With way too much work on the menu this summer, I needed some food for the soul, so I grabbed a short window of good weather and headed to the Waddington Range. My good friends Paul Cordy and Tony Richardson were psyched to jump on board my hair ball scheme of driving for a day, flying in, climbing one route and going home.

We got a bump into the Range with Whitesaddle Air who have helped get climbers in and out of trouble in this ultra-remote corner of the Coast Mountains since the 1970’s. Our A-plan was a bit snow caked, so we settled on a line up the “Little Brother” of the zone Mt. Combatant. From Camp, a couple hours cruising primo nevé got us to the base of the wall and without much faffing, we started up some new ground left of a line established by Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Peter Croft.

The routefinding was flowy and the rock quality was high. Featured face holds connected crack systems and the occasional runout kept things zesty! We giggled our way up a thousand feet of virgin rock and joined the original line on this buttress “Kshatrya,” put up by Coastal legend Michael Down back when was I just a child. Michael is a hero of mine certainly for his incredible climbing resumé, but more so for his gracious manner and his deep desire to be good to others. The Kshatrya were a warrior class in the Vedic tradition and it’s a suitable name for such a proud line on Combatant. Though the ancient Kshatrya were legit fighters, I feel that people like Michael are our modern day equivalent; true combatants yet peaceful warriors.

We topped out under a breathless Alpenglow, pumped our fists to the sky and started a long downclimb of the Central Couloir, a 2500 foot, 50 degree pipe that kept us on our toes till nearly midnight.

48 hours later I was back at home working away, soul fully nourished, with a sweet, lingering taste of the range I love so much.

Crucial Equipment for this Climb:

Instinct Lace: Comfort and precision for a long day of technical alpine rock climbing

Ribelle Tech OD: They are light in the pack and smash it on the snow, mixed ground, and long downclimbs into the night