Last Saturday the weather was too good to stay indoors, so Lee G. and I were super stoked to go explore something new. I heard from Dean last year about Thar peak. I knew that a few others have done this climb before and posted about it online. A quick search revealed two trip reports from Leigh and Cormac on this face that provided sufficient info to check it out.

We arrived at TH at 745ish, and were on our way by 8am. Once we arrived at the lake we got a first good look at the face. What a gem it is! There's so much potential. We couldn't believe how easy it was to access this face that has to offer so much.

We opted to follow the other's foot steps and went for the main couloir on the climber's far right. The snow in the couloir was good. A 10-15cm firm wind crust with semi- consolidated snow underneath was providing good support and we made good time to the second fork, about 3/4 of the way up. Here we decided to explore the exit on the hard left which lead into a 45% couloir with a few rock steps.

The snow in this exit couloir was horrible. It was a mix of sugar powder and thin wind crust. The rock was of similar nature, chossy falling all over the place. I had to take off my pack and let Lee pull it up while I got busy clearing the small overhanging step. Victory at last we thought! A few more steps later I got up on the small corniced ridge to realize we were about 5m under the summit in a bit of a trap. Uh oh shit and giggles, let's descend back to the main couloir ... this was easier said than done. We discussed the option of rapping, and after some risk analysis we decided to bite the bullet and descend under our own steam. Needless to say, a fall at this stop would not be a good idea... one would probably not die, but there would be some serious injuries.

After climbing back down to the fork, we decided we had enough adventure for one day and finished the climb via the main couloir. The views on the summit were exhilarating! All in all, it was a great day to be out climbing something new with a good buddy.

Equipment: We carried pickets, a few screws, and a rope, but didn't feel it was necessary to get them out. In hindsight, it would've been great to have a few nuts to aid the tricky rock spots.

Thar Peak North Face - we climbed the right most prominent couloir

Main couloir we climbed

It's getting narrower and steeper

Into the tricky "exit" couloir

Let the fun begin

Getting busy

What?? We are not on the summit!!

Summit views:

Summit rewards are not limited to views only

More photographic rewards were given to us on descend

Really great photos!

Adrian,

Larry Kost, Dan and Marilyn Friedmann and I were skiing the area between Thar and Nak the day after your climb.

We were at the spot in your photo #3 on the treed saddle dead centre of the picture when Larry spotted your footsteps in the

exit gulley. Looked VERY steep from that angle.Tricky looking rock obstacles. Good job on the climb. Would not have wanted to

downclimb that.

Bruce

Thanks guys.

Indeed, down climbing that crappy rock was a bit gnarly. Lee was saying that it felt like a V1 boulder problem, which I don't doubt as I typically climb with my pack on, but for this one I had to take it off.

This sounds like the same gulley I went up last year. The third photo looks familiar  but your seventh picture confuses me. At the top of the left exit gulley after steep snow and a 5 m step of rubbish rock I arrived at a notch 5 m below the summit. From there it was quite exposed but the rock was of good quality.

Interesting sun shot.

C