Illusions Traverse

June 7-8th, 2024

Guardian Peak, Disillusion Peak, Illusions North and South Peak.

I have been curious about the Illusions for years now, they are beautiful granite summits but get far less love than their southerly neighbours Nesakwatch Spires and Mount Rexford. We had initially intended to do a full link up for the “Grand Ensawkwatch Enchainment,” but we underestimated the route and pulled the plug after the col between Lynchpin Hill and North Nesakwatch Spire. We had both already climbed the that section of the enchainment previously and the descent down the east side of Rexford looked formidable with all the snow and active avalanche conditions, so we opted for the safe but long grind of circumnavigating the mountains via FSR to get back to our car.

Approach

Luckily Centre Creek FSR was in fantastic shape, we were expecting a washout that someone else had reported earlier in the year, but it had all been cleared, and the water bars were less deep than last season. Right now you should be able to get a moderate clearance AWD up the road. After parking we started off bushwhacking into the trees from Centre Creek FSR, and then fording Centre Creek. After this we bushwhacked mostly fall line towards Guardian Peak. At first the bushwhacking was dense young forest, but eventually it opened up into a gorgeous old growth forest that had overgrown an old talus field, travel was much easier through here. After we had bushwhacked most of the way up, we stumbled across a flagged but very faint trail, may be worthwhile for other parties to try and find the start of this trail for easier travel. Soon we arrived at the base of Guardian Peak, here there was a Cairn and a moderate looking route, but we ended up deciding to traverse climbers left around the base for another way. Soon the forest opened up to spectacular views of the basin.

Guardian Peak

We traversed climbers left around the bottom of the slabs towards the treed ledge that splits the face. We bypassed some beautiful crack lines, but they looked a bit too sustained for our lonely 8mm half rope and single rack. Traversing the base is mostly easy hiking and scrambling, but there was one notable exposed mid 5th slab move between patches of forest. There is one aluminum bolt after this move. Continuing to traverse left the slabs looked quite wet, so we opted to friction climb straight up the slabs. I was grateful to have brought proper climbing shoes for this. Once we gained the treed ledge we traverse right for a bit before continuing up some slabs and corners to the next treed patch. We opted for some nicer looking climbing moves, but there appeared to be an easier route up a gulley to our right. Clambering through the forest was awkward and itchy, so we popped back out to our right onto some easier slab climbing till we gained the summit ridge. I believe we roughly followed the route FA’d by Harris and Mitten in 1983. The summit ridge was easy snow walking to the top. From the summit of Guardian it was easy scrambling down to Guardian-Disillusion Col.

Disillusion Peak

To get to the top of Guardian was bushy scrambling. We ended up opting to rope up for two pitches where we found some 5.6ish moves, but I suspect there is a more moderate way through. Scrambling over the top and down the South Ridge of Disillusion, things got much bushier. I found myself holding onto trees about as often as rock. We made one 15m rappel off a tree to bypass some particularly vertical bushwhacking. Towards the col we trended skiers right and found a bushy ramp that placed us in the west gulley between the summits about 30m below the col.

North Illusion

From the gulley we trended climbers right along a ledge, and up a bushy rib. Here the climbing didn’t exceed low 5th, but the dirty and bushy ground made it feel insecure. I found myself plunging the pick of my ice axe into the ground beneath heather and juniper bushes for more purchase. From here it was easy snow slopes along the ridge to the summit of North Illusion. South of the summit and before the ridge dropped off sharply to the col, we found a very comfortable bivy ledge with spectacular views of Slesse. We melted snow, boiled up some ramen, and tucked in for a beautiful clear starlit night. The next morning after a quick brew of coffee and oats we headed for North/South Illusion Col. We down climbed a hand crack before roping up for a perfect au cheval. I shimmied across then belayed Nicole. From here we slung a block and made a 25m rappel into the notch between North and South Illusion.

South Illusion

From the col we headed down the gulley on the west side aiming for a treed ledge on the face below South Illusion. Our goal was to follow the Culbert route which supposedly went at “Stiff 4th”. The Bruce Fairley Guide described this route as gaining the treed ledge, taking two pitches trending left and then one final pitch trending right behind a “prominent finger”. Climbing on a 60m half rope tied into the middle we were limited to shorter pitches. We found ourselves pitching out 4 pitches trending leftward and then one final pitch behind the finger before scrambling to the summit. A modern grade closer to mid 5th would probably describe this route more accurately for other parties. Culbert’s grades have a reputation for being challenging and combined with grade inflation I can’t see many people still calling this 4th class.

After the summit of South Illusion we descended towards Lynchpin Hill. We ended up belaying one short exposed snow slope on the way down, due to the stability of the warm snow being suspect. From here we scrambled up bushy scrambling towards the top of Lynchpin Hill, once again belaying an exposed snow slope.

Descent

Already being well into the afternoon we called our traverse at the top of Lynchpin Hill and we descended down into Nesakwatch Creek. After a solid break at the creek halfway down the trail, we swapped into dry socks and plodded a long roundabout trek back to our parking. I was hoping that a truck would pull by and offer a ride to break up the monotony of walking the FSR, but no such luck. It was almost 9pm by the time we reached our car. Overall it was a beautiful traverse on good quality rock. The bushwhacking on the approach is very reasonable but there was more vertical bushwhacking on the route than I expected. The limited descent options down into Centre Creek can make it more challenging. Still I would recommend it, and it was great to get a closer look at the many spectacular walls on the east side of the Illusions.