Don_Serl

i just have the suspicion it'll stay up for a while yet. the blobs on the side (which u need to use to get up the thing) will deteriorate slowly, so the pulling will get sketchier, and the initial cpl of screws will be wankier, but i don't see any reason for the whole mess to fall down yet. cheers, don

some stuff was good early on out the Bridge (like Jade, when you and your partners, and then Graham and I climbed it), but it was strange - the lower popular stuff (Old Dogs, Salmon Stakes, etc) didn't come in well, then got hit badly by the warm spell in mid-Jan. some of the hard short columns survived OK, and you're rigth about Night n Gale, but pickings are slim. besides, while ti was limited, there was a bunch of good unusual stuff 'in' up on the Duffey. I think most people just decided to drive 45 mins short of Lillooet rather than 45 mins beyond. understandable in a kinda sketchy season. btw, good going Jesse and Jeff. a cpl good ticks. isnt it a shame that Duffey's Delight doesn't come in every year? (actually, maybe it's there more than we think - just that nobody knew where to look until the past cpl seasons...) -2.3C at Cayoosh summit at noon today; but 1.7C at Carpenter Lake. again, the Duffey looks reasonable; the Bridge looks in trouble, 'cept for Night n Gale and probably Shriek. cheers, don

tks for the info, jonny. still good times out there. especially for you guys - travelling with a buncha ladies! now THAT's unfair... cheers, don

at very least, Closet Secrets is fat... [GR on the first pitch] go do it... and why isn't there anybody taking the chance to get on Shreddie while it's up? it's not so bad... I ain't no youngster, and if I can climb it... come on, lads... cheers, don

jmace is putting a bit too much work into this. leave it to the climbers themselves, I say. the site is: http://www.weatheroffice.pyr.ec.gc.ca/icbctravelalert/dtables_e.html when the site comes up: 1. mouse-click on the map in the area of interest (i.e., for Lillooet area, click roughly halfway between Vancouver and Kamloops). 2. when the magnifying glass comes up, re-centre it if you want, then click again. 3. when the detail map comes up, check off 'high passes' on 'geography' and 'road weather' on 'stations' on the left sidebar. 4. mouse onto desired station and click to get info (e.g., Cayoosh Summit, 1300m on Duffey lake road, about 40km west of the Rambles; or Carpenter Lake, at west end of Bridge River canyon). the info is current; there is no history. however, if you're considering an ice climbing trip and the weather is warmish, having a look in the morning, then again in mid-afternoon, will tell a pretty good story. for instance, Cayoosh is 0.3C at 5pm Weds Feb 14 - there won't have been much melt up there today - yesterday it got to about 2C mid-afternoon. and it has been below freezing at nite. provided tommorrow and Friday are similar, there'll still be fine ice-climbing to be had this weekend. on the other hand, Carpenter Lake is 3.8C at 5pm, and was around 3C yesterday afternoon. it's gonna be dubious in the Bridge... p.s. Begbie Summit (1240m, between Clinton and 100 Mile House) is a decent indicator for Marble Canyon. it is -0.3C today at 5pm, and didn't get above about -3C yesterday. M/C is doing fine so far... enjoy, cheers, don

probably they haven't gotten around to it cuz it's a small town and nobody locks their doors... p.s. how were the Rambles? cheers, don

I can understand the bureaucrats at REI looking at their computer screens and making a decision not to reorder an ice guide at this time of year because to do so will negatively affect their GMROI and therefore their personal year-end bonus (actually, they almost certainly have a computer restocking program that makes the decision for them - why should a human be involved?), but I AM surprised Feathered Friends are out. it hasn't been a great season, but it's been way better than last year, and there's still plenty of ice - altho watch out for the warm stuff coming this week! p.s. maybe the gym shld carry a few copies? cheers, don

