Geocache file generated by BrassCapCache BrassCapCache 2026-03-09T00:01:11.0000000-07:00 cache, geocache, groundspeak 2370.032 2005-08-19T02:00:00-06:00 BCP109 Mount Cory by outforthehunt, Benchmark (1/4) http://brasscap.albertabattlecache.ca/capbreakdown/BCP109.html Mount Cory Geocache Geocache|Benchmark Mount Cory outforthehunt outforthehunt Benchmark Virtual 1 4 Canada Alberta <a href='http://brasscap.albertabattlecache.ca/capbreakdown/BCP109.html'TARGET='resource window'>Past Finds for BCP109</a> <a href='https://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?ID=17395&LogType=2'TARGET='resource window'>Log Your Find</a> GSC BRASS CAP GROUTED IN ROCK. Elevation= 2370.032 Horz Datum NAD83 Latitude 51 11 01.41195 dms Longitude 115 41 32.31168 dms 2017-05-29T20:00:00 Found it hunthikers BCP109 Mount Cory (part 2) After some refreshment we got back at it, in to new ground. The climbing above the ledge was great to awesome. Better rock, less rubble and cleaner lines. Brendan was doing a great job of leading and I was generally content following as we paralleled the Cory crack. The steepest pitches generally had great holds and the climbing was fun. Then Brendan has a proposition.... the 5.8 corner or the 5.6 alternative. The corner is a above a big safe ledge, it's not long and Brendan is going to lead ;) then let's do the corner. Well, Brendan made the corner look reasonable and was soon safe above. My turn... yep, tougher than it looked but I made it work. My fingers and arms were tired by the time I got the moves done, but I was happy to have done it. I let out a "Yahoo!" and indicated that is better be a gold cap rather than a brass cap at the end of this rainbow. From here the route soon mellowed but was littered with rubble and loose blocks but it still demanded respect and took us a little longer that anticipated to scramble the lower angle ridge above. We started to encounter snow and soon switched to boots rather than the rock shoes with the goal in sight above us. The scramble along the ridge was fun on such a perfect day. We were soon at the top of this minor summit with the cap tower and cap to greet us. I wrote the key number on my hand, we took pictures, ate "summit" chocolate and sorted gear for the descent. We opted out of a trip to the true summit given the time and the amount of snow on the upper ridge. Ah, yes (FOUND) ! The descent was hard on the legs and toes, I'd been up this way years ago... wouldn't relish it again I have to say. We were both glad to finally hit the 1A, rescue the bikes from the trees and bike the 3+ km back to the car. We have enjoyed a fine day in the mountains and one to remember. I would what other adventures lie ahead with Brendan714! 2017-05-29T20:00:00 Write note hunthikers BCP109 Mount Cory (The story from the other end of the rope). A few weeks ago, near the end of the virtual cache version of BCP, Brendan714 talked to me about getting the Mt Cory cap. But with a twist. Not the "normal" scramble (read slog) route, but via a relatively new sport rock route on the west face of Mt Cory. Let's call it "Brass Capping the Hard Way" (inspired by Chris Bonnington's Book "Everest: The Hard Way"). The "Mountaineers route" as it is known is a multi pitch sport rock route near the infamous Cory Crack that is visible from the #1 TCH as you drive W of the Sunshine turning. My memories of the Cory crack go back 25 yrs and an attempt that did not get far with a friend who introduced me to the Rockies and a big part with why I am still in Calgary. Sadly, she is not longer with us and I have promises to her that I still need to keep... Now with a young set of geokids at home, I've not done a lot of rock climbing recently but it seemed like a good challenge so I agreed to Brendan's proposal. Attempt 1 was memorable for 3 things.... 1. a grouse on the approach (and descent) that required dramatic actions to convince him to leave us alone. Let's just say he was getting close to becoming dinner. 2. the blue sky morning that become the ugly rain 5 pitches up 3. the blue sky afternoon that reappeared after we bailed. A couple of weeks later, the forecast for Victoria Day was awesome and Brendan asked again and I said yes again so at 7:30am we were by the gates on the 1A sorting gear and waiting to for the road to open. At 8am the barriers opened and off we went to the empty Muleshoe parking spot and were quickly on our way back on familiar ground and at a brisk pace (that's what happens when the old guy is in front with the young guns behind). The book says 1 to 1.5 hrs to the base. We were there in 45 mins (clearly knowing the route and being chased by a grouse helps). We geared up and returned to the fray with pitch one being a good warm up. Now, rock route descriptions can be a lot like a geocaching puzzle "hmmm, I wonder what they mean by that...hmmm not that, oh, they meant that...." so we had magically missed pitch 2 on the first attempt but were more careful to find it this time and I certainly found it trickier that I had expected most likely because I underestimated it as I expected the toughest climbing to be much higher up on the route. This was a good reminder to never take anything for granted. The next couple of pitches each had familiar tricky moves and we made good steady progress. In what felt like no time, we were on the ledge where we crossed the Cory Crack from the climbers left to the right. This is where we got rained off last time but today was perfect, no grey wet wall to the W. 2017-05-27T20:00:00 Found it brendan714 BCP109 - Mount Cory (FOUND) via the <a href="http://banffrock.ca/pdfs/MountCorySouthPeak_MK_Feb2015.