Ups and Downs
on the Stikine River

In recent years it has become more common to see women involved in mountaineering activities than in years gone by. There are more females in leadership roles and more expeditions being undertaken by groups of women. There is also an increasing amount of grant money available for girl-powered expeditions.

One such grant is offered through the Alpine Club of Canada. The Jen Higgins Fund was started in 1997 in memory of Jennifer Higgins. She was an outdoor enthusiast who loved the mountains, but at age 22 she died in a car accident in Yoho. Her parents started the fund to help support young women taking on alpine-related pursuits.

Enter Jude Spancken, Mandy Kellner, Katy Holm and former Terracite Ann-Marie Conway. The four women were planning an expedition and they were good candidates for the Jen Higgins Fund. But the trip wasn't just about getting money to fund an expedition.

"Ann-Marie and I first planned the trip, and it was definitely motivated by the Jen Higgins fund because Ann-Marie knew her. We were trying to think of a trip that was worthy. I talked to tons of people and spent hours pouring over air photos of the Sawback range," says Katy Holm.

Holm put together a proposal for a trip that would see the team canoe the Lower Stikine River to access the seldom-visited Sawback Range, where they would hopefully spend over a week on various mountaineering ventures. The Jen Higgins fund came through with $1,800 to fund the expedition.

Ann-Marie Conway took on the duties of meal planning for the trip and arranging for two Clipper canoes from Western Canoeing and Kayaking. Ann-Marie made all the final preparations in Terrace while the other three women were spread out all over the world.

Ann-Marie was working as a public health nurse in Terrace. Katy was in Africa until July. Jude was in her homeland of Germany, while Mandy was studying Harlequin ducks in Labrador, Newfoundland.

By August 18th they all met in Terrace and headed north by car to Telegraph Creek, where their journey would begin.

On August 19, laden with enough food for a month, camping gear and pounds of heavy climbing gear, the four women packed everything into their two canoes and set out on the Stikine River.

From Telegraph Creek, the women paddled until the Stikine meets the Chutine River. Just downstream from the Chutine, the group made a camp and then hiked up to climb a peak called Missusjay. Climbing the peak was part of a two-day side trip done to check out routes into the Sawbacks and to see what they might want to climb.

"We primarily wanted to visit a range called the Sawback range because we'd heard this range had a whole bunch of unclimbed spires in it," said Katy Holm.

Eager to establish a camp in the mountains and start climbing, the women paddled another couple of days to Vekopf Creek, where they planned to make their way into the mountain range.

But Mother Nature had another thing coming: rain and lots of it. They were forced to wait out the weather for one day at Vekopf Creek until the worst of it had passed. They didn't know it then, but this was a sure sign of things to come.

Getting from the water to the rock proved to be a bit of a challenge. Anyone who has spent time in the woods around these parts knows only too well the headache involved in negotiating thorny, prickly Devil's Club, or getting bogged down in swampy terrain and battling resilient west coast foliage.

"It was definitely challenging to get in there," says Katy laughing. "It was the typical coastal bushwhacking: lots of Devil's Club. And our packs were just insanely heavy because we had brought gear for climbing and glacier travel and what-not so it took us a couple days to get in there."

But plants and weather weren't their only obstacles. The mountain range itself required hours of elevation gains and losses under the weight of their 80-pound backpacks.

"You had to gain 5,000 feet of elevation and then lose another couple and head back up again to an elevation of about 3,000 feet, which was where we based our other trips out of in the area," said Holm.

Finally, they reached their destination and set up camp in the area that sits just below Cuteye Peak. But with dark clouds looming overhead they knew they would have to take advantage of every bit of sun that came their way in the days to come. The rainy weather didn't look like it was going away, and that meant that technical climbing would be out of the question if the poor weather persisted.

The next day they woke up to rain. Eager to check out the area, Katy climbed a small spire on the ridge of a higher peak. Scrambling was still a safe option in spite of the rain. While on her trek, Katy was taken by the beauty of the area.