Trip: Closet Secrets and a Fountain hike - Date: 2/10/2007 Trip Report: Graham R and I once again did the early commute to the Duffey Lake road Sat morning with a few options in mind. After looking over the Bullock-Amelunxen and deciding the bottom and top tiers looked pretty anemic, and after observing the same on the Waiting Game, we decided on Closet Secrets. The route is fat and the ice was good. There was a bit of water flowing on the surface but it was not troublesome. As always, a nice climb. We crossed paths with Gary Shorthouse and Adrian B, who had climbed what is apparently a new route in a huge long gully system located about 100m west of the Seton Ridge bridge, maybe 2km east of the Tube. Apparently they encountered a bunch of little steps (10m to 15m high), mostly Gr 2 to Gr 3, and ended up WAY up the hillside. Sounds enjoyable - I wonder if it always comes in? When we checked into the Mile O, I was told there were 3 Danish climbers in residence who wanted to meet me. They had picked up cheap tickets to Seattle, driven a rental to Lillooet, and were itching to climb. Fine, altho I've never really thought of Lillooet as an international ice climbing destination. Problem was, seems like West Coast Ice is sold out at REI and Feathered Friends - why am I not rich? The info gap was closed over dinner and a beer and with Graham's borrowed guide - we even won the Canucks hockey nite draw at the Reynolds - a fun evening. Sunday we thought about Swiller Pillar but I couldn't imagine it not suffering from the sun, so we went off in search of the elusive White Van, somewhere on the NE face of Fountain Pk. I never did get satisfactory info from the FA party for the guide, and it showed - we walked up into the main gully (per guidebook), post-holing a fair bit in crusty snow, and reached a 20m Gr 2 step in 1 1/2hrs (350m gain). We geared up and soloed this, then continued another 2 hours (!) up the gully (another 300m gain; much postholing) looking for the supposed "long pitch of Grade 3 folowed by a shorter one of Grade 3+" (to quote the guide). I don't doubt the climb exists, but I'm still none the wiser about its location. Ah well, we got our exercise, and we had some adventure, so all's not lost. And the drive home was early and easy... Overall, there's still a fair amount of ice left, altho it's getting into late season condition. I'll post fuller details on what's in and what's not on westcoastice.com. cheers, don

the middle-duffey stuff hasn't really changed - shreddie (obviously) in fine; closet secrets is fattening up; lotsa ice on the rambles; carlsberg about like it was (boney but with a climbable line); bullock-amelunxen looks good; lotsa ice on cowabunga dude; the waiting game is dangerously close to coming in (the ice is continuous, but the pillar on the upper pitch looks extremely tenuous). obviously Duffey's Delight is 'sorta' in. can't say anything beyond that. there were 2 Wash plates and a BC plate on Rambles while we were on shreddie - anything to report, anybody? we day-tripped (16 hrs door-to-door), cuz it was hockey tournament weekend, and no motel rooms available in Lillooet last w/e. Ok for the coming one, i think. cheers, don

good job - FAT! wish we'd found it that way a cpl yrs ago. the season ought to be a long way from over, altho let's see what happens this week for temps. it leapt to 7C in Lillooet at noon (obviously "chinooking", cuz it's still only 4C in Pemberton). that's tolerable for a cpl days, but... fingers crossed... cheers, don

a few photos: Graham Rowbotham steps delicately thru a tricky section on the opening 40m pitch to the cave, with the dagger looming above. Exiting the belay ledge in the cave - hard moves, even before getting to grips with the dagger. And, luckily, a stem behind… Out of the cave and onto the dagger - time to quell the doubts and to climb with great care! Cheers,

