Distance

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Elevation

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Time

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My geologist brother Russ Prior and I (J Bruce Prior) attempted the class 5 NNE ridge of Gabbro Mountain on 1978-07-17, but slick rainy conditions made us decide not to do the single technical pitch. We camped down on the alder-choked logging road and then the next day 1978-07-18 Russ and I climbed the SW ridge, skirting the north side of Talus Lake and following a zig-zag route up the SW ridge, which had some snow patches, but didn't require roped techniques. Hoping for a first ascent, we found a cairn on the summit. Unless sasquatches build cairns, ours was not the first human ascent. The Hanging Creek valley is a classic example of the devastation by clear-cut logging on steep slopes. The result is not pretty. After the climb, I proposed the names, Gabbro Mountain, Hanging Creek (because the Hanging Creek valley is textbook example of a glacially-carved hanging valley), Talus Lake and Gabbro Lake, all of which eventually appeared on the 1:50 000 Port Coquitlam quadrangle. The obvious contact between gabbro and the adjoining granitic rock on the NNE ridge was misplaced on the geological map which we used in 1978.

Route name

SW Ridge

Obstacles

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Key gear

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