Big new Vampire Spires climbs in Canada, by Sebastian Pelletti & Co

In August 2022 a small, expert group of climbers comprised of Michael Pedreros, Sebastian Pelletti, Hernan Rodriguez Salas and photographer Pato Diaz ventured to the little-explored Vampire Spires area of Northwest Territories / Yukon in Canada. Unlike previous parties, the team enjoyed almost perfect conditions and managed to establish three big walls in fine style, plus an attempt at another new route: Viaje Boreal, Mount Dracula East Face (12/08/2022), Pluma de condor, Tail Feather Ridge (14/08/2022), Flow Latino, Mount Dracula South Face (16/08/2022), Natural Mystic, Dawn Mist Mountain (20/08/2022). Pelletti shares the details.

Why Vampire Spires? How did you come to consider this objective?
I was researching unexplored ranges in the north of Canada, and naturally the Cirque of the Unclimbables came to mind. After reading AAJ reports I realized that a lot of teams have gone into the Cirque and, without an additional helicopter budget to fly into obscure surrounding areas, most climb the classic 5.10 up the Lotus Flower Tower, crowding Fairy Meadows base camp with up to 5 expeditions at a time on the same route.

Upon further research, I came across some reports written by Pat Goodman, who has done more than 10 trips into that zone, first in the Cirque, but later putting multiple trips into the Vampire Spires and providing great info about the range. The name itself sounded intriguing and some unclimbed objectives were visible in his photos and satellite imagery, so the plan was hatched. Vampire Lake could be accessed by float plane with the infamous Warren Lafave, and no private heli would be required.

So what did you expect?
Heinous weather! I had read reports written by Pat and others, who had invested time and money into a trip into the Yukon, only to be shut down without a single climbable day. In my mind, if we managed to climb anything, we were to consider ourselves lucky.

You raced up Dracula East Face. One bivy, fast and light.
Yes. We started our first climb in a storm, the long drive north had us rearing to get on the wall, and we wanted to be well positioned if we got a day of good weather. We fixed the first pitches to a large ledge and the base of the "headwall"’ where the real climbing began. We saw some good weather coming in and spent a night at the ledge, climbing the wall in a day and returning to base camp in the evening. This "yellow diamond" feature on Mt Draculas East Face was our main objective, and after reading about other expeditions' misfortune with the weather, we simply couldn’t believe we had climbed it in the first four days of the trip!

Celebrated by the Northern Lights...
Locals had also told us that during this time of year, we wouldn’t be able to see the Northern Lights, a phenomena I had read about while researching the trip. After stumbling into base camp from our route, gigantic rays of green light began to shine from horizon to horizon, sharpening, twisting and turning, illuminating the entire valley. We woke the next day with a sense of disbelief, could we really be this lucky? Not only had we managed to climb our route, we had also witnessed the most incredible natural phenomena we’d ever seen.

You then doubled your takings with a new route on the mountain’s south face
After some rainy rest days in base camp, glassing the surrounding walls, we spotted a line on the "Bela Lugosi wall"’ which Pat had climbed a few years ago. The rock seemed solid, less vegetated than the "Yellow diamond" and we could climb it fast and light, descending the low angle south ridge. The rock was stellar, and we stayed in one single crack system for most of the climb, large quartz nodules climbing like conglomerate rock and offering face and foot holds wherever the cracks slammed shut.

Two big, amazing new routes. After which there was one more in store, is that correct?
Our last climb was in the next valley over, on Mt Dawn Mist, a stunning molar of granite that one flies past when approaching Vampire Lake. The south face rises up dead vertical, and has a much more "alpine" feeling to it. Clean white granite with no vegetation was enough for us to move a camp up and over the neighbouring glacier, for one final climb. Mt. Dawn Mist has 3 very attractive pillars, split with continuous crack systems ranging from fingers to offwidths. The summit tower seemed to offer the longest climbs, and a steep pillar in the centre of the face was laced with a singular direct crack system that seemed viable in a day. We started at sunrise, navigating the glacier with the photos we’d taken, totally blinded by the thick cloud which had accumulated in the valley. A debris chute marked the beginning of our route, and we ventured up the wall with almost zero visibility. Although we couldn't see the following pitches, we stayed in the crack system we’d photographed the day before, and inched our way up the wall intuitively. Halfway up our route, a southerly breeze cleared the cloud out of the valley and revealed our amazing position on the pillar. This was a much needed injection of energy and we kept moving along the summit ridge to reach the summit at sunset.

Sounds amazing. Anything else?
We spent our rest days reading and bouldering between intermittent rains. We also put up a shorter 3 pitch route on Tail Feather Ridge a beautiful black granite feature that we dubbed Pluma de condor - the condor feather. We worked and cleaned the first slab pitch, before the route gains a long 60 metre dihedral, and an arching finger crack and roof crux before topping out the feather shaped pillar.

How would you rate this expedition Seb?
The trip was unbelievable, we saw caribou, bears, mountain goats, northern lights, wild glaciers and big walls.. it was more than we could gave expected. The flight in is dangerous and only Warren Lafave is capable of threading a float plane through the narrow valley and landing on that tiny alpine lake. After he landed with us on arrival, he decided he’d never fly in there again, but I think he could be convinced if someone appeals to his adventurous maverick nature. Base camp can be established at Vampire Lake, but to be able to explore a little further, we carried loads a few hours up valley over a period of two days, establishing BC below the Yellow Diamond. Many unclimbed features remained, and interested parties can contact me any time for objective recommendations. We feel very, very fortunate for the experience we had in the Northwest Territories/Yukon, it was unbelievable.

Sponsors: Lippi Outdoor, Tienda Estilo Alpino, Biori Chile, Clever Bice, Totem, Karun

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