Sugar Mummy (North Face)

This route is a serious undertaking and one should try to climb it in ideal conditions. Best times to climb would be after a Pineapple Express, followed by freezing levels dropping to valley bottom. Expect large runouts, marginal gear through the cruxes, and non-ACMG certified belays.

This is a large face and keeps going much longer than you would think. The first ascentionists spent 9 hours on route.

Pitch 1 – Climb steep snow to a short AI2 step. Setup a belay below the next steep section wherever you can find good enough ice. 60m.

Pitch 2 – Climb the near-vertical step for about 15m until the angle eases off. Belay at the next flow of ice. Tough to grade this one, but generally the difficulties were consistent with AI4- R. Protection was poor in the steep part, as it consisted mainly of 85 degree snow with a crusty/eggshell outer layer. 60m

Pitch 3 – Traverse 5m to the left and head up the steep snow slope. The snow steepened to 70 degrees in spots and protection consisted of slinging thin trees. Belay below the next steep ice step. 40m.

Pitch 4 – This is the crux of the route. From the belay, there are two options: a less steep snow/neve slope interspersed with ice to the left, and a steeper section to the right that looked like good alpine ice. The left option ended up being thin veneers of ice over rock. The right option is what was climbed, which ended up being more vertical snice as opposed to alpine ice. Again, tough to grade due to the condition of the climbing medium, but difficulties were generally in line with AI4 R. The crux section is about 20m, and then it eases off to bomber neve. Stretch the rope out fully in order to reach some decent ice on the left. 60m.

Pitch 5 – The easiest pitch on the route. 60m of bomber neve on a 45 degree slope. Tree belay. 60m.

Pitch 6 – To the left of our belay it looked like it might have either been bomber neve or a shitty runout snice pitch. So we avoided going left and instead went straight up through steep 70 degree snow and trees. Belay at a tree below the attractive looking ice (ACTUAL ice) flow. Once at this belay, we noticed it actually would have been bomber neve if we went left from the previous belay. So future parties should definitely go left for this pitch. 45m.

Pitch 7 – Climb 30m of bomber alpine ice, AI3+. Gear was not available for the first 10m, but after that you could get a few good screws in. As the angle eases off, climb until the end of your rope and build an ice anchor. 60m.

Pitch 8 – Another pitch of beautiful alpine ice. AI2, then easing off to 50 degree neve. Stretch out the rope and belay off a tree. 60m.

Pitch 9 – At this point it was dark, and we couldn’t really tell where the best way to go was. Straight up looked like it could either have been another rowdy vertical snow pitch or an easy snow romp. We didn’t want to risk it, so we climbed off to the right through the trees up steep snow. A full pitch will bring you to a point where the terrain eases off to less than 30 degrees. Belay off a tree. 60m.

You can now un-rope and hike uphill to the ridge line. Follow the ridge back towards your bootpack and slog it out to the Grouse Mountain lodge for a well deserved burger and beer. Take the gondola down.

Relevant links:

https://northshorealpinism.wordpress.com/2020/02/22/fwa-north-face-of-goat-mountain/

Approach as for Hanes Valley from Grouse Mountain. You will want to start up the Grouse Grind, as waiting to take the gondola up will not leave you enough time to finish the route and return (unless you plan on bivying). Drop down in to Hanes Valley until the large face comes in to view on skier's right. The lines follows weaknesses on the right side of the face. The route should be obvious when looking at the topo.

-full rack of ice screws, short to long
-pickets if you desire