"It was completely beautiful. The mist was rolling in and out and it was just spectacular," she said.

Later that night, while the women slept, it snowed. But by the early afternoon the weather had broken and the sun was shining. Katy had spotted a spire that looked like it had a nice looking, long, technical route on it; a route she wanted to try if the sun would ever come out. That same afternoon Ann-Marie and Mandy climbed one of the peaks in the range and one other small sub-peak. Jude and Katy also got the chance to climb a small spire.

The whole reason the group had chosen the Sawbacks was for the number of unclimbed routes the area was rumoured to have. If the sunny weather held the women could potentially make several first ascents, and Katy was itching to try the route she had seen.

Despite all their planning and hard work to organize the trip, weather was one thing they had no control over. After spending four days exploring the Sawbacks the group had experienced their fair share of rotten weather.

Things went from rotten to worse on day five when the group woke up to snow. It was still August. They had hoped to be outside climbing in the beautiful end-of-summer sunlight but instead they were camped in a winter wonderland.

"We were all going really crazy," says Katy about being holed up in camp. "I was going nuts in the tent." So the group set out to tackle some of the scrambles and smaller peaks in the area. Then it was back to their tents for another cold, wet night.

Day six in the Sawbacks: more snow.

Day seven in the Sawbacks: the group decided to head out, the weather was too poor for technical climbing. The unclimbed peaks would have to remain just that.

Back on the water again they took their time getting down river. Wrangle, Alaska was six days hence. From there they would take a ferry to Prince Rupert.

The weather was relentless. The closer they got to the coast, the harder it rained. The team was often forced to camp and wait out the weather. It rained so much the group didn't see much of the mountains because the mist was so low.

When the rain wasn't coming down in steady sheets the group would paddle onwards. After hours of sitting in the canoes, paddling in the rain with the cold biting at their skin, they pulled into an area a short walk from some natural hot springs.

Katy starts to laugh as she tells the story of the tired group, hobbling, chilled to the bone, toward the hot springs in anticipation of the warmth to come.

"We would come out of our boats and we'd be rigid with cold," laughs Holm. They headed straight for an enclosed area in the springs.

"So there we were running straight-legged into the hot springs. And when we opened the door there were these Americans there and they said come on in! They gave us a beer and some food. We hadn't seen people in so long and they were so nice."

On day 22 of the climbing and paddling trip Katy, Jude, Ann-Marie and Mandy arrived in Wrangle. The weather had been nothing short of horrendous. They didn't get to climb the peaks they worked so hard to get to. But the adventure, the experience and the thrill of discovering a new place made the trip a success.

"Was it a worthy trip? Absolutely!" says Katy. "We all learned how to canoe!"

"I think its pretty fun to access the mountains by canoe. We saw tons of wildlife: bears and a moose with her calf. And to visit a new area is truly spectacular."

Ann-Marie Conway is a public health nurse from Terrace, BC, though she isn't living there right now. She was 25 at the time of the trip. She is an experienced rock climber, a very strong woman, and has hiked the Pacific Crest trail. She is also quite experienced in the area of ski mountaineering and she and Katy have done other trips together in the past, particularly in the Bugaboos.

Katy Holm is 25, originally from Victoria, now living in Banff, Alberta. She's an experienced rock climber and has spent a lot of time on rivers and the ocean kayaking. She has had a couple first descents on the Gordon River near Port Renfrew in her kayak. She is a biologist studying elk in Banff National Park.

Mandy Kelner is also a biologist. She has a lot of experience ski touring, mountaineering and some rock climbing experience. Katy says she is "a really solid person to have around" on a trip like this.

Jude Spancken was 22 or 23 while on this trip (Katy couldn't remember how old she is). She is originally from Germany and she met Katy when she was living in Canada for a while. She is "an incredible rock climber" says Katy. She also went to a photography school while she was here. She took a lot of the photos on the trip.

For more information about the Jen Higgins Fund visit the Alpine Club of Canada web site at: www.alpineclubofcanada.ca

(Sarah Zimmerman is a writer in Terrace.)

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