The Illusion Peaks were first ascended in September of 1961 by by Dick Culbert, Ronald Hatch, Monte Lasserre, and Arnold Shives. Since that time the two impressive granite domes have seen little action when compared to the next door neighbours, the Nesakwatch Spires and Rexford summits. in 1972 Dick Culbert, Fred Douglas, Paul Starr, and Ross Wyborn made the firsrt ascent of the large West Face of the North Peak. A long, bushy, and adventurous ‘moderate’ route that has likely not seen a repeat ascent. Fast forward over a decade to July of 1984. Maxim De Jong and Robert McLeod made an impressive ascent of the Northeast side of the South Illusion via Memorial Pillar.
Although moderate in grade the Memorial Pillar sports some wild looking climbing and a nine inch off-width on pitch eight. The first ascent team aided this thirty-five meter crack using six bongs. Two years prior Maxim De Jong and Hyung Soo Kim ascended the high quality Northeast Buttress of the North Illusion. A 10 pitch 5.8 route with a variety of excellent cracks, clean slabs, and of course a little shrubbery. In 1982 and 1985 two routes were forged up the North and North East Face of the South Illusion. In 1982 Peder Ourom and Craig Thompson climbed the North Face Wall Grade V, 5.9, A3, 12 Pitches. Shortly after in 1985 Fred Becky climbed another imposing line on the Northeast face (The Bastion) Grade IV, 5.10, A2.
Other notable ascents include several adventurous slab climbs on Guardian peak, The closest summit to the logging road in Centre Creek. Over the years there has probably been more routes climbed in the Illusion group but this is just a brief history of the area.
In 1993 Kobus Barnard, John Black, and Emily Butler made the first ascent of what one might refer to as the Rexford Traverse or Grand Ensakwatch Traverse. Barnard and crew traversed from North to South over the Illusion peaks then continued over the Nesakwatch Spires and Rexford. Note: the party also included Pi Pillar and South Rexford peak. Barnard wrote that his original plan was to continue to Middle Peak (USA) and then back into Canada and finish by ascending Mount Lindeman. A Horseshoe loop of around 30 km and 4000 meters of gain on unrelenting technical ridgelines. After the Rexford Traverse the team threw in the towel due to a lack of food. Barnard spoke highly of this outing in his blog.
After seeing lot’s of action on the corridors classics such as the Tantalus Traverse, Lake Lovely Water Circumnavigation, Armchair Traverse etc.. Nick and I thought it would be nice to be a little more creative for a change. After some research and a little indecisiveness Nick and I settled on trying to complete the Rexford Traverse. If we felt great, had enough water, and moved along faster than anticipated maybe we would even continue on to Lindeman.
In classic Nick and Jessie fashion we settled on a ‘casual’ departure time from Squamish of 6:00 am. This would put us at our start point for 9:00 am. We estimated the day would take us around twelve hours, which in theory should put us back at the car without the need of headlamps. As we rumbled down the Trans Canada highway towards Chilliwack we discussed some strategies for the approach. Eventually we made the decision to bushwhack straight up from the centre creek road to the base of the North Illusion summit. We would start out day by climbing the North East Buttress a ten pitch supposedly high quality 5.8. If all worked out we would then simul-climb most of the route in an efficient fashion .
