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Mount Slesse’s East Face Repeated and Freed

Jacob Cook and Tony McLane have made the first free ascent, and second ever, of the east face of Slesse Mountain (often called Mount Slesse) in B.C.’s Cascade Mountains.

The first ascent of the 1,000-metre wall was in the mid-1990s by Sean Easton and Dave Edgar, using aid and free techniques.

After Cook and McLane’s early September ascent, Cook wrote on Instagram, “We climbed the 1,000-metre wall in 11 hours via our new route Welcome to the Wack 5.11+.

A post shared by Jacob Cook (@jacobcookclimbs) on

“The climbing features some excellent granite, as well as some frankly terrifying runouts and loose sections.

“This wall has waited 21 years for a second ascent and was my big alpine goal for the summer. What an adventure.”Thanks Tony!

Visit Super Topo here for some history on the wall, such as this from Will Stanhope, “I went up there once with Andrew Boyd in 2009.

“Only got a few pitches up. Felt pretty undergunned with our slim rack and non-existent bivy set up. Might be better suited to a portaledge/wall-style free attempt. Awesome objective. Hopefully someone can muster the gusto to free it.”

In September 2014, Marc-Andre Leclerc soloed three routes on the east side of Slesse in just over 12 hours: Navigator Wall, the East Pillar and the Northeast Buttress. In 2015, he soloed the Northeast Buttress in winter, read about it here.

The east face of Mount Slesse

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