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mountaineer's Route on the West Face of Mount Cory</a>! A 500 meter 5.8 technical rock climb. Found on May 22, 2017. On May 11, hunthikers and I set out to find the Mount Cory cap via the west face. Unfortunately, we were rained out as described in these two logs <a href="https://coord.info/GLQYNHQH" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://coord.info/GLQYNHPJ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. Ever since that failed attempt I had wanted to return and conquer that beast. Victoria Day Monday had a fantastic forecast, so I sent an email over to hunthikers - he too was game for the adventure. It was time for take 2! <hr /> After waiting for the road gate, we stashed the bikes and arrived at the Muleshoe parking area shortly after 8:00. Luckily the parking area was empty meaning we'd have the route to ourselves. We packed up and set off. Hunthikers led the hike, and charged up with a steady pace. Thanks to our attempt from a few weeks ago, the routefinding for the hike was very straight forward. The real question was whether or not we'd see our buddy Mr. Grouse? We had hiked for about 30 minutes with no sign of the grouse... when all of a sudden, yep, there he is! Just like last time he harassed me up the hiking trail, pecking at my shoes and flying up at my pack. As we approached the base of the climb we started to wonder how we'd get rid of him this time. When all of a sudden... he stopped! "Go, go, go!" I said to hunthikers. We picked up the pace and the grouse just stood there watching. We got to the base of the climb and the grouse was gone! Whoo hoo! Perhaps the shot of bear spray in the face from last time put him off? Thanks to hunthiker's incredible pace, we reached the base of the climb in only 45 minutes! <hr /> We racked up and started the climb. Pitch 1 was a 30m 5.6 called The Gmaster. I felt a little rusty leading up the first pitch - I think the approach took some energy out of me. But about halfway up I got into the groove and quickly made my way up to the anchor tree. Hunthikers had no problems following up. We got lost last time at this part - but we came prepared this time. Hunthikers led up above the pitch 1 anchor and soon found the base of pitch 2. We didn't know what to expect from this pitch since we missed it last time! But, we did know that it was supposed to be a 25m long 5.7 pitch called Conradical. The climbing followed up beside a nice crack before traversing right onto easier ground. Hunthikers commented that it felt tougher than anything we'd done last time - I wasn't so sure I agreed. That was because I remembered pitch 3 being tricky. 50m long 5.7 called President's Choice. The crux moves were technical face climbing on small crimpy handholds. It was well protected though so it didn't feel too bad. The fact that it was such a long and pretty well sustained pitch meant that my arms were slightly rebellious at the anchor. Hunthikers cruised up behind, and I said "now you must have thought that was harder than pitch 2!". He said, "yeah, probably, but at least I knew what to expect!". That was true. Pitch 4, called The Republic of Laristan, was a much shorter 25 m 5.7. One technical (but again well protected) move on very small holds was the only challenge, followed by much easier climbing. Above pitch 4 was about 100 meters of 3rd and 4th class scrambling which we went on belay for. We stopped at a beautiful ledge for lunch. After regaining some energy, we continued up and got to the 4th class exposed traverse which was our stopping point last time. I led across the traverse and reached the anchor. I looked over to hunthikers and said, "What do you think about the weather this time?". "Looks perfect!" So, onward and upwards! <a href="https://coord.info/GLR2YPWF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Continued below...</a> 2017-05-27T20:00:00 Write note brendan714 BCP109 - Mount Cory <a href="https://coord.info/GLR2YPZF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Continued from above...</a> <hr /> Pitch 5, called KDK Memorial was a relatively simple 5.6 up 30 meters. One small groove gave the only sign of difficulty on the pitch. Above, pitch 6 called My Saving Grace went up about 60m at apparently 5.7. I thought it was the easiest pitch of the day, probably closer to 5.5. That led us in to the base of pitch 7, called Where Eagles Dare. Wow, what a beautiful pitch! The climbing was well sustained at 5.7 for the entire 30 meters on solid and amazingly fun rock. The route description says "Awesome with a capital A" - and for good reason! Hunthikers followed up and I had to tell him to stop so I could take some photos. The exposure and position was incredible. We swapped leads for the next pitch and hunthikers led up the 20m 5.4 called the Mountaineer's Pitch. Looking above it was decision time. We could take the easy way - a 5.6 alternate route called the French Connection, or the hard way - a 5.8 corner called the C-Zach Corner. I told hunthikers to make the choice as I was happy doing either. Hunthikers agreed to climb up the corner pitch if I led it. Talk about making a difficult route to the brass cap even harder! 