Mt Waddington's South Face - Smiley's Project Committed

Here is the lastest episode from the Mark & Janelle Smiley's journey to climb the Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. The South Face of Mt Waddington is located in British Columbia's remote Coast Range.
Learn more about their multi-year project:
www.smileysproject.com
SmileysProject
Filmed by:
Chris Werner
Mark Smiley
Janelle Smiley
Edited by:
Mark Smiley
Climbing Photographs:
Chris Werner
Lake Tahoe Based Photographer
www.chriswernerphoto.com
Route Photo of Mt Waddington:
Chris Atkinson, Marc Piche, & Kevin McLane
For the upcoming Canadian Alpine Classics, High Col Press.
www.alpinecanadaproject.ca/index.html
Music:
-Hey Love by Miner
-As Colorful As Ever by Broke For Free
-Movement Proposition by Luciano Foglia
-Father Sleep by Burgendy Reel
-Enter the Maze by Kevin MacLeod
-Computer by State Shirt
Special Thanks to all our Kickstarter Backers for their generous support! We are forever thankful for your donations.
Special thanks to Colin Haley, Fred Beckey, Don Serl, Jack Tackle, Kevin McLane & Allen Steck for their contributions to route accuracy, quotes, and inspiration.

[@deanelandreth8648]

A group of us tried the original route in the summer of 1988 after a successful traverse of the North West passage in the Yacht Northanger over the previous 2 years. We sailed up Knight Inlet then approached via the Franklin Glacier. Sadly the owner of the yacht was killed by rockfall in the couloir after backing off from the top part of the climb. I saw the large rock fall from Regal Dome where I'd climbed to do a paraglider descent, but assumed it had missed them as I had last seen them on the face and out of harms way. A sad end to an otherwise grand adventure.

[@snakedike]

We did a lot of mixed climbing when I was a younger man, mostly in the Sierra, the Cascades, and the Alaskan Range. Got so use to the rock and ice fall it didn't really bother me. Of course you learn pretty quick how to predict a rock's fall line so you just start thinking of yourself as being that good. The thing that bothers me now that I'm well past my most adventurous years is that in many cases we were just blessed with stupid luck. I can think of a few occurrences that probably should have killed at least one of us but we got away with it by a whisker. All you hot shots, please be careful. There is a lot of good living waiting for you on the other side of your climbing years. Great climb by the way but I still hate midnight starts :)

[@DrewWithington]

Isn't alpine climbing always like that? Taking lots of small calculated risks that seem ok at the time but cumulatively maybe aren't. E.g. in the Mont Blanc range abseiling off one piton that's the normal way down according to the guidebook, but may have been hammered into the rock face twenty years ago, and it's chrome-moly steel so it's probably rusted to a greater or lesser degree from all the freeze-thaw cycles over those twenty years, but you can't see the part of the piton that's in the rock.

[@Sharklee4]

My partner Andreas Uttendorfer and I made an attempt on the south face in 1984. Our plan was a traverse, descending the chockstone chimney/gully on the north side. We approached from Knights inlet by sea plane, it was my dream to climb it in the style of the pioneers, from sea level. We had a beautiful hike in, three days with heavy loads. We carried a rifle, an "over/under" for bear protecting and hunting. We ate ptarmigan. We climbed up to the the base and bivyed and got hit with an intense lightning storm and 6" of fresh snow. We had to let it go. We got picked up at Knights inlet by Andreas's mother and father in-law in their fishing boat out of Port Hardy. By the way another accent of note was the winter ascent in '50 by Allen Steck.

[@Sharklee4]

A third man, Peter Buck came along to help carry the load.

[@aguelch]

Wow. I did a NOLS course in the Waddington range and the hike down to Canyon Lake along the "old logging roads" was the most difficult hike I have ever done. Hiking all the way to the inlet is impressive.

[@jacobfurr733]

"The description said 50 degrees, it looked more like 80 degrees" Lmao felt that.

