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2009
Mugs Stump Award Winners:
Martinello/Kay/Sinnes—Mount
Bute, BC, Canada
 Mt.Bute
located at the heart of Bute Inlet on the central coast
of B.C is a peak to been seen as it West face rises from
the forest floor with such amazing beauty. When you arrive
at the mouth of the Homathko River and look up at peak
you get this awe of inspiration with the surroundings and
the remoteness of where you are and the adventure that
lies ahead.
It
has been a long time dream for me but especially for Jason.
He had shown me a picture about 10 years ago of this peak
and we have wanted to climb this peak every since. Thanks
to the Mugs Stump award and the Mountain Equipment Co-op
for there help in funding this trip and made it all happened
this July.
Our
hearts were set on completing the whole west face from
the lower buttress to the summit. Bruce Kay joined our
team and we made it happen. We hit a perfect high pressure
window which look like it would last for a week and we
made the call to fly in there a.s.a.p. We took a flight
from Squamish which was an amazing journey flying over
the Coast Range to then land down on the little airstrip
or road as you would call it in the Bute Inlet. Just our
luck we were able to get a bump that evening from a Heli
pilot whom was a friend of Jason’s to land us right beneath the route. It was
great because we would be saving a lot of time and energy
and would be climbing first thing the next morning. Me and
Jason had been to Bute a couple year prior but got rain out
and we where happy not to half to do the bushwhack in, we’d
save that for the way out! That night was beautiful sleeping
underneath the face looking for the line we would hope to
go on. Enjoying the remoteness and incredible beauty over
where we were.
Early
morning coffee’s, some breakfast and away we
went with day back’s, a small stove to melt water and
some food to hopefully keep our energy up to succeed. All
of us were hoping to get up the lower wall in one day it
look like it would be about 20 to 25 pitches.
 The
lower first 8 pitches was slab climbing up to 5’9
with minimal gear but went smoothly and took us up into the
corner which we had hope to reach. The next pitch was a beauty
and I really enjoyed the lead, a double featured crack and
5’10 climbing. We had some nice climbing thus far and
a little greenery to pull through with some more great adventure
climbing. Pitch after pitch we worked our way up the wall
and the night had arrived and our water had run out. We were
hoping for some snow off one of the ledges but no luck. Darkness
came so we bunker down two of us on one slopping ledge and
Jason would camp above us about 15 meters on another small
ledge. Bruce and I made the best of what we had and curled
up in two little spots hovered over the wall. We had gone
about 20 some pitches but it still look like we had a way’s
to go before we would reach the top of the buttress and tower.
The night was a restless one and we were happy to see morning
light, we all hoped to find water soon and find a way through
the section where we had stopped. Jason opened the morning
up with a great lead, an airy traverse which opens up the
gateway of passage to get us into the upper last pitches.
A couple more leads and Bruce broke out the magic words he
had found snow, which meant water for our thirsty throats
and for our dyhatrated meal of the day. Jason and I quickly
made our way to the ledge where Bruce was and got down to
drinking water chilling and getting food into the system.
After a couple hours of recharging, enjoying the warmth of
the sun and the great views, we were on our way. 30 pitches
later, a couple more hours of climbing and we were there
standing on top of the first lower buttress and tower. The
stoke was on and smiles were glowing on us happy campers.
We stood on top of the tower and gave a cheers and laughed,
we were up the first half and it look like it was just going
to get even better. Our eyes gazed up the upper buttress
in mystery of where the route would take us. We all thought
it was going to be tough getting through the first few pitches.
I guess will find out first thing in the morning.
 Our second bivy was a great one and we all got a good sleep,
refuelled the system and had an incredible evening of majestic
sunset views over of Bute inlet. A great appreciation of
where we were and how spectacular this little part of the
world was, wow.
The third morning was another blue bird beauty we decided
to go for it today and try to reach the summit go light as
possible and it worked well. The first few pitches where
exciting ones and everyone did there part to get us through
the amazing corners, face climbing, friction and run outs
to keep it all exciting. The climbing just kept getting better
and our movement up the wall was going great. We where all
happy on our leads and proud of each other, it just kept
our groove going strong. What a place and to be here with
two great partners, our souls were glowing and so was the
sky as we reach the summit at 8:30p.m that night. Eyes and
smiles where spread wide we had done it, a dream come true.
High fives and hugs went round, it was such a treat for all
of us to look out to Waddington Range and the inlets that
flow into these magnificent mountains knowing that we had
reached our goal, yyyyyyeehhhhhh...
After
our enjoyable time on the summit we knew we needed to get
down a few pitches to where we stashed our packs and a
nice ledge to spend the night. We rapped down into the
dark and spent a chilly night up on the wall in company
of a wall rat, how he got there who knows but he did add
to the adventure, trying to eat Bruce’s climbing
shoe for dinner. The night went by and morning came, another
10 or 15 pitches and we would be back to the rest of our
gear. By early afternoon we had finished the raps down
to where we would then scramble down and around to the
lower Buttress.
Our walk down to our base camp under the lower wall was
a nice one looking down into the valley, wild flowers, waterfalls
and the fresh mountain air guided our way and before we knew
it we where back at camp and cracking beers and giving cheers
to our accomplishment. It was a full venue of adventure and
we where all quite content we talked, shared and laughed
about the journey we had. Looking forward to when we could
do it again.
Morning came we slowly packed up and made the journey back
down to the Homathko camp where we had been dropped off by
the plane from Squamish. The trek back had some good excitement
and crashes working our way down the valley, river crossing,
alder bashing and pushing our way through the devils club.
It was all so worth it and 5 hours later we were at the road,
getting a pick up from Chuck and Sharron.
 I want to speak about Chuck and Sharron because they are
two amazing people and they give me inspiration for what
they do and how they go about living. There home is in Bute
Inlet they run a camp that was once a logging camp and now
host a range of people coming in for a range of different
activity, from fishing to sight seeing many adventures to
be had. There home is beautiful and there hospitality towards
us was great and with that Jason, Bruce and I would like
to give a special thanks.
With our journey now complete we would like to thank everyone
so much for amazing support and believing in us with out
you the trip would never be the same.
The
route we named The School of Rock it went at 5’11
A1 (50 pitches). And we named the tower Mt. SteffAnnie after
our wives for their patience and ongoing support.
Thanks
to the Mugs Stump Award, Patagonia, M.E.C and everyone
that made this trip happen.
Cheers and smiles to you all.
Jimmy Martinello, Bruce Kay , Jason Sinnes
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