🙂 The lead up the C-Zach Corner was definitely the most difficult climbing of the day, but it was really enjoyable. The crack climbing up the corner was unlike anything else on the route. I couldn't see hunthikers from my belay position, but after a couple minutes I heard a huge "Whoooooo!!!" from below. I saw hunthikers emerge from the corner with a grin. He followed up to the belay station and said "this brass cap better be made of gold!". I laughed! Above the most difficult climbing of the day was 3rd and 4th class terrain to the south summit and the cap. We climbed up 2x 60m pitches. The rock was very chossy. We reached a nice flat plateau and scrambled from there. The terrain was mostly 2nd class along the ridge - we passed through some lingering snow patches. We encountered one short 5m low-5th class step which we went on belay for. Following further, the terrain eased off again and we took off the climbing shoes, put on the hiking shoes, coiled the rope and stashed the climbing gear. The cap tower was in sight. One final 4th class step about 25 meters from the cap was the final difficulty. Hunthikers and I scrambled up and together we reached the south summit and the brass cap tower, 6.5 hours from the car. Sweet success! We exchanged high fives and enjoyed the 360 degree views. At least the cap was an easy find after a long and challenging ascent. After some photos with the cap tower we decided it was time to make the long descent home. We followed the trail as best we could down the usual scramble route. Lots of loose scree made for a not very enjoyable descent. But eventually we descended the 1000m of elevation down to the road. We unlocked the bikes and rode 3.5 km back to the car. The drive home was awful and took over 2 hours due to the long weekend traffic. I finally got home, showered, ate, then sat down at my laptop. I fired up the old cap page to discover that the page was archived and locked during the day. <hr /> So I'm very grateful that van der Decken put the time and effort into making this page. I love sharing my brass cap stories and reading everyone else's, and hopefully this page can be the place we can share our capping stories for years to come. Our trip to the Cory Cap ended up being 11.5 km in length with 1,000 m of gain. We had somewhere around 14-15 total pitches of climbing up to 5.8 to reach this cap - 8 h 45 min car-to-car. Definitely one of my most memorable cap finds ever. Thanks to OFTH for inspiring this trip, van der Decken for the shiny new page and hunthikers for being an awesome climbing partner & sharing in the unforgettable adventure! 2017-05-11T20:00:00 Write note brendan714 BCP 109 - Mount Cory I've had this trip in mind for months. A technical rock climb up the west face of Mount Cory to reach the brass cap on top. The route is called the <a href="http://banffrock.ca/pdfs/MountCorySouthPeak_MK_Feb2015.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mountaineer's Route</a> - a 500 meter technical rock climb graded at 5.7/5.8. The climbing is well within my skillset, and the route offers good protection in case of a fall. I figured it would be a perfect summer trip! But then the new logging rules started coming into effect... rats! I would never be able to log a find via this awesome route on the Cory Cap! The weather just hadn't been good enough lately to organize an attempt. The extension to May 15 opened up a few more days... Wednesday and Thursday this week especially looked good. I decided it would make the perfect final brass cap trip! I threw the idea past hunthikers and he was game to give it a try. His only comment was that he hadn't climbed at that grade in quite some time. I laughed inside - hunthikers is in way better shape than me and has leaps and bounds more climbing experience! I knew he wouldn't struggle at all. We agreed that the trip sounded like an excellent adventure and the date was set for Thursday. (Funny side note about the partnership of brendan714 & hunthikers.... the very first time we met was for a trip up Mount Temple for Canada's highest geocache (a success), our first ski tour trip together was a 3 day traverse over the glaciated Wapta icefield (a success), and now our first rock climbing trip together was set to be a 500 meter long multipitch climb (surely to be a success?)! I guess you can say we jump right off the deep end with our adventures!!) <hr /> The forecast for Thursday was decent, and the plan was made. The chance of rain was only 20% - which is great! We arrived at the gate on the Bow Valley Parkway at about 7:50 - just before the scheduled 8:00 gate opening. Once the gate opened we stashed the bikes at the base of the S ridge (regular scramble route) on Mount Cory. The goal was to hopefully climb up the west face and have an easy descent down the south ridge! We got to the Muleshoe parking area, readied our packs and were off. The approach trail was fantastic! The hardest part was a steep slog up an open slope. But the steep slope soon leveled off and we continued following up at a more moderate grade. <hr /> And then we met a grouse. Aha! What a treat! Wildlife! The grouse got nice and close and I managed to get a good photo. Very awesome - now scram Mr. Grouse. He was making noises at us and trying to peck our shoes. 100 m later, the grouse was still following. 300 m later, the grouse was still following...! After 500 meters we were at the base of the climb and the grouse was STILL following us!! Stick pokes, kicks, rocks and whistle blowing didn't get it to go away. It got to the point where this stupid grouse was actually going to impact our safety. We needed to get on this climb for timing reasons and having a belayer being pecked at was not a great thought! GO AWAY GROUSE! Nothing was working. So I took out some bear spray and shot the grouse right in the face. After a little flinching, the grouse came back for more punishment. ARE YOU SERIOUS?! It was a little shaken up so I gave it a good shove off a ledge and it FINALLY flew away. That was the most absurd wildlife experience I've ever had. <hr /> Finally time to start climbing. The first pitch is called "The Gmaster" and was a 30 m climb up a loose chimney feature. I actually thought the looseness made it probably the hardest pitch of the day, even though the climbing moves weren't too difficult. Hunthikers followed up without any troubles. At the top, we were supposed to scramble on easy ground to the next pitch. Hunthikers started up, and the terrain soon got much more difficult that I was expecting. Hmm... is something wrong? Continued below...