BINOCULAR PEAK 2760m 9055′
Binocular Peak is a horn-shaped summit (PC: Wm. Fix), 1.6 kilometres east of Spyglass Mountain.
1. Southeast Ridge. West From the low pass (Spyglass, Route 1), climb a rib (south ridge) and stay mostly on the west side. (A hidden chimney also gives access from the bergschrund to the southeast ridge. The south ridge is undercut on both sides. PC: Wm. Fix) The route follows a ledge system with Class 5 moves over many large mantelling blocks to the west ridge just below the summit. As of 1995, the south glacier is now melted away.
Descent was by the same route. (III,5.2,s). WF, July 30, 1972.
2. East Ridge. Approach as for Spyglass, Route 1 and cross the bergschrund between the southeast glacier and the southeast face, at a low point below obvious overhangs in the centre of the face. Ascend north- east over blocks to a sharp notch in the east ridge, two rope lengths including two strenuous 20 meter Class 5.6
Continue up the east ridge for one rope length, and traverse onto the loose, dangerous north face (big, stacked loose blocks) for two rope lengths. Ascend a 20 meter chimney to the summit. Nuts and large chocks were used.
Descent was by Route 1. Ice, Glacier (III,5.6,s).
JL,JP, 30/7/1972.
SPYGLASS MOUNTAIN 2830m 9285′
Spyglass is 3.6 kilometres southeast of Tenderfoot Mountain and 4 km northwest of the lower fork of Poplar Creek. It is a pile of dirt.
1. Southeast Ridge. Take the logging road up Poplar Creek (over- grown, 2015), 2.4 km (1.5 miles) beyond the fork in the road. Bushwhack up a burnt ridge toward a pocket glacier 2.4 km east of Spyglass, and camp in a beautiful setting.
Use a low pass on the southwest side of the pocket glacier, traverse the basin and climb a short, steep rotten granite wall (Class 5.2) below the summit. The rotten granite wall can be avoided by slanting ledges in a gully to the left (Class 4. (III,4,s).
FRA JB,JB,GC,ND,GK,TT, 30/7/1972.
An approach is to start from camp on the main Poplar Creek road (overgrown, 2015) west of the first south fork, just beyond the 18km sign. Climb a rock slide contacting the road at 791-769. Ascend a gully and then steep slabs (slippery when wet). Above the slabs move left to a ridge (flagging tape) and follow it to where the slope eases. No bushwhacking. . Route finding is tricky on descent, at the point where the slope eases.
2. Northwest Ridge. Descended and ascended in 1995 en route to Magnifier Mountain (see). Class 3 with some snow.
BINOCULAR PEAK 2760m 9055′
Binocular Peak is a horn-shaped summit (PC: Wm. Fix), 1.6 kilometres east of Spyglass Mountain.
1. Southeast Ridge. West From the low pass (Spyglass, Route 1), climb a rib (south ridge) and stay mostly on the west side. (A hidden chimney also gives access from the bergschrund to the southeast ridge. The south ridge is undercut on both sides. PC: Wm. Fix) The route follows a ledge system with Class 5 moves over many large mantelling blocks to the west ridge just below the summit. As of 1995, the south glacier is now melted away.
Descent was by the same route. (III,5.2,s).
FA WF, 30/7/1972.
2. East Ridge. Approach as for Spyglass, Route 1 and cross the bergschrund between the southeast glacier and the southeast face, at a low point below obvious overhangs in the centre of the face. Ascend north- east over blocks to a sharp notch in the east ridge, two rope lengths including two strenuous 20 meter Class 5.6
Continue up the east ridge for one rope length, and traverse onto the loose, dangerous north face (big, stacked loose blocks) for two rope lengths. Ascend a 20 meter chimney to the summit. Nuts and large chocks were used.
Descent was by Route 1. Ice, Glacier (III,5.6,s).
JL,JP, 30/7/1972.
SPYGLASS & MAGNIFER
Here’s an account of more recent Poplar Creek adventures. Tuesday evening, August 23rd, Peter Tchir, Fred Thiessen, and I drove up the Poplar Creek road and car camped on the main road west of the first south fork, just beyond the km. 18 sign. Wednesday we climbed Spyglass Mt. and an unnamed peak to the west. Details follow.
First, details on the road. It’s still good 2WD except for a short boggy stretch where there’s some cable logging going on at km. 16. Fred agreed that the road will definitely slough into the creek along that km. 5-9 stretch if not maintained. He said the road could never be built under today’s Forest Practices Code since the slope it’s cut through is too unstable.
Now for the park. About km. 16 on the road is the eastern boundary of the new White Grizzly Park. I understand that the road is to be de-activated, but that the portion up to the park boundary may be maintained for another year since there will be silvicultural work next spring. In any event, once the road goes in its lower stretches it will not be repaired for maybe a decade, at which time the loggers will be allowed to do some more cutting along the portion not in the park. Parks BC has little inclination and no money to maintain access to Poplar Creek. They have this year been handed huge new areas of park throughout the province without any increase in staff or funding.