Trip: Shreddie - Date: 2/3/2007 Trip Report: It's easy to get discouraged sitting at home in the city, looking at the monitor and registering the warm fronts as they sweep across the mountains. But it takes more than just a day or two of 'heat wave' for all that ice out there to hit the ground. True, the lower stuff 'round Lillooet and even out the Bridge and up the Duffey has suffered, but - as Simon Richardson, my Scottish friend and fellow ice aficionado so succinctly puts it - there's always something to climb; the trick (and skill) is just to choose the right place to suit the conditions. And I was sure the high stuff up on the Duffey would still be in great shape. The past few weeks have given me one of my most enjoyable ice seasons ever. And as the number of days out mounted and my confidence increased, Shreddie - which, unusually, touched down this year - grew to dominate my thoughts. For nearly 20 years I've been ice climbing up on the Duffey Lake road, and every trip thru, I've stopped and gazed up at this amazing formation, initially wondering if it would ever touch down, then later, when it occasionally did, considering whether I could climb it. I managed one attempt, in 1996 with John Irvine, but I pulled a tool and fell off. I went away undamaged physically, but 'hurt' mentally. And confidence can hard to rebuild, especially on the single-digit number of days per season that coastal ice climbing often provides for us. So I was - frankly - scared when I finally made the decision to go 'have a look' with Graham Rowbotham. There seemed to a be serious warming trend coming, and the chance to test myself might drift by if I didn't take it now. Worst case, I reckoned, I'd fall off again, but I certainly didn't plan to do anything potentially fatal, and I was completely willing to fail, if that was how it was. To not try, however, would be deeply injurious. In the event, almost as an anticlimax, we climbed it. The ice was dry and mostly secure, the temps were maybe around -5C, the climbing was tricky and a few times quite insecure, but after every hard section it was always possible to work out a stemming position and to get a screw in. Most of them would have held. There were plenty of knobs on the face to work with for the feet, and there were a myriad of little hollows and dips to ease the tool placements. And the verticality didn't go on for more than maybe 10 metres - surprisingly, not very much of the climb was pumpy, if you were canny about how you moved. As the angle tipped back that first few degrees and the tension eased noticably and as I stopped talking to myself, I rememeber thinking to myself "Jesus, you're gonna climb this sucker." This was quickly followed with "You're not up yet; pay attention to every placement, cuz this would not be a good place to be making a mistake." And a while later, there I was at the upper belay. Only then did I notice that it had clouded over and that snow was starting to drift lightly down. My life is not now what I would call complete nor have I attained enlightenment, but it's a valuable process to confront one's limitations and fears, and I feel just a touch more content this morning than I did yesterday. Success feels good of course, but even failure is valuable. There's no place for self-delusion when you're battling gravity, and I treasure the self-knowledge and associated humility I've gained out of both the 'wins' and 'losses' over all my years of climbing. Shreddie provided a particularly powerful lesson for me - I hope you have had a wonderful weekend too. Cheers,

a few photos: Last Call - the horrendous initial chimney is hidden in the forest; use the obvious approach ramp on the right, then rap in. Last Call - the 'big' pitch. Fountain of Youth - the 1st pitch - 40m of beautiful flow ice. Fountain of Youth - pitch 2: short but hard. enjoy, cheers, don

agreed with Jesse - the lower stuff around Lillooet got hammered. across the Duffey: Shreddie, Closet Secrets, and the Rambles are all high and shady, so are fine. a Bellingham group did a bunch at Rambles Sat. JM told me they saw people starting Carlsberg on Sat - it looked very do-able up thru the centre, altho 'holey' at the edges. the Bullock-Amelunxen might be OK, but might get too sunny. there's a bunch of ice on Cowabunga Dude, and there are flows over in the Waiting Game area, altho nothing continuous. Solarium is gone, but Wet Lady looks fine. while we were on Last Call, we saw somebody stop and have look at the Tube, then leave. i'm surprised to hear Not So Burly fell apart, but Red Wall Wanderers has got to still be in. it was pretty dusky as we headed into town, but Synchronicity was big and white. there's a bunch of ice in the Twilight Tiers area, but that's notoriously dangerous in sunny conditions. the Strand is still up. i'd be interested to hear from JM about conditions of the various single-pitch columns out the Bridge: New Leash, Blackbird, the stuff by Mixed Master J - there was a lot of interesting stuff formed 2 wks ago... I'm sure Capricorn and Jade and Suncatcher and anything else in the sun is toast. but what about Silk Worm? and the Gift? and Shriek? anybody else out there this w/e? cheers, don

