Don_Serl

i hate bails that don't fit the curve of the boot toe snugly, so i reshape mine if necessary. no hammering, just a vise, hefty vise-grips, and judicious application of the appropriate portion of my body weight... the only toe bail i ever broke was quite few years ago on a pair of foot fangs, and they had not been reshaped. otherwise, so far, so good. cheers,

...what he said. don't even think about crossing the fence! follow the fenceline gently uphill about 200m distance and pass thru an obvious gate. the new trail stays high, near and against the cliffband. still needs to be cleared a bit, but easy travel. we were 25min from the car to the route, and i refuse to sweat in the winter (on short approaches anyway). the route is in superb shape - crisp, a bit brittle, quite tricky on the final column. cheers,

...more from the weekend (Jan 1-3/05): Mount Currie - Xitolacw - Birkenhead Bridge (west end of Duffey Lake road): Price of Admission - in Nocturnal Emission - forming many strands (amazing...) Medicine Man - well iced, but likely the typical Grade 6 Mount Currie north to D'Arcy: [some of the guidebook info was 2nd hand, and many of these route seldom form, so i'll note corrections and/or clarifications in this section route by route] Rusty - a nice strand (W at 4.5km) Roadside Attraction - in well; saw climbers on it (guidebook clarification: E at 7.5km, 500m beyond railroad X-ing) Deception - not in (W at about 9.5km) Candlewax - semi-in, but south facing. (E at 9.8km; above boulder field; on bluff with power pylon) Hollow Quest for Glory - forming (E at 11.3km, just S of Spetch Ck Rec site) Fourskin - in (guidebook placement error: this should have been placed at the very north end of Hindu Flats, on W side opposite N entrance to Spetch Ck road at 12.5km, not 11km) Rocky, Bullwinkle - in Plum - in, but top tier still looks lean Poole View Falls - lotsa ice, but upper tiers still lean White Blotter - main column has touched down; upper tier not yet continuous Whisper Falls - in very cold, outflow blowing. forming fast. cheers,

not everyone has, wants, or can afford brand new tools every year. it turns out you can take your old Quasars, add some stock parts, and tune 'em up so they climb and feel not a whole lot less fine than a pair of new Quarks. 1. replace the original pick with the Upgrade pick. the tip on the Upgrade is narrowed to 3mm vs 4mm on the original; the underside of the tip on the Upgrade is beveled at a more aggressive hooking angle (otherwise you have to file the original to get it to climb right); and a bunch of unnecessary metal has been deleted from the tail-end of the pick. net result: better function outs the box, and you save about 20gm per pick (about 100gm vs abt 120gm each). 2. replace the original hammer head with Axar/Pulsar hammer head. there is w-a-a-a-y less metal involved, so you save about 85gm (that's 3 oz!) per head. the striking angle changes, but imho the Axar head is at a more copacetic angle than the original. and the resulting angle is very similar to that on the Quark. the Quark remains a little more 'sweet' in feel, and it has better clearance (by about 2cm mid-shaft), but interestingly, the Quasar actually has greater 'reach' pommel-to-tip (also by about 2cm). the overall weights are very similar (i don't have a scale capable of getting an accurate weight in this range), so the swinging effort on the "upgraded" Quasar drops dramatically. the picks seem to sell for US$40, and i've seen the heads for US$33.50. they might be pulled out of Europe for even less. or try e-Bay... a LOT cheaper than new tools... cheers,

yah, bring your toque and your warm woollies. Clinton has dropped to -20ºC (-4ºF) last nite. Lillooet was -10ºC (14ºF). the Arctic air finally arrived! cheers,

some of you may have climbed in Thailand, and if you've been there a few times, you certainly have made local friends, so there has been understandable concern after the tsunami. here's a piece of reassuring news, via Greg Foweraker: A quick update on the situation here in Ton Sai and Railey: The Wave killed about 5 to 10 people on Railey West, Pra Nang and Ao Nang beach, people who were on kayaks or just getting into boats and there are boatmen missing. However, compared to Ko Phi Phi, Phuket and Ko Lak we were all incredible lucky. No climber has been seriously hurt or killed that we know of. Railey West beach was damaged the worst. Ton Sai beach lost the bamboo huts on the beachfront (i.e. Sawadee Bar and Tina restaurant) but no bungalows were destroyed. Today the beaches look quite normal again, there has been a giant clean-up effort. Boats are running again, the news that there is no food or drinking water on Railey or Ton Sai is WRONG. Restaurants are open. All bungalow places still have guests. Actually, Ton Sai is pretty much back to normal as many climbers stayed and continued their vacation. If you or someone you know is considering a climbing vacation: please come!!! You will experience no problems and this place needs your business now more than ever. Thanks to all for the e-mails and good wishes! Elke & Wee cheers,