And finally the climb. We were up at 5:00 and away at 6:00 under clear skies. The weather soon deteriorated, and we were under threatening weather until mid-afternoon clearing. Fortunately, we were never rained on. The sub-alpine approach to Spyglass is probably the most difficult part of the trip. One makes a very steep climb up gullies and lightly-forested ridges from the road at 4,200′ to about 7,000′ where the slope eases off. Route-finding can be tricky on descent.
A rock slide comes down to the road at about 791-769 (all references to Poplar Creek 82K/6 1:50,000), and we followed that up into a gully that became increasingly steep. We ascended steep slabs that would make for unpleasant down climbing if wet. Above the slabs we moved L. onto a ridge (here we saw flagging tape) and followed it to the point at 788-783 where the slope eases, and the terrain becomes open grassy slopes. We had no bushwhacking on this approach.
Higher up, the ridge was made up of easy, broken rock. At one point we traversed along the W. side of the ridge on steep heather to avoid up-and-downs on the ridge. We climbed up beyond two horn-like towers without difficulty and looked down on the remnant glacier at 785-796. There is a rock rib NE of it as shown on the map (maybe the 1972 party followed this to the summit). Most of the glacier E. of that seems to be gone, ie. S. of Binocular Peak. As we climbed, I felt that Binocular seemed to be awfully high above us for a peak that was listed at 2610 m. A look at the map showed us that it was at the 9,000′ contour line, so it should probably be listed in your revisions at 2750 m.
Above 8,500′ we clambered over large granitic boulders. This S. ridge seems to be a contact zone between granitic and metamorphic rock. At a point where the ridge steepened, we turned the difficulty easily by ascending a gully to the left. Slanting ledges on the right-hand side of the gully led us without difficulty back to the ridge. On the way up, I rated this 30′ bit class 3, but after down climbing it, I would say class 4. Now all that remained was to clamber up easy, broken stuff over a false summit to the top. We reached the top at 10:30 (4.5 hrs. from the road), but I’ll concede that Fred did have the jets to the max all the way up.
We found a dilapidated cairn and no record. After rebuilding the cairn and putting in a record (including a note on the Spokane Mountaineers’ first ascent), we lounged around for an hour and 15 minutes. We had good views along the ridge to the NW toward Tenderfoot and decided to have a go at the next peak along the ridge.
We descended the NW ridge of Spyglass (easy broken rock again, and a bit of snow), continued along the ridge, and ascended easy scree to the rock summit in 25 min. from Spyglass. There was no cairn, so we built one and put in a record. For the record, it’s Magnifier Mtn., 9,150′, co-ordinates 777-807.
Back on Spyglass, we had a quick snack and began our descent at 1:20.
The only difficulty came at about 7,200′ near that 788-783 point where the slope changes. We started heading down a ridge farther to the W. but soon discovered our mistake and were able to traverse over to our original route. We reached the truck at 4:00 pm, making for a 2hr. 40 min. descent and a 10-hour day.
There remain some intriguing questions about this trip. Along our route we saw quite new flagging tape in strategic locations, some of it above treeline. We remembered some flagging near the point where we went astray on the descent, so I would say the person who placed it had a good sense of route-finding problems. Of course we wondered if the people who flagged the route made it to the summit.
Secondly, although my colleagues are sure the 1972 party came up a different way, I can’t help but wonder if their route intersected ours higher up, and that the gully we went up circumvented the 5.2 rotten wall they ascended. Although I’d call our route the S. ridge, it certainly could be seen as the SE ridge higher up. Anyway, we will probably never know, and it doesn’t really matter since we’re talking about a remote peak climbed once every 10 or 20 years.
Summary
SPYGLASS MTN. 2850 m S ridge (III,4) From km 18 on the Poplar Creek road, start up an obvious rock slide which gives way to steep gullies. Bear slightly L onto a ridge which is followed to the summit. Where the ridge steepens a few hundred feet below the top, move left & ascend a gulley that rejoins the ridge. 4.5 to 5 hrs. up.
“MAGNIFIER MTN.” 2790 m SE slopes (I,3) An easy 25 min. trip from Spyglass. No rope required.
Although the rope was not used on this outing, parties might want to take one. In wet conditions climbers might choose to rappell the slabby gullies below treeline. We encountered very little snow and no ice axe was needed at this time of year.
Last go-round for easy access to Poplar Creek? Maybe not. Della Peterson of the Ministry of Forests says that the Poplar Creek road up to the park boundary near km. 17 will be maintained for the rest of this century. Keep in mind that most of the area that the road gives access to is within the new White Grizzly park. Kirk Shave of BC Parks says that his ministry is still in the process of determining policies on access and on activities that will be allowed within the new park.
