[MCR] Murchison towers revisited

Subject: [MCR] Murchison towers revisited
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 22:04:11 -0600
Just drying out my gear after a 3 days trip into Bison ck to try to climb a couple of the Murchison towers with a friend and client who shares a sense of exploration. i did a short recon earlier this summer to try and figure out how the routes go, and really came to the realization Feuz and his gang were determined! Most of the rock in the area is poor quality limestone, lots of choss!

plagued and mostly tent bound we did climb an unnamed 9600" peak west of the SE tower on Aug 11.( Turned out quite a snow storm) Fairly straightforward scramble via the S ridge. From the col on the SE side of the upper drainage we dropped a bit and traversed a scree slope to gain the south ridge. (The attached picture was taken on a solo recon day in Mid july) Morning of Aug 12 we tried to climb the south gully on Feuz tower. This gully climbs 3000' to a col with a steeper section in the upper part. We got to about 9300ft and turned around due to new snow and weather. In the route description it says Feuz descended easily down this from the summit to the road in 2 hours! Wow!... Mostly east scrambling up the creek. Much of this is avoided on the descent by adjacent scree slope. You can access the gully from a camp high in the valley by traversing in from around 7400'. Contour around the grassy meadow look for goat tracks.
The SE tower can be done in a long day from the road.
The routes marked on the photo are a "guestimate" at best. Not much beta on any of these climbs around....
Bison Creek is the best access for Guest, Feuz, SE, Bison and Unnamed towers.
Totem Creek is best for Cromwell, Englehard, Hall and Totem Towers.
I'll be back.
Peter Amann



Peter Amann
Mountain Guiding
Box 1495, Jasper AB, T0E 1E0
780 852 3237
www.incentre.net/pamann
pamann@xxxxxxxxxxxx 

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