hello, WCI2 ought to be in the publisher's hands before January 10/05. I've had several inquiries about how to order direct to get speediest service, so here are the details: If purchasing from a local retailer is not practical, you can order West Coast Ice direct from the publisher, with payment by VISA or Mastercard for next-day shipping. Cost for the book is $32.95 Canadian. Shipping will also be charged. Shipping via Xpresspost should be about Cdn $6.50 within Canada (2 day service) and Cdn $11.35 to the US (6 days service). These rates are based on assumptions about the weight and package dimensions and may not be correct, but should not be very far off. Elaho Press can be contacted at stone@elaho.ca, by phone at 604-892-9797, or fax 604-892-3609. One good security trick for sending your credit card number over the internet is to split the number and expiry into two separate emails. I trust that provides sufficient information. I hope you all enjoy the book, and the climbing that it describes. Now, if it'll just stay cold!!! Cheers,

whoever you were talking to doesn't have a clue. i did very careful checking with senior management at Blackcomb, who were very keen to encourage new types of recreation on the mountain. there was never anything considered about guiding. meanwhile, the real giveaway is that there is NO ICE at pemberton. the D'Arcy road is essentially barren. if it stays cold, the Plum etc will come in, but they were non-issues as of 3 days ago. i'm trying to confirm with my contact exactly what's up, but that's unlikely to happen till after the holiday weekend. i've heard from Jia, confirmed by Rob McCurdy at Whistler Alpine Guides, that there's no ice yet at the Farm. a) it was warm for a long time, b) they're using all the water for snow-making. Another Day at the Office is in, and some other natural bits and pieces, but not yet the farmed stuff. on the positive side, Patrick Delany tells me stuff is coming in fast on the Duffey (as of day before yesterday). might be OK if we get a week or two of good cold weather... cheers,

apologies for the long delay - several other pieces of information needed to be in place before it was possible to reply fully. the ISBN is 09733035-3-0. title is "West Coast Ice" author is Don Serl BUT, unless your local bookseller already deals with Elaho and/or is buying a minimum order of $250, the book won't be available to them. best bet for you is to order direct from Elaho. the information for this is available on a separate posting. you could also order from MEC or (perhaps) REI once they get the book, but it'll get to you sooner to get it direct from the publisher. cheers,

latest update: as of Dec 30th, publisher is saying they will ship "next week" (i.e. week of Jan 3rd). this is about as expected. no guarantees tho! it's possible (altho doubtful) that local stores in Vancouver - Squamish - Whistler would have copies by weekend of Jan 8-9. more likely early the following week (Jan 10 onward). assuming the same arrival to Elaho, US stores in Bellingham - Seattle - etc ought to have it before the Jan 15-16 weekend. direct purchase from Elaho is possible - details are provided in a separate posting. cheers,

yup. i didn't drive up cuz i had a dependable previous report from Garry Brace. no open water, but cauliflowered and brittle in parts. very thin on the upper column - hook and move carefully. cheers,

couldn't get enough hard beta, so went for a look myself. 6:30 a.m. outa the city. out east to hope, up to sumallo - 5cm fresh snow, no ice. back to hope, then up the coquihalla. stopped and took a gander at box canyon. about 10cm fresh snow, which seems to be the only snow so far this season at that altitude (no base), so no way to get in thru the blocks and bush. no signs of roadside ice anyway. fact is, the only roadside ice appeared about 2/3 of the way up the hill above the snowshed. nice and snowy, but - again - it's all fresh. crossed from Merritt to Spences Bridge. the little waterfall 15km E of SB (Private Idaho) featured only a pathetic collection of a few icicles. into Cache Creek by 11:30 - made the important discovery that the only place in town that'll still fry you up bacon and eggs after 11 a.m. is the cafe at the Petrocan. hit Marble Canyon at 1. about -5ºC, a pleasant covering of maybe 8cm of total fresh snow - just lovely. walked over to the routes and found Jens and (oops - didn't fully catch the name - Brad? Brian? Brent? I think it was a "B"? from Mt Vernon). soloed around for a while and caught a TR on Deeping Wall. things are very lean, but mostly leadable. Dihedral is an impressive column - looked full-on Grade 4. Waite for Spring has a continuous line way out right, and is thin and serious - Jens said he took 90 mins to lead it yesterday, and he's no gumbie. ice-ranching is alive and well, and Rancher's Pride is in nicely. Deeping Wall is still very sketchy in the bottom half (a fully serious lead right now, altho do-able), then very nice, especially the Direct finish to the right. there's lotsa ice forming across the wall towards No Deductible, but nothing has touched down yet. please DO NOT fuck up the hanging columns before they touch down and fully form, or the routes may not come in. Icy BC has some open water on the 1st tier, but it's climbable. the 2nd tier is in really well. the entire upper tier is a nightmare of hanging icicles. a couple of Jens' friends (Eric and ???) arrived about 2:30. they'd been up to the Duffey. there's ice on the Central Rambles, but there was also a party fo 4 ahead of them. they went to the Right, but it's just icicles. they also trudged up to Closet Secrets, and it's just disconnected blobs of ice. and Carl's Berg has lotsa ice on it, but it's still puking wet. headed out 3pm. home 7:30. 13hrs, 540 miles, a hundred bucks of gas, 30m of ice - pretty typical Coastal outing! net net: very limited options, but there IS ice at Marble. doesn't seem there are many other options though... oh yah. if u go to Marble, bring your skates. the ice was bare yesterday, and while there's now snow on it, it's pure powder and the underlying surface is still smooth. gonna be superb... cheers,

