27 hour round trip from Landslide Lake
Joe Bajan and Steve Risse
June 10-11, 1989
Into the Mystic route on the East Face - 1st ascent
Philip Stone, Chris Lawrence and Corrie Wright
Sept 6, 89
Lost Boys route on North Tower - 1st ascent
John Put and Fred Put
July 1, 1990
North route to Main, SW and SE summit traverse
Sandy Briggs, Don Newman, Rick Hudson and Rick Reeve
July 4-5, 1991
Climbed Shunt's Utopia on the West (Central) Buttress, SW, SE Summits - 1st ascent of buttress
Sandy Briggs and Ignazi Fluri
July, 1992 Into the Mystic route on the East Face - 2nd ascent Bill Nelson and Paul Rydeen
July, 1992 One day solo ascent from trailhead to Main Summit and return. Traversed South to North Chris Barner
July 12, 1993
North route traverse to Main Summit return
Dave Routledge, Charles Turner, Rob Macdonald, Derek Fletcher and Julie Henderson
1994
North route traverse to Main Summit return
Gerta Smythe and Reinhard Illner
1994
North route traverse to Main Summit return
Gerhardt Lepp and Al Munroe
Sept.1994 North route to Main Summit then traverse south, bivvied on Main Summit Paul Rydeen
July 1, 1995
North route to Northwest Summit return
Rick Johnson, Claire Ebendinger and Chris Odgers
July 8, 1996
North route traverse to Main Summit return
Gerhardt Lepp, Doug Goodman and Greg Gordon
1996
North route traverse to Main Summit return
Ian Brown and Margaret Brown
July 22, 1996 North Buttress route on North Tower Tristen Chernove and Mark ?
July 23, 1996
North Buttress route on North Tower
John Waters and Mike Waters
Aug 22, 1996
Culbert route on East Face down Snowband
Curtis Lyon and Dave Wan
Aug 13, 1997
Culbert route on East Face in 6 hours
John Waters and Mike Waters
March 1998
Halfway up Grand Central Couloir on East Face and retreated
John Waters and Mike Waters
June 28, 1998
South route traverse to Main Summit return
Joe Bajan and Adam Bajan (age 12)
July 13, 1998
South route traverse to Main Summit return
Mike Norton (solo)
Aug 2, 1998 North route traverse to Main Summit return Kris Holm and Kate Holm
Aug 13, 1998 Culbert route on East Face Mike Norton and Jordan Musto
Sept. 1998 Into the Mystic route on East Face Curtis Lyon and James Clark
Aug 27, 1999 Variation on Snowband Route to Main Summit, bivvied on snowfield Lindsay Elms and Peter Ravensbergen
May 30, 1999 East Face gully between North Tower and Northwest Summit - 1st ascent. Traversed to Main Summit Chris Lawrence and Chad Rigby
Aug 5, 2001 North route traverse to Main Summit return Peter Rothermel and Tak Ogasawara
Aug 11, 2001 X-rated on the scar of the North Tower - 1st ascent John Waters, Mike Waters and Aaron Hamilton
Aug 13, 2001 North route to Main, SW and SE Summits - traverse Philip Stone, Greg Shea and Jan Neuspiel
Aug 17 or 18, 2001 South route traverse to Main Summit return Randy Pearce (solo)
Sept 2001 North Buttress route on North Tower then summit traverse to South Col via all summits Joachim Stadel, Hinrich Schafer and Steven Harng
July 26, 2002 North route traverse to Main Summit return Rick Johnson and Selena Swets
Aug 17, 2002 Expressway, a variation to the start of Cataract Ridge - 1st ascent John Waters and Mike Waters
Aug 4, 2003 East Face route on the Northwest Summit - 1st ascent John Waters and Rene Monjo
Aug 8, 2004 North route to Main Summit, SW and SE Summit - traverse Paul Rydeen and Darren Wilman
Aug 15, 2004 South route to Main Summit then traverse north Paul Rydeen and James Rhode
Sept 7, 2004 North route traverse to Main Summit return Aaron Smeeth (solo)
July 24, 2005 South route to Main Summit then traverse north John Waters, Mike Waters and Rene Monjo
Aug 10, 2005 North Buttress route on North Tower John Waters, Mike Waters and Kara Charbonneau
Aug 14, 2005 South route traverse to Main Summit Kim Laughton and Mark Salesse
July 1, 2006 North route traverse to Main Summit return Tom Carter and John Young
July 21, 2006 North route traverse to Main Summit return Lindsay Elms and Valerie Wootton
July 22, 2006 Two climbers evacuated by helicopter off Culbert Route ???
July 28, 2006 Culbert Route on East Face Dan Olliver and Scotty Haynon
July 28, 2006 North route as far as Northwest summit return Kent Krauza and George Milosevich
Aug 6, 2006 Culbert Route route on East Face Brock Wilson, Graeme Brown and Mark Halverson
Aug 12, 2006 Into the Mystic route on East Face John Waters, Mike Waters and Curtis Lyon
Aug 2006 North Buttress route on North Tower Carmen Gibson and Mike Boyd
Aug 2006 Expressway to Cataract Ridge. Descent via SW and SE summits Jain Alcock-White and Mark Salesse
Sept 6, 2006 Super Arete on East Face - 1st ascent Alik Berg and Fred McGuiness
Sept 2006 Cataract Ridge route on East Face John Waters and Aarron Hamilton
July 13, 2007 North route traverse to main Summit return Ken Wong, Jamie Duncan and George Butcher
July 14, 2007 Soloed Expressway on Cataract Ridge Jan Dettmer and David Collings
June 29, 2008 South route to Main Summit then traverse north Henrik Hinkala and Mike Stewart
July 12, 2008 North route traverse to Main Summit return Charles Turner, Christine Fordham and Randy Davies
Aug 2008 South route traverse to Main Summit return Jim Tansky (solo)
July 10, 2009 South route to Main Summit then traverse north, bivvied on Main Summit Ryan Stuart, Chris Baikie and Sean Kerrigan
July 11, 2009 North route traverse to Main Summit, bivvied on NW Summit Kent Krauza and George Milosevich
July 24, 2009 North Buttress route on North Tower Francis Bruhwiler and John Kristian
Aug 16, 2009 South route to Main Summit then traverse north, bivvied on Main Summit Chris Jensen and Steve Gillanders
Aug 17, 2009 East Face route on Northeast Summit - 1st ascent John Waters, Mike Waters and Grant McCartney
July 31, 2010 South route to Main Summit then traverse north, bivvied on Main Summit Rich Prohaska and Rod Szasz
Aug 15, 2010 Culbert route to Main Summit Mike Morris and Ryan Van Horne
July 23-24, 2011 South route to Main Summit then traverse north, bivvied on Northeast Summit Dave Campbell and Dan Perrakis
Aug North Buttress route on North Tower Rob Heron and Peter Ravensbergen
Sept 4, 2011 Super Arete on East Face - 2nd ascent (17hr round trip) Curtis Lyon, John Waters and Mike Waters
Sept 5, 2011 South Route to Main Summit then traverse north Richard Butler-Smythe and Mike Childs
July 29, 2012 North Route to Main Summit return Andreas Hinkkala and Charles He
July 10, 2013 Into the Mystic route on East Face Bill Phipps and Max Fisher
July 20, 2013 North Route to Main Summit return Shawn Hedges and Chris Jensen
July 20, 2013 North Route to Main Summit Tom Roozendaal and Aaron Parrotta
July 25, 2013 New route on East Face of North Tower Ryan van Horne and Darren Willman
Aug 5, 2013 South Route to Main Summit then traverse north Dave Gardiner and Dwayne McArthur
Aug , 2013 New route on East Face of North Tower (Ruth's Ramble) Ryan van Horne and Mike Morris
Aug 14/15 Culbert Route route on East Face descent via South Summits Mike Boyd and Josh Overdijk
Aug 14, 2013 New route on East Face of Northwest Summit initially via Northeast Couloir Ryan van Horne
Sept 15, 2013 South Route to Main Summit then traverse north Francis Bruhwiler and Matt Coady
     
