Bridge River Buttress is New 15-Pitch 5.7 Near Lillooet, B.C.

Bridge River Buttress is a new big granite alpine-ish rock climb above the Terzaghi Dam and Seton Lake outside of Lillooet, B.C.

Bridge River is a 120-kilometre long river that flows south-east from the Coast Mountains.

For a millennia, the river was the most important inland salmon-fishing site on the Fraser. The flow of the Bridge River was diverted into Seton Lake after the completion of the Bridge River Power Project, and the Terzaghi Dam, in 1961. The salmon fishery of the Bridge River was near-entirely destroyed by this diversion.

Fisheries biologist Danny O’Farrell moved to Lillooet a year ago to work with the Nxwísten First Nation to monitor the salmon population.

This past winter, O’Farrell found and climbed a number of new ice routes in the steep-walled canyons along the Bridge River.

This summer, after making the first ascent of The Goat, a new bolted 19-pitch route in Marble Canyon, O’Farrell teamed up with Gripped editor Brandon Pullan to explore the granite walls above Bridge River.

The two made the first ascent of Bridge River Buttress in eight hours car-to-car, a 15-pitch 5.7.

The granite has a layer of lichen on the low-angle slabs, has cracks and long run-outs. The route starts 20 minutes from the road and has a long and complicated descent.

The Lower Slabs and Upper Slabs are connected by a traverse that breaks through steep and rounded rock. The second pitch of the traverse follows a nice underclinging crack into a stem-corner on good features.

The Buttress at the top follows splitter cracks and big flakes for 300 metres to the upper forest. The wall is much bigger than it appears from the road and they followed about 1,000 metres of climbing.

O’Farrell and Pullan climbed ground-up and only left only one piton on the route, half-way up, and a cairn on top.

This was the first major rock climb above the Bridge River, but there are dozens of other granite walls that await climbers.

Bridge River Buttress

Approach: Park at the first pull-out passed the Terzaghi Dam. Hike up through trees right of the waterfall. Scramble a ridge and go right to a big tree below a crack.
Lower Slabs: Head up the crack, move left to a steep crack (5.7) and up to a cave. Continue up and right on treed ledge to base of slabs. Climb slabs in three pitches to below yellow-ish arete.
Terzaghi Tresverse: Move right and up to a traverse ledge aiming for base of steep rock out right. Belay under roof at bush. Continue along fun undercling and up chimney (5.7).
Upper Slabs: Stay left of dirty gully and follow fun flakes and cracks up and left of big roof. Find a piton in a face, only fixed gear on route.
Bush Walk: Lead up through the bush for a number of pitches.
Buttress: Climb the buttress, linking face and crack moves. Near top is a right-facing corner (5.7). Eventually the angle eases and you top out in forest.
Descent: Head up and right and follow path of least resistance back to the road. Eye it up before climbing.