[@khrumkashan6954]

Amazingly beautiful 🤩 thank you for sharing

[@purplemonkeyelephant]

Love the positivity expressed throughout all the hardships. You look like a great team :)

[@denverbrayan6999]

I guess it is kinda randomly asking but does anyone know a good website to stream newly released tv shows online?

[@aydencamdyn5152]

@Denver Brayan ehh I watch on Flixportal. you can find it if you google :) -ayden

[@denverbrayan6999]

@Ayden Camdyn Thanks, signed up and it seems like they got a lot of movies there :D Appreciate it !!

[@aydencamdyn5152]

@Denver Brayan No problem xD

[@adventureswithfrodo2721]

great video, thanks. like the descent as most people don't show that part of climbing.

[@BlackHoleBrew42]

exactly, and thats the scariest part in my mind.

[@idk9127]

I adore backpacking, hikes and all that stuff. Every summer me and my dad go on 3-5 trips it’s so fun. Loves the video keep up the great work!

[@colbjallen8334]

Y'all are rad!! Love this channel! Beckey climbed that with when he was like 18-19 with his 17 year old brother Helmy. You're probably like the 10-11th summiters

[@timyarrow8844]

Am I mistaken or is that rock on Waddington a really solid crystalline metamorphic rock? Looks great. And what a climb! Amazing amazing content!

[@jamesvignali6074]

This video made the palms of my hands start to sweat.

[@washburnb1]

That was a great climb, brilliantly done with a great team.

[@hartdaniel224]

Very good video that actually shows the difficult parts of climbing, not just the hero parts.

[@YetiAdventure]

It's beyond us how this incredible adventure only has 100 views. That makes no sense. This was one of the most riveting climb report videos we have ever seen. You've won yourselves a new subscriber. Glad you made it back down.

[@brianharder7714]

What a sufferfest! Love the exhaustion near the end. I could almost feel it. Nice work, kids.!

[@joelskok9491]

What a mountain! Beautifully produced story of your climb--thanks for sharing.

[@KevAlberta]

Watching for like the fourth time. Wow

[@steventhaw7711]

Bravery and Perseverance with Inspired Hearts! Much to be Admired! Wonderful to live to share your Passion and Smiles with others! Thanks.

[@tdawg713]

Don’t think they’ll be another repeat of the original route on the Wadd for a very long time.

[@CasaDelMandar]

thanks for the beta. first thing I did is take it off my mountain project todo list. XD

[@profd65]

The Smileys have some of my favorite climbing videos.

[@p.richter9592]

Awesome video. Thanks for sharing 👍🏻👍🏻🇳🇴

[@stevenhewett5002]

you guys are my heroes!

[@teogo]

1942 second ascent by Fred Beckey, (19 years old) and his younger brother Helmy.

[@TheBlaze1996]

teogo is

[@davidmarshall718]

All the early climbers approached from the west on foot, this approach here was from the east by air. In the early days, climbers took a boat to the head of Knight Inlet, a 110 km long fiord, then bushwacked dozens of kilometers through temperate rainforest choked valleys along glacial rivers to reach one of the several 30 km long glaciers that flow down from the peak. Bears and cougars were everywhere then, and still are, although there are old logging roads now.

[@joshfraser8887]

@@davidmarshall718 thats so cool, did you learn this from a book? would be grateful if you had any recommendations.

[@davidmarshall718]

@@joshfraser8887 ---Anything by or about Phyliss and Don Munday, the legendary early explorers of the region in the early 1900's.

[@joshfraser8887]

@@davidmarshall718 nice man! I've read a bit about them in "the glorious mountains of vancouvers north shore", ill definitely check out more. thanks for that

[@samuelcastle3873]

Unreal!

[@nordicweiss]

Climbed about 3-4 pitches of rock above the steep snow/ice traverse in 1993. Bailed, almost killed by rockfall so many times. Did pseudo bivouac under small overhang until midnight waiting for freeze.

[@mtnsense]

yikes. yeah we were thrilled it was a cold night and day while we rappelled down the main couloir. Definitely no shortage of loose rock up there.