i tell you what, my friend, i'll guarantee you don't need a reservation in Lillooet at this time of year except a) if there's a minor hockey tournament, or b) when the darts championship takes place (first weekend in february, i recall). i can't get ahold of jesse - skiing at big white in vernon. clinton is hanging in around -4ºC to -6ºC, which shld be good for Marble Canyon. the Bridge River canyon seems to get about the same temps as the Duffey Lake road, so probably is dubious. i'm gonna drive for a recce out the coquihalla etc thursday - will report back... and unless the recce is dreadful, i've just gotta get up there this weekend anyway. perhaps see you. cheers,

...the forecast looks good (into minus teens ºC), but a week ago there was an even more impressive cold-snap forecast for right fzcking NOW, and it didn't happen. arrrrgh! i'll try to get better background beta from jesse tonite, and post what i can find out. cheers,

go further inland. the paper this morning said Sun Peaks at Kamloops has had their 4th heaviest snow load in December ever, 151cm since Dec 1st. meanwhile (same paper), Mt Washington on Vancouver Island (usually in a BIG snow-belt) is not yet operating, with only 53cm mid-mountain base. cheers,

thank you lyle, for the edification... too true, of course. makes you wonder why the forecast centre hasn't been changed. bureaucratic inertia, no doubt. cheers,

hot off the presses: Garry Brace climbed it Christmas Eve day - no open water, but heavily cauliflowered, and quite thin on the upper column - like 2-3cm in some places. he said it made for easy placements... yah, i bet it did! the rumours re: Marble Canyon have the Dihedral climbable, Waite for Spring mostly drytooling, only 5cm-10cm of ice on Deeping Wall, lotsa open water on Icy BC. but that's more or less week-old news. cheers,

Ardbeg (if you can deal with the price); close second Lagavulin. ....oops, wrong malt thread. cheers anyway.

#1: stay strong about 15 years ago my knees started to hurt more than usual. i went to the Sports Med clinic at UBC, and the doc there examined me and basically said I wasn't keeping myself strong enuf to withstand the beating I was giving my joints. he set up an exercise program to build the supporting muscles in my thighs and calves. 6 weeks later I was out on a very strenuous winter climb, with a pretty big pack in tow, and suffered NO discomfort. #2: take anti-inflammatories of course, exercise bores me, so i go thru cycles where i don't keep it up, so my strength falls off, so my knees hurt again. anti-inflammatories are important to keep acute hurts from turning into chronic problems. i just use plain ASA (which works well for me and doesn't bother my stomach), but there are better drugs around - in fact, there is a current thread on the theme... #3 glucosamine no personal comment; never took the stuff. but one of my climbing buddies, David Jones, works in the office at UBC that commercializes research, and he's seen lots of data that has had him enthusiatic about the results (and safety) for many years. and my wife gets good results... [as u can see from the comments, people are gong to vary in their responses...] cheers,