Trip: Lillooet Jan 27-28, 2007 - Last Call Lite and Fountain of Youth Date: 1/27/2007 Trip Report: Bouyed by colder temps returning after 4 days of springtime in Lillooet, Graham R and I headed for the Duffey Lake road early Sat morning. We were 4 hours from Vanc to the Cinnamon Ck campground, including a quick muffin and breakfast samosa stop at the Pony Express in Pemberton - the McDonalds doesn't open till 7, so I had to accept a substitute for my usual early morning ice-climbing grease injection. We crossed the creek (knee deep), I with bags (suffering a bit of leakage), G equipped luxuriously with waders. The approach was straightforward (1 hr), but when we arrived below the route we were both totally appalled by the chimney that provides the normal start - NO WAY we were going to climb that! Big disappointment, since the ice above looked great. However, looking around, it seemed as if you could climb up a ways, then traverse in on a higher ledge - which is exactly what we did. G led the ledge, which was easy except for a 5m thin ice section midway, and reached a big tree overlooking the basin low on the climb. A 40m rappel deposited us where we wanted to be, and a sheltered belay was made on the little cedar on the left. I got the first lead, which was stiff Gr 4 - pretty near vertical for about 10m, easing 5 or 10 degrees for the next 10m, then kicking back for the next 20m. The pitch was very wet in the centre, but fairly dry on the extreme right. G moved up 10m from the tree to allow me to similarly move up from the top of the initial ice to a better belay point at the base of the upper ice flow. This gave 1 1/2 pitches of superb undulating ice (Gr 2+ maybe?) and we anchored in the forest above. We rapped 50m from a big tree on the left at top, 40m from a second big tree on climbers right to the top of the main ice-wall, 50m from an Abalakov to the cedar, and 55m to the ground. All raps were equipped with new sling and a rap ring - there was an old white sling in situ on the 2nd tree anchor, but nothing else around. The chimney looked horrendous from the rappel - 8m high, water-worn and leaning, with a big, awkward chockstone and not much prospect for gear - my admiration for Jia and anyone else who has figured out how to climb this. My recommendation, however, is to 'cheat', and to climb the ledges - the ice is wonderful - the best pitch I've done this year so far - and the approach is casual and novel. Gotta get to work now, so I'll edit in details of our time on Fountain of Youth later... Lunchtime; day 2: So, the first unpleasant surprise of the day was that the Reynolds was closed (for 2 wks), so we had to grease up at (I hate to admit this...) the A&W. Only choice. Please don't kick me off the forum because of this transgression... We had thought about Three Ring Circus, but decided it probably wouldn't have survived the warmth in the valley very well. And option 2, the Bullock-Amelunxen, gets sun. Soooo... what about the Fountain climbs? Fountain Blue is closed, but there are two others, both up a ways above the valley. Surprisingly, as soon as we got out of the main Fraser canyon, it was a lot colder - still frost on trees, and big surface hoar. Fountain of Youth looked fat from the road, altho you can't see the upper column very well. After driving up and down a bit we decided to park down by the field just north of the main Fountain creek crossing. There is a house there, but it's unoccupied at the moment, so it seemed OK to walk across the fields. The approach was fine - open forest, then steepening. Snow had slid in the gully below the route, so we were able to get our crampons on and tramp up hard snow for the upper 250m. We found ourseleves In the sun to gear up after 1 1/2hrs - its 450m up, not 350m as I 'guessed' in the guide. The route is shady, so was quite dry. We wove up easy ice and snow to a tree at the left of the base of the main flow - it's much fatter now than in Lyle's photo taken during the FA (WCI pg 221). Graham got this pitch, which was lovely, undulating and dry, but a bit platey here and there. It was pretty cold, actually. There's a conveniently placed tree on the right to belay the upper pitch from. I can see what Lyle meant when he said (as quoted in the guide) that this would be "grade 5 if it were longer" - but it's not. Really, the steep stuff only goes on about 8m, but it's pretty full-on while you're on it. Then it lays back a bit, then it's just tramping up snow to a tree on the left. We rapped from the little tree on the left, then from the big tree on climbers right, then downclimbed the bottom snow/ice. Again, we left tape and a rap ring at each station. The descent to the valley was very fast, and we were back at the car at 2 p.m., about 5 1/2 hrs after we set out. We rounded out the adventure by taking the pleasant back-road short-cut thru Fountain valley back to the highway halfway between Lillooet and Lytton. Lotsa people out ice-fishing, but no other climbs hidden away. I'll get a cpl photos up this evening. The season is a long way from over - you just have to be imaginative about where u climb - in general, the Fraser/lower altitude climbs are gone, and stuff in the sun is taking a beating. But it IS still cold higher up, and the further u get from the marine air, the better. cheers, don

