.Vasiliki Ridge - July 2002
Rumors of the fine climbing on Juno Tower placed the
classic Clean Break high on my list of climbs to experience. When Robert
claimed that there was a face nearby awaiting a first ascent, that settled
it. We piled into the approach machine and were shortly at the Silverstar
creek trailhead. . After a wrong turn and some steep 'shwacking through
slide alder, we got on the right approach and were soon rewarded with views of
Juno Tower . The notch out of the lower part of the ridge is the
"Clean Break" for which the ridge route is named .
We dropped off our gear directly below Bacchus tower to the north of Juno and looked up to scope a new route that Rob had been thinking about. The talus was quite loose here and the face was very clean looking so we suspected a recent rock fall. The couloir below the face was extremely loose and had occasional rock fall so we climbed up cliff bands on the right side to approach the clean part of the face. Intermittent 5th class segments (0 & 00) in the picture called for belays . From a cleaver to the right of the face, we investigated a direct line up a sharp crack through a loose looking roof (shown in red on the figure). We abandoned this and climbed the cleaver then transitioned onto the face higher up. From here the climb traversed the face to beneath a hand crack leading to a roof.
Compound
Fracture III 5.10-, E. Face Bacchus Tower
FA August 17, 2002, Robert Meshew & Mark Pratt
Bypass snow couloir on rh side via short 5th class rock sections intermixed with several hundred ft of 3rd class continuing up loose scree on rock to level with lower section of broken face (A promising direct line from ledge through crack system and small roof is accessible here). Scramble up cleaver in rh gully transitioning left back to face about 100’ up via “arrowhead”. From top of cleaver, traverse left and up to face (p1). Climb and stem chimney to reach ledge and traverse left to beneath hand crack and roof (p2) Ascend crack through roof (5.10-) onto upper slabs (p3). Climb toward and on ridge, find summit (mid 5th). Not highly recommended but has a couple of quality pitches.
Here is Mark approaching belay #1 on the face 
.
After a pitch that rose and traversed the face, we headed straight up a crack
system through a small roof for pitch 3 
.
A few pitches on the unshattered face and ridge 
brought us to the summit 
.
There we had views of Juno tower 
.
On the descent we got another picture of Bacchus in profile 
.
The following day we headed for Clean Break. A short snow patch was dispensed with and we traversed to below the intimidating first pitch. The difficulties begin immediately with a sustained pitch of crack
followed by a few balancey friction moves on pitch two 
.
We had a little route finding worries on the next section but we did find a pin
somewhere out there
.
The camera was put a way for a while (including the crux pitch) but brought out for a tricky move up
an arete out of a belay. 
.
Higher on the route we made good time by simulclimbing the remainder 
.
The summit came pretty quickly after that and we got the great views 
toward
the Washington Pass group 
and back down Silver Star Creek 
.
Mark exhibits the secret of the painless ascent - Coffee Nips!! 
.
Rob grins anticipating 
a
pleasant scramble back to camp to pack up and an uneventful hike out to the car.
pictures © r. meshew
last modified by mrp on 030619