actually, while most of the raw data comes from Environment Canada, there is good sense to checking the Weather Network as well as E.C. BC forecasts at: http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/cities/indexBC.htm the prime advantage is that the WN actually takes the extra effort to forecast, say, small places like Lillooet or Clinton separately. something I've just learned from Jesse is that the EC forecasts are actually for REGIONS. so what u read for the "Lillooet" forecast is actually for Lytton, the bigger population centre in the region. "Clinton" is actually 100 Mile House. etc. usually that won't make much difference, cuz the forecast regions are not very big, nor very disparate. however, Lytton does tend to be a touch warmer and wetter than Lillooet, which distorts the ice-climbers' view of what's gonna happen. and while Hope Slide actuals are "actual", the forecast is for Hope - not the best when thinking about Sumallo or Manning. in all cases, on both WN and EC, note well that the "Current Conditions" are "real", not regional. one of the big advantages of the EC site is the "24 Hour Trends Graph" blue icon beneath the graphics. while the forecasts are regional, the recordings are "true", on-site. this explains why you tend to see recorded temps a couple degrees C lower on the 24HR for Lillooet than what was forecast. anyway, forecasting is a difficult art, so it's best to consult more sources than fewer. enjoy your holidays, all... cheers,

i'd buy that. "climbable" after only a few days will mean horrendous, but you cld get up stuff... actually dru, you're probably better equipped to answer the question than me. you've seen it up close from Chilliwack for several years now. whaddya think? cheers,

I think I am suffering from compounded memories. I'm pretty convinced now there were two ascents (maybe more...). a. the Rideout/Sumallo gully (which you've labelled "Edwards gully" in one of your photos). i've checked with Cam Campbell. he wasn't on either trip, but he passed the inquiry along to his brother Ian. Ian tells me that he, Guy, and "one other person" climbed the gully between Rideout and Sumallo in '93 or '94 but didn't make it to either summit because of bad weather. b. Sumallo NE face. Guy also told me he had climbed a gully, then angled up the upper NE face to the summit of Sumallo. my recollection is that this was solo. i presumed these ascents started in different gullies, but looking more closely at your photos jordan, it looks obvious that BOTH finishes are accessed from the same start, which begins beneath the centre of the face. this is "minus 1", or - more fittingly - Edwards Gully. i thought the next gully right (maybe we shld call this minus 2?) ran to the notch, and the centre-start gully (minus one, aka Edwards) went to the summit. but it is as you say: minus 2 seems discontinuous. and minus 3 runs up into the NW bowl on Rideout... meanwhile, there are bits and pieces of ice all over the place, not really in features you'd call full-on "gullies". the obvious runnel is not the only thing in there... Fred's at work revising Vol 3 of the CAG - i hope he can sort all this out... cheers,

still no first hand info, but the forecast is calling for a big Arctic outbreak about Sunday: Clinton: Issued 4.00 PM PST Wednesday 22 December 2004 Tonight .. A few clouds. Increasing cloudiness this evening with 60 percent chance of flurries overnight. Low minus 5. Thursday .. A mix of sun and cloud. 60 percent chance of flurries in the morning. High plus 2. Friday .. Cloudy. 40 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 3. High plus 3. Saturday .. Cloudy. 70 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 3. High minus 1. Sunday .. A mix of sun and cloud. 60 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 16. High minus 13. this has been confirmed to me by my buddy Jesse who works as a forecaster for BCTV. fact is, the 850mb forecast (about 1500m elevation) is calling for close to -20ºC by monday in the southern Coast Mtns. winter finally arrives! been a bit of a wait, eh? cheers,

from the lack of response, it seems like nobody has been out to brave the after-effects of the warmth. however, Marble Canyon is more Interior than Lillooet (which has been ridiculously warm), and Oregon Jack is high. Clinton has been pretty consistently below freezing for the past 3 weeks, then went thru a warm spell the past 3 days, but is now dropping back; see: http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/forecast/trends_graph_e.html?wcl&unit=m and the forecast looks nice and cold by the weekend: http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/forecast/city_e.html?WCL i'll bet both are climbable - i'll also bet they're not fully 'in', so don't bash them down if you get on 'em - climb delicately - let them form... cheers,

jordan, nice to see the photos. certainly lots to do in there during the winter/spring. fyi, while Guy (and a friend?) may well have climbed the gully to the notch between Rideout and Sumallo (an ascent i had not heard about, not that i'm doubting it - he was in there a lot, often solo), he definitely climbed the next gully left, branching rightwards up high to finish to the summit of Sumallo. his (rather uncertain) tale to me was that this was with Cam Campbell, in '93 or '94. which reminds me to check with Cam... on your bivouac.com report, u say that it's a fast ski in there. i presume the snow was low enough to allow u to drive to the forks. or even beyond? once it snows in tho, the old ski area is closed, and u need to ski about 9km from the back end of the cabin village to the N face of Silvertip (Redlining), and 11km to the basin below Rideout/Zero gully/Payne. unfortunately, not very quick... (of course, u cld take a snowmobile...) cheers,