Trip: Box Canyon (Coquihalla) - Rigor Mortis Date: 1/21/2007 Trip Report: Ryan Klingmann and I climbed in Box Canyon Sunday. the snowshoeing for the approach was not too bad (abt 1 hr), with a huge snowpack covering the bush and boulders, and 20cm of stable fresh on a hard crust. most lower-angled ice is buried, so we climbed Rigor Mortis, which was in great condition. we found 2 - 40m pitches, mostly 2 to 3-ish, but with a lot of crusty insecure surfaces, so scary leading. there was one 6m or so Gr 4 step in each pitch, but on both one could work out stems to get gear if one was crafty. we rapped off a tree and an Abalakov. check: http://www.westcoastice.com/site4.aspx for a report on conditions of the rest of the routes in the canyon - it's a good place to keep in mind when the weather gets warm, cuz its higher altitude tends to preserve the ice. cheers, don Approach Notes: snowshoes

Trip: Marble Canyon, Roadside Attraction (?) - Jan 13-14/07 - Date: 1/13/2007 Trip Report: Seven of us (Alpine Club trip) outa town at 4 a.m., into Cache Ck easily at 8 a.m. Kinda a disappointing breakfast in the Husky - OK food, but not greasy enuf! Maybe the Petrocan? Cold at MC - a pair of ice-fisherman and only 2 other pairs of climbers present. Did I mention it was cold? Very different conditions than two weeks earlier - brittle and very hard. Robert led Icy BC 1st tier, I led Waite for Spring - and I probably put in 7 or 8 screws, only one of which I could get cranked right to the eye - shockingly hard ice, and a good slap in the face. So we rigged TR's... Alan K and Coley G turned up later - TR'ing continued. Left route was extremely thin at bottom; Dihedral was wild and wierd midway, with a delicate column and a sorta roof feature. Deeping Wall was almost all hooking in lower half but brittle and aereated enough that neither R nor I was into leading it. Second tier on Icy BC still looked good. Hole on upper tier has skinned over, but the ice still looks kinda sketchy - climbable on the right side, i'd reckon. Mile "O". Crossed paths with Fern and Julie, who'd done the 2nd ascent (I think?) of Out of the Vault - nice work, ladies. Apparently another cpl cars worth of climbers too, but didn't see anyone around. Dina's was closed for a "family emergency", so we hit the Reynolds. Half the town was watching a house fire as we wandered by (I hope all were OK). Good burgers, and the best (only) draft in town - MGD! Edmonton deserved to beat the Flames, but didn't. Greg went to the clinic to have someone take a look at the gash he'd acquired under his eye (ice, not bar-room brawling), and they GLUED it up! Modern life... Got the proper dose of grease the following morning. How does Tabatha get so fired up so early? Chatted with Gary and Brian, Fern and Julie. Headed up to the Rambles. Took about an hour to drive the 30km, cuz there's SOOOO much ice in, in unusual places, the 'gawk' factor was off-scale. I knew we'd be ready to head up the hill before the BCMC crew who winter-camped at the parking spot, but given the half-dozen other vehicles already at the road-side, and in admiration for the hardiness of our compatriots, we decided to carry on over to Mount Currie and to find something to do up the D'arcy road. Good choice, as it turned out. Scoped as far as the Plum, then came back to the railway crossing at 7km. We'd seen what appeared to be some decent ice just to the south, but this was way too wet (and small) to be worthwhile when we got there, so we drove another 500km north and parked for what I think is Roadside Attraction. 20 mins approach. Lotsa ice, many options for lines. Pretty wet in places, but very dry in others. Had a great day, climbed 3 separate parallel lines, all 1 1/2 pitches. Mostly Grade 2 to Grade 3, with maybe 8m of Grade 4 if you wanted it at the top. Lotsa old tatty rap slings around, so whatever the area is called, it sees traffic. Easy driving back. Lynyrd Skynyrd most of the way. Stones too. Excellent halibut and chips at Sailor Hagars. Also (I'm told) one of the finest IPAs around. Not a bad "Pilsner" either, altho it poured to fast, had too little head, and came in the wrong kind of glass to be a 'real' Pils. What a good weekend... I hope the cold lasts... Cheers, Approach Notes: Drive. Eat. Climb. Drive. Eat. Drink. Sleep. Eat. Drive. Climb. Drive. Eat. Drink. Drive. Sleep. Type.

