[TR] Duffy Lake area, near Lillooet B.C. - rambles right & rambles center 12/29/2009

[Andy Craig]

Trip: Duffy Lake area, near Lillooet B.C. - rambles right & rambles center

 

Date: 12/29/2009

 

Trip Report:

Trip: Duffey Lake area, near Lillooet B.C. - rambles right & rambles center

 

Date: 12/29/2009

 

Trip Report:

Dec. 29th 2009:

2nd day of trip decided to head to Duffey (sp?) Lake area and do some easy multi-pitch for the new climbers we brought.

 

---------------- Rambles right --------------

Rambles right seemed like a perfect area for nice intro to multi-pitch ice. However, we were wrong. The first pitch is so thin none of us (Kapper, Adam, me) wanted to lead. We saw some boot tracks to the right and followed those. It leads all the way around first pitch to an easy 4th class scramble and eventually out to the base of upper tier of rambles right.

The other guys might have some pictures of rambles right but can't remember, might have been too busy enjoying the day and drinking hot cocoa.

Upper tier looked a bit too hard for our beginners we brought so ended up double rope TR the first section (the one none of us wanted to lead). Here are the pics:

 

First section of Rambles Right. As you can see fairly thin and hard to protect if leading.. TR -- made for fun delicate climbing..

 

Kapper being Kapper, no need to wonder why this guy is red flagged at border! He just looks like trouble.

 

 

--------------- Rambles Center ----------------

After some TR which turned out to be too hard for the new climbers we brought headed back to rambles center.. Which was GREAT! Super sticky and easy to protect. Great ice right now.

 

 

Leading first pitch Rambles center.. couldn't have asked for better

 

 

So enjoyable we ended up staying after dark to do some headlamp climbing!

 

Gear Notes:

Rambles center lead only about 3 or 4 screws needed

 

Approach Notes:

About 45 min approach. A lot of scrambling but well worth if for rambles center. Can be slippery but did not need to crampon up, snow was just dry.

[northvanclimber]

many areas along the duffy lake seem remarkably dry this year. anybody able to speculate why? seems odd since it's been reasonably cold and (compared to last year, where the fall was very dry) I presume there would have been plenty of water available for freezing up.

 

the upper tier of rambles center was bone dry the other day when i went up there...

[giza]

Relatively low volume of precipitation with extended cold and dry periods. Upper sections of many routes have had fatter ice compared to lower sections because limited source snow/water has only been able to feed the higher sections. Hence a route like The Tube is climbing like 5-, lower sections of Synchronicity are dry and thin, etc. Snow and warm temps should help fill everything out.

[Andy Craig]

Down south in Bellingham we have had some relatively warm spells, so I was guessing the same would be going on farther north (warm spell then freezing) however you're right it has been really dry.