     
     
     
200? Beckham/Flavelle route on the North Tower Paul Rydeen and Jim Tansky
Since Mike Walsh's first ascent in 1968, there has been 164 recorded ascents of the Main Summit by 129 different people and 9 of them have been women. Also, as of September 2013, there have been 19 summit traverses, however, only three have included the North Tower.

Female ascents to Main Summit: Sarah Homer, Wendy Richardson, Julie Henderson, Gerta Smythe, Margaret Brown, Kate Holm, Selena Swets, Valerie Wootton and Christine Fordham

Those with more than one ascent of the Main Summit:
2 X Rob Macdonald, Charles Turner, Lindsay Elms, Chris Lawrence, Mike Norton, Chris Barner, Gerhardt Lepp, Rob Wood and Chris Jensen
3 X Sandy Briggs, Don Berryman and Philip Stone
4 X Mike Walsh, Mike Waters, John Waters, Curtis Lyon and Paul Rydeen
6 X Joe Bajan

1968 - 1, 1969 - 3, 1970 - 0, 1971 - 2, 1972 - 3, 1973 - 2, 1974 - 1, 1975 - 0, 1976 - 2, 1977 - 4, 1978 - 2, 1979 - 2, 1980 - 0, 1981 - 0, 1982 - 6, 1983 - 0, 1984 - 0, 1985 - 3, 1986 - 2, 1987 - 3, 1988 - 6, 1989 - 7, 1990 - 4, 1991 - 0, 1992 - 3, 1993 - 5, 1994 - 6, 1995 - 0, 1996 - 7, 1997 - 2, 1998 - 9, 1999 - 4, 2000 - 0, 2001 - 9, 2002 - 2, 2003 - 0, 2004 - 5, 2005 - 5, 2006 - 14, 2007 - 3, 2008 - 6, 2009 - 7, 2010 - 4, 2011 - 7, 2012 - 2, 2013 - 12,
 

top

 

 

How to order | | About the Author || Links || Home

Contact:

Copyright © Lindsay Elms 2001. All Rights Reserved.
URL: http://www.beyondnootka.com
http://www.lindsayelms.ca