so, what's the trick (or HTML) to get the whole photo displayed in the quote, rather than the scrolling version??? cheers,

my recollection from 3 decades ago is understandably not very clear (even excluding the hangover effect), but we came nowhere near getting up the whole route. fact is, it probably would have been more accurate to leave the climb out of the guide entirely, but we DID climb something, and the formation is superb and seemed deserving of drawing attention to, so in it went. i have a vague recollection of a roof above us at our high point, so i think we bailed from a pitch and a half up, at the prominent roof in Drew's photos. altho i also have a recollection of pulling thru some steepish terrain into a lower-angled groove, so we mighta gotten a cpl pitches up. doesn't matter much now anyway... good going finally snagging the FA, Drew and Shaun. cheers,

gorgeous! and not to get into oneupmanship, but please tell me you guys pulled the column above the leader rather than ambling up the ramp to the left... cheers,

rockslide 22km south of town. link: http://www.drivebc.ca/majorEvents.jsp no mention yet of possible re-opening time. check before leaving town, or drive up thru Whistler, or go the long way thru Cache Ck and Marble Canyon. cheers, don

it's always nice and warm in the Reymolds afterwards. cheers,

howdi. just thought it'd be polite to let everyone know that I'll have an ACC party of 8 at MC on Saturday, followed Sunday by who-knows-where. also, Justin Bennett will have a BCMC party of 8 at the Rambles Saturday, and maybe again Sunday. if you dislike crowds, plan accordingly. on the other hand, I once recall a day when there were 25 people (!) on the first tier of MC, and everyone had a superbly productive day - there were TR's everywhere, and all concerned just swapped 'round on 'em. whenever someone wanted to lead, they got priority of course, but even that was not disruptve, cuz there were just so many options. enjoy the cold, cheers, don

the guide will lay out pretty much everything available. the weather will determine what's climbable and not. best bet, in almost any conditions would be the Rambles, up on the Duffey Lake road, only an hour and a half or so from Whistler - lots to do, plenty high. if you hit a cold spell, the D'arcy road has lotsa climbs, closer to Wh. stay in touch with current conditions thru cc.com, and http://www.westcoastice.com/site4.aspx have fun! cheers,

Did I miss this as an earlier post? If not, here's the link: http://www.outdoornewswire.com/v/current/htdocs/etc/sa.php/63617465676f72794c6162656c3d436c696d62696e67266c6f636174696f6e3d323030362f31322f313136353236313632392672737349643d34323537 It's easy to shrug, or to 'diss' the accomplishment as a media play - so much is, these days. But Dan's actually a great, low-key guy, and he's been out there knocking around hard for a very long time. Good going, says I... Not easy to imagine how to do it faster, actually. (Maybe that's the one negative about a 'record' - it provokes others to try to break it, simply because the 'record' exists...) Cheers,