[@johnchan6191]

Wow, @#$%ing awsome climb. Sheer rush feeling when facing a cliff like that, but there was 3 of U 2gether, safety in #s. Glad none of U got hurt doing the climb. Thx 4 sharing on the internet. Keep on climbing & b safe.

[@john26razor340]

Legendary!

[@georgehurst4100]

Mike King flew in both of my re-rations when I did a NOLS Mountaineering course in the Waddington range

[@Melanie-Shea]

mike king is the man

[@aguelch]

Same for us. He also flew us in some extra gear we needed.

[@autumnofmyheart]

You guys are the true mountaineers. Watching this alone gives me chill. Judging by objectives difficulty, this summit is way harder than K2. If this mountain has as many climbers as Everest, I bet the fatality rate would be over 50%.

[@Naafun]

Unreal. Great job!

[@versask8td]

You guys are awesome keep the adventure going!

[@G-man45444]

Wayyyyyyyy cool. Well videod.

[@kevinmpnw]

Awesome video Mark!

[@eduardosouto3810]

Muito bom!

[@steventhaw3765]

Worth getting back alive! Enjoy all your videos especially this one! Brave, Courageous, and Bold! Wish you could do a presentation for the YOSEMITE FACELIFT!!! Contact Ken Yager of the YOSEMITE CLIMBING ASSOCIATION! Thanks so much! Best, Steve Thaw, Moraga, California

[@KevAlberta]

Underrated

[@badnews9312]

fantastic climbing guys and pretty lady! objective hazard was brutal - I don't think I would have had the stones to fight through all that to tick a summit.....for me it is all about the journey - that's how I justify bailing on everything...lol

[@xzcsdf9574]

The guys who did it decades ago were some tough bastards

[@gonamok]

that was really cool, looks scary as hell

[@hemming57]

Great film!

[@leoguy1030]

this is awesome!

[@bluejuice7229]

After a 27+ hour rappel ... hey who killed the doughnuts? Wow ... mad respect! I would be afraid of eating that last doughnut...

[@MerosFelsenmaus]

Beautiful day, beautiful achievement. Nice photos. Envy anyone who could follow Wiessner and House up this. Too bad it was only '5.7'

[@anonanonon2730]

Have you been on Deltaform?

[@KtunaxaMTB]

The descend looks frightening.

[@SheldonKreger]

Totally insane!

[@dc2090]

wouldn't it be much easier in late summer?

[@videoworks7731]

nice job

[@Lehmann108]

Nice climb!

[@Dhamma12125]

Does anyone know what packs they are using?

[@wax7550]

Is this the same route the beckey brothers did back in the day? Does anyone know

[@mtnsense]

most of it is the same. We deviated right of their line for the last four of five top pitches. And just for the record, it was Beckey and his brother.

[@elias2476]

At 0:34 what is this brush?

[@frowningangel3730]

What kind of stove were you using? I own/have owned 30+ camp stoves and are familiar with most but I don't recognize the one you're using.

[@mtnsense]

Soto Muka. Its awesome and works better than MSR imo.

[@racecarinred]

badass

[@jamesvignali6074]

Really impressive video! All that constant exposure! Congratulations! That ain't for me. I like to watch though.

[@maineoutdoorsman677]

I thought it was my Washington in new Hampshire .then I saw the peaks an that’s not the white mountains ⛰

[@rickcostea1936]

We must remember the mundays, aa

[@davidmarshall718]

Very true, The Mundays. Don and Phyllis are legendary in BC history, having discovered and reconoitered the range on many occassions in the 1920's, without any air support, bushwacking up the rainforest choked lower valleys. They reached the false summit, close to the final summit tower.

[@rickcostea1936]

Now there is a alpine women,lucky

[@allanbenthien8519]

this guy is a complete fool I like the way he talks down to her embarrassing but then again look at her she is not that good looking

[@allanbenthien8519]

it doesn't matter what you think bitch

[@ethanlarsen7109]

As hard as everest lmao. Honestly though, looks harder than rainier

[@goatfucker5141]

Yuppies are weird.

[@youtammacintosh]

Too much eating.

[@allanbenthien8519]

mark ius good in fact he is the best just ask him shes in the way