In July 2012, Dylan Johnson and I made a brief stop at Rogers Pass to climb the classic Northwest Arête of Mt. Sir Donald (3,284m). Although this is a relatively easy route, I was blown away by the quality climbing on this impressive peak, and knew I’d be climbing in the area again soon. Thus, when I saw David P. Jones’ new guidebook to Rogers Pass, I did not hesitate to buy it. The cover of is a photo of Mt. Sir Donald’s north face, and it showed a very obvious unclimbed gash that looked like a good candidate for a mixed climb. Dylan and I briefly planned to try the line in the spring of 2013, but with uncertain weather and conditions we decided not to gamble on the long drive and ended up rock climbing in Squamish.

In mid-June, my girlfriend Sarah Hart and I drove to the interior of BC. Our “Plan A” was the unclimbed gash on Sir Donald. On June 17 we hiked up the Asulkan Brook Valley to a bivy at the Uto–Sir Donald Col, first on mostly dry ground, and then nearly entirely on snow. On June 18 we woke up very early and left our bivy around 2:30 a.m., downclimbed to the Uto Glacier, and traversed to the base of our line. Close to the solstice, there had been only about four hours of darkness and the snow wasn’t nearly as refrozen as I had hoped, but it was just barely enough.

We climbed the route relatively quickly, mostly because we were concerned that in the afternoon there might be ice or rock fall on the face. For the first half the route climbs a straightforward couloir up the center-left side of the north face. It then goes partway up an obvious right-angling ramp/gash, before branching left onto a rocky rib near the end (mostly mixed), and finally joining the northeast buttress for 75m to the summit.

I estimate we simulclimbed about three-quarters of the route, and pitched out the rest. We climbed one distinct and difficult crux pitch (M5 R). From below, this crux looked like a very easy step of AI3, but it turned out to be much more difficult. With foreknowledge, we could have avoided this pitch via easier terrain further to the left. Most of the route contained 60° ice and névé, with an occasional step of 70-85° ice and plenty of easy mixed climbing on good quartzite (up to M4).

We had no set plan for the descent, so after summiting we chose to head down the south ridge, which felt like the right choice in wintery conditions. It was past 6 p.m. when we finally took off our harnesses in the basin below Sir Donald’s west face. Sarah carried our climbing gear down to the dry trail while I hoofed back up to the Uto–Sir Donald col to retrieve our bivy gear, and then we hiked out to the car, yelling obscenities into the pristine, deserted valley to let the bears know that we were not to be messed with.

We named our route Sashimi Don (900m, M5 R 60-85°) after my favorite dish at Squamish’s Kozo Cafe. While it will never be as popular as the ultra-classic, highly recommended Northwest Arête, it is a logical route up a grand north face. Conditions were neither amazing nor terrible for us, and I suspect that finding good conditions will always be the trickiest aspect of repeating it.

